Like much of the world, one of the bits of entertainment that I've been missing during the pandemic is sports. Obviously, all sports leagues have shut down, with the exception of pro wrestling, which I don't count. Anyway, I thought today I'd do a sports related post. Much of it will be about the MLB draft, with some NFL draft items, too. (And I realize one focusing on the NFL draft would be more timely, since it just concluded a few days ago, but I already did a NFL draft piece back on May 4th 2013 so here we are.)
To non sports fans, the draft is one of the main ways sports teams acquire new players. It differs from league to league, but in general these players are high school athletes, or college players, or sometimes members of other amateur leagues. Once an eligible player is chosen, their rights are held by that particular team. The team then attempts to sign that players to a contract. If a player doesn't sign, depending on the sport, they can't then sign with another team in that league for a specified length of time (often a year, but sometimes it's longer). Often, if players indicate that they probably won't sign with a particular team, their rights will be sold or traded to another team, since teams don't want to waste a draft pick, especially if it's a high one.
Player drafts are pretty old in American sports--the NFL started one in 1936, and the NBA in 1947, to name two. Therefore, it's a little surprising how late MLB was in instituting one. Major League Baseball was around almost a century before it started holding a draft, in 1965. The impetus for it was the Los Angeles Angels paying prospect Rick Reichardt a $200,000 signing bonus, which many teams thought was outlandishly high, and would result in salary inflation across the board. For a time there were three different MLB drafts a year: one in January, of high school and college players who had graduated in December, one in June for high school grads and college seniors, and one in August for players in other American amateur leagues. However, the January draft was discontinued after only two years, and the August one in 1986. Currently all players in these situations are selected in June. Although, this draft only applies to players in the U.S., Canada, or other U.S. territories (like Puerto Rico, for example), or foreign players who attended educational institutions in these areas. Foreign born and educated players can be signed by any team in other ways. Each team currently has 40 picks allotted to them. Before 2012, some teams could have as many as 60 odd picks, since they could have been awarded additional compensatory picks, such as reimbursement for losing one of their players in certain types of free agency, for example. Which is way more than the NBA's 2 rounds, or the NFL's current 7. (Due to the pandemic, I just learned that the 2020 draft will be severely curtailed. It will be at least 5 rounds, up to a maximum of 10, with this exact number to be determined.) Also, unlike most sports leagues, in MLB draft picks can't be traded to other teams.
I thought it would be fun to focus on the overall first draft picks over MLB's history, or the first pick in the first round. Obviously, these players are considered to be the cream of the crop, the absolute best prospect in the country. Clearly, they don't always work out to be great, or even good, or even average MLB players, for a variety of reasons. Judging players' futures is a crap shoot. Here's some trivia about overall first picks.
Only 3 first picks went on to become Hall of Famers.
1) Harold Baines, outfielder/designated hitter (First overall in 1977)
2) Ken Griffey, Jr., outfielder (1987)
3) Chipper Jones, third base/outfielder (1990)
In normal circumstances, 1993 first pick Alex Rodriguez would be joining this list in a couple of years, given his career accomplishments. However, his suspensions and admission of doing performance enhancing drugs will almost certainly delay his Hall of Fame inclusion, or even prevent it. Other active players, like 2007 pick David Price, 2009 pick Stephen Strasburg, or 2010 pick Bryce Harper, may eventually join the 3 on this list, so we'll have to wait and see.
Only 1 guy was the overall first pick in more than one draft. Danny Goodwin was the first pick in the 1971 draft, but chose to go to college rather than sign. Then in 1975 he was the first pick again, and this time did sign. We'll return to Mr. Goodwin later in this post.
Only 3 first picks never played in the MLB, topping out in the minors. They are:
1) Steve Chilcott, 1966 first pick. Due to an injury incurred while playing.
2) Brien Taylor, 1991 first pick. Due to an injury incurred during a fist fight.
3) Mark Appel, 2013 first pick. Due to various baseball-related injuries. Unlike the first two, Appel is still young enough that he could conceivably make a return to baseball. But he's officially retired as of now. (UPDATE: Appel un-retired, and made his way back into pro baseball, and as of June of 2022, finally made his major league debut as a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. So now it's just Chilcott and Taylor.)
And note that the first picks from 2014, and 2016-19 haven't played in the majors yet, but all were active minor leaguers in 2019, so it's too soon to rule them out.
Let's get negative. While the question of which first pick was the worst overall is subjective, I think we can make a list that surely everybody would agree are strong candidates. I'll make a list ranking them by their worst WAR. This statistic stands for Wins Above Replacement, and ranks each player's overall value compared to a typical average major leaguer. A negative WAR for a year indicates that the player was much worse than average, while 0-2 is a substitute, above 2 a starter, above 5 an all-star caliber season, and above 8 that of an MVP candidate. A player accumulates separate WAR figures for offense and defense for each year they play, and then an overall WAR number. So a guy who's a great hitter may have say, a 5.0 offensive WAR, but if he's terrible on defense, say a -2.0 WAR, his overall WAR will go down. The stat is cumulative, too, so a Hall of Famer who plays 20 years can have WARs of 80 plus. Anyway, the worst players have overall career WARs of low single digits, or even negative ones. Here they are, with the worst being listed first. Finally, there are different ways to judge WAR, but I'm using Baseball Reference's totals. I'll also include their career "slashes" (batting average/on base percentage/slugging average, adjusted batting average and ERAs, indicated with a Plus sign (100 is average), won-loss records, ERAs, WHIP ratio, etc.
1) -1.7 WAR, Danny Goodwin. 1971/1975 pick. Slashed .242/.312/.372, 84+, in 7 miserable seasons.
2) -1.3 WAR, Shawn Abner. 1984 pick. Slashed .227/.269/.323, 65+ in 6 seasons.
3) -0.6 WAR, Matt Anderson. 1997 pick. 15-7, 5.19 ERA, 1.582 WHIP, 89+, 7 seasons.
4) -0.5 WAR, Al Chambers. 1979 pick. slashed .208/.326/.292, 72+ in only 3 seasons.
5) -0.3 WAR, Bryan Bullington, 2002, 1-9, 5.62 ERA, 1.580 WHIP, 77+, 5 seasons.
6) 0.4 WAR, Dave Roberts, 1972, .239/.286/.357, 84+, in 10 seasons.
7) 0.6 WAR, David Clyde, 1973, 7-18, 4.63 ERA, 1.530 WHIP, 81+ , in 5 seasons.*
8) 2.7 WAR, Paul Wilson, 1994, 40-58, 4.86 ERA, 1.450, 88+, 7 seasons.
9) 3.2 WAR, Delmon Young, 2003, slashed .283/.316/.421, 98+ in 10 seasons.
Note: Matt Bush has a career WAR of only 2.6, and Tim Beckham has one of 3.5, but both are still active players, so these will probably change.
* Clyde has become a cautionary example of the dangers of overworking a young pitcher. He went from pitching in high school directly to the majors (i.e. no minor league experience at first), and was overused largely because he drew large crowds. Alas, he predictably got permanent injuries, so his career was shorter and presumably much worse than it could have been if he'd been handled more regularly.
Now I'd like to list some NFL players, and some NBA players, some of whom were good or even excellent, who were also drafted in MLB. It's important to remember that because there are comparatively so many rounds in the MLB draft that teams sometimes take guys who are extreme stretches to ever play baseball professionally. For example, Michael Vick was drafted even though he hadn't played baseball since 8th grade, simply because he was such a phenomenal athlete. Of course, if someone is taken in the first 5 rounds or so, they were clearly very talented in baseball as well. Anyway, here we go.
Tom Brady, who will be a Hall of Famer after he retires (despite his participation in several cheating scandals), was infamously only drafted in the 6th round of the 2000 NFL draft by the New England Patriots. However, he was also selected in the 18th round by the Montreal Expos in the 1995 MLB draft.
Akili Smith, who was an infamous bust in the NFL, as a 1st round, 3rd overall pick in the 1999 NFL draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, was also selected in the 7th round by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1993 MLB draft.
Charlie Ward almost joined Dave Winfield, Dave Logan, and Mickey McCarty as the only guys selected in the NFL, NBA, and MLB drafts. Ward was selected in the 59th round of the 1993 MLB draft by the Milwaukee Brewers, and then in the 18th round by the New York Yankees in the 1994 draft. Then he was taken by the New York Knicks in the 1st round (26th overall) in the 1994 NBA draft. And, since he was a Heisman trophy winning quarterback in college, he surely would have been drafted in the 1994 NFL draft too, if he hadn't indicated his desire to play in the NBA if he wasn't selected in the 1st round of the NFL draft.
Russell Wilson was actually drafted twice by MLB teams. He was selected in the 41st round by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2007 draft, and then by the Colorado Rockies in the 4th round of the 2010 draft. However, he obviously signed with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks after they took him in the 3rd round of the 2012 draft.
Another infamous bust, Johnny Manziel, was taken in the 1st round (22nd overall) of the 2014 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns. He was also selected in the 28th round of the 2014 MLB draft, by the San Diego Padres.
Colin Kaepernick was taken by the Chicago Cubs in the 43rd round of the 2009 MLB draft, but signed with the San Francisco 49ers after being selected in the 2nd round of the 2011 NFL draft.
NFL Hall of Famer Dan Marino was a first rounder (27th overall) in the 1983 NFL draft by the Miami Dolphins, but was also selected in the 4th round of the 1979 MLB draft by the Kansas City Royals.
Another NFL Hall of Famer, John Elway, was the first overall pick of the 1983 NFL draft, although he forced the Baltimore Colts to trade him to the Denver Broncos. However, he was drafted twice by MLB teams--in the 18th round by Kansas City Royals in the 1979 draft, and in the 2nd round of the 1981 draft by the New York Yankees. He even threatened to play baseball if the Colts refused to trade him.
Bo Jackson did the opposite of many of the players mentioned here. He was drafted in the 4th round of the 1986 MLB draft by the Kansas City Royals. But, he was also selected in the 1st round, 1st overall, by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1986 NFL draft, but didn't sign because he wanted to play both pro baseball and football. He did eventually sign with the L.A. Raiders after being taken in the 7th round of the 1987 NFL draft, after they assured him that he could play in both. Although he then played mostly in the MLB after a bad hip injury destroyed his NFL days.
Hall of Fame football player Deion Sanders was another two sport pro player. He was a 1st rounder (5th overall) in the 1989 NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons. However he was selected twice in the MLB draft--in the 6th round of the 1985 draft by the Kansas City Royals, and then in the 30th round of the 1988 draft by the New York Yankees. He signed with the Yankees.
Still another two sport player was Brian Jordan. He played 3 years in the NFL before committing full time to MLB and having a long, solid career. He was drafted in the 7th round of the 1989 NFL draft by the Buffalo Bills, and in the 20th round of the 1985 MLB draft by the Cleveland Indians, and the 1st round (29th overall) by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1988 MLB draft.
One final guy who played in the NFL and MLB. Alas, D.J. Dozier disappointed in both. But, he was taken in the 18th round of the 1983 MLB draft by the Detroit Tigers, and the 1st round (14th overall) of the 1987 NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings.
Brandon Weeden was another disappointment in the NFL, after being taken in the 1st round (22nd overall) of the 2012 draft by the Cleveland Browns. However, he was also selected in the 2nd round of the 2002 MLB draft, by the New York Yankees.
Similarly, Chris Weinke under performed in the NFL after being a 4th rounder in the 2001 draft by the Carolina Panthers. But previous to that he was a 2nd round pick in the 1990 MLB draft by the Toronto Blue Jays.
Another 1st rounder, 1st overall NFL pick was selected twice in the MLB draft. Steve Bartkowski was the 1st in the 1975 NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons, for whom he played. In baseball he was both the 19th round pick in the 1971 MLB draft (Kansas City Royals) and the 33rd round pick of the 1974 draft (Baltimore Orioles).
Ricky Williams was a 1st rounder (5th overall) pick in the 1999 NFL draft. Four years previous to that he was an 8th rounder of the 1995 MLB draft, by the Philadelphia Phillies.
As I mentioned before, longtime NFL quarterback Michael Vick was selected in the MLB draft basically because he was a great athlete. Specifically, the Colorado Rockies took in the 40th round of the 2000 MLB draft. In the NFL he was the 1st round, 1st overall pick of the 2001 draft by the Atlanta Falcons.
Isaac Byrd had a fairly obscure NFL career, after being selected in the 6th round of the 1997 draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. However, in baseball he was taken in the 73rd round of the 1993 MLB draft by the San Diego Padres, and the 11th round of the 1996 draft by the St. Louis Cardinals.
Jay Schroeder had a fairly mediocre NFL career, after going as a 3rd rounder in the 1984 draft by the Washington Redskins. Surprisingly, he was so well regarded as a baseball player that he was a 1st rounder, the 3rd overall pick of the 1979 MLB draft by the Toronto Blue Jays.
Finally, as far as I can learn, only one guy has been a first rounder in both the NFL and MLB drafts. Kyler Murray was the first overall pick of the 2019 NFL draft, by the Arizona Cardinals. He was the 9th overall pick in the 2018 MLB draft, by the Oakland A's.
Moving on, aside from Charlie Ward and the others I mentioned previously, I was able to identify two more guys who were drafted in MLB and the NBA. Danny Ainge was a 15th rounder of the 1977 MLB draft by the Toronto Blue Jays, and a 2nd rounder in the 1981 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. He went on to play briefly, and quite frankly, badly in MLB, before embarking on a solid NBA career.
Scott Burell was drafted twice in MLB, going to the Seattle Mariners in the 1st round (26th overall) of the 1989 draft, and then the 5th round of the 1990 draft to the Toronto Blue Jays. However, he went on to play in the NBA, after being selected in the 1st round (20th overall) of the 1993 draft by the Charlotte Hornets.
I was only able to locate one instance of a draftee of both MLB and the NHL. That was Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine. He was taken in the 2nd round of the 1984 MLB draft by the Atlanta Braves, but also in the 4th round of the 1984 NHL draft by the Los Angeles Kings.
That's it for now. Hopefully we'll be able to see some pro sports in 2020, albeit probably in a modified form, such as televised in front of empty stadiums/arenas. Stay safe!
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