Enlarges.
Notes, Thoughts, and Questions:
1. 168 out of 1500 players in this draft have reached the Majors at least once and played enough to earn WAR (which could be negative, zero, or positive).
2. 796 pitchers were drafted. 236 of them were lefties, 560 righties.
3. Six years in, players looking toward the Hall of Fame should be somewhere around 18-24 WAR and are probably close to peak production. Only 10-15 more years for them to possibly earn enough to justify their candidacy.
4. Zobrist is having himself a nice little career. But better (even marginally) than Hunter Pence and David Price? I had no idea.
5. Each of the Top 24 picks has seen the biggs except for two: Matthew Bush (Padres, #1 overall) and Wade Townsend (Orioles, #8 overall).
6. Four of the top 8 picks were drafted out of the state of Texas. Three of them played for Rice -- and one of the Rice players just happens to be Townsend, mentioned in previous point.
7. Billy Butler has somehow managed 5 WAR, despite platooning at 1st and DH'ing it much of the time. He was picked two slots after Jered Weaver (19.9 WAR) and one place above Stephen Drew (8.9 WAR).
8. I think Dustin Pedroia might be underrated. And that's playing in a town that isn't very good at underrating things, except when describing how bad they are at underrating things. "We'ah awfully hawd on ah playahs! YOUKAAAAH!!" Is he underrated? Is that even possible?
9. It could be the slightly different scale, but 2004 looks like it has less noise than the 2005 draft. What gives? Is this something where just an extra year has helped the guys in the negatives back up a little bit? Or did they just not get as many chances as the guys that came a year later?
Top 25 to Date:
Player | Pos | WAR |
Jered Weaver | RHP | 19.9 |
Justin Verlander | RHP | 18.5 |
Dustin Pedroia | SS | 17.7 |
*Huston Street | RHP | 9.7 |
Yovani Gallardo | RHP | 9.6 |
Stephen Drew | SS | 8.9 |
Kurt Suzuki | C | 8.6 |
Ben Zobrist | 2B | 8.2 |
Hunter Pence | OF | 6.7 |
**David Price | LHP | 6.7 |
Mark Reynolds | SS | 5.9 |
J.A. Happ | LHP | 5.2 |
Dallas Braden | LHP | 5.1 |
Billy Butler | 3B | 5 |
*Phil Hughes | RHP | 4.9 |
*Adam Lind | 1B | 4.7 |
Chris Iannetta | C | 4.6 |
Jonathan Sanchez | LHP | 3.8 |
*J.P. Howell | LHP | 3.6 |
Will Venable | OF | 3.6 |
Seth Smith | OF | 3.5 |
Brad Bergesen | RHP | 3.3 |
Jesse Litsch | RHP | 3.3 |
Jeff Niemann | RHP | 3.2 |
*Blake DeWitt | 2B |
3.1 |
*comp pick.
**didn't sign, drafted in 2007. (thanks @rsaggiadi for the heads up)
Data compiled via B-Ref.