Previous Drafts

[calsnowskier]

Slow at work today, so I decided to look at Drafts of Giants past (since 2001)...

I am ONLY looking at players who have made the majors. I did this manually, so there may be a few cups o' joe that I missed, but nothing major. I am ignoring what the players turned into via trades (No Franchez, JLo, Pence). I also only count players that were signed in that draft by the Giants. No Doug Fister listed here...

2001
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Hennessey (1)
Lowry (1)
Linden (1)
Foppert (2)
Knoedler (5)
Holm (17)
Munter (47)

Lowry put up some nice years, but the mysterious side injury cut his career too short. Everyone else basically only got glorified cups of coffee.

Overall a bad draft. D+

2002
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Cain (1)
Lewis (2)
Ortmeier (3)
Correia (4)
English (6)
Hensley (8)
Ishikawa (21)
Palmer (31)

Cain alone makes this a good draft. Throw in Correia, Hensley, Ishikawa and Palmer, and you have 1/5th of a pretty decent MLB squad.

Overall A-.

2003
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Aardsma (1)
Schierholtz (2)
Sadler (6)
Misch (7)
Sadowski (12)
Wilson (24)

Wilson saves this crop. Nate is beginning to put together what most of us thought he had the potential of doing (nice, average MLB starting OFer). 3 #6/#7 starters is not bad, but there really isn't any meat in this draft.

Overall C+ (thanks Beard)

2004
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Bowker (3)
Timpner (4)
Frandsen (12)
Espinelli (14)
Sanchez (27)

Bowker is remembered fondly, but really was a non-MLBer. Frandsen actually ended up putting a decent Util career together. Sanchez was a beast for us, but we cut him loose just in time (maybe even a year too late).

Overall C

2005
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Martinez (12)
Hinshaw (15)
Romo (28)
Neal (36)

Only 1 MLBer in the lot. But he is a solid MLB closer/Elite setup guy. Still not enough to salvage the draft, though.

Overall C-

2006
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Lincecum (1)
Burriss (1)
Rohlinger (6)
Pill (7)
Bocock (9)
Graham (19)
Downs (36)

Lincicum alone makes this a good draft. Pill and Rohlinger still have enough potential left to maybe become something.

Overall B+

2007
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Bumgarner (1)
Noonan (1)
Culberson (1)
Runzler (9)
Paterson (10)
Edlefsen (16)
Otero (21)

Bum is an established star. Noonan and Culby are emerging starters/util guys. Runz and Paterson look to be solid bully arms. I am still not a HUGE fan of the draft because of all the first rounders that we had to work with, but I am trying to ignore that aspect right now...

Overall A-

2008
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Posey (1)
Gillaspie (1)
Crawford (4)
Surkamp (6)
Barnes (8)
Verdugo (9)
Perez (13)

2 AllStar level players in the same draft. Enough said. We still have Kieschnick and Fitzgerald in this class who have yet to make their debuts.

A+++

2009
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Belt (5)

Belt right now shows promise, but he needs to improve quite a bit more to carry the draft. We are still waiting on Wheeler and Joseph to make their marks. Others who make a statement: Heston, Gloor, Liles, Cavan, Berg, Dominguez, Stoeffel

No grade

2010
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Kickham (6)

Kick is expected to have a 3/4 ceiling, and was shelled in his only MLB appearance so far. Brown, Hembree, Duvall and Bochy lead the prospect charge from this group, with Parker, Jurica, Rosin, Jones and Fleet also showing some promise.

No grade

2011
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No MLB time yet, but we have a few names to watch here. Panik is our top 2B/SS prospect right now, and Crick and Blackburn are probably our top 2 overall prospects. Susac, Oropesa, Bandilla, Osich, Marlowe, Payne etc all show promise enough to be interesting.

This COULD end up being a very solid draft. It could also end up being a complete bust. The prospects are still very raw.

2012
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All of the top 6 picks are establishing themselves as legit prospects (Stratton, Agosta, Williamson, Blach, Johnson, Okert). Forjet may be a sleeper. We still have yet to see McCall take the field, and he was the guy who got a lot of attention in the 9th round. He was a HS pick, so it is WAY early to be worried that he has played yet.

Too early to even gauge the potential of this draft.

 

[Heathbar012]

Great round-up. I think David Aardsma deserves a little more credit for his two good seasons, if Noah Lowry (no relation to Nick Lowery) gets a shout-out in the breakdown. Although, I'm a bit biased because I thought Aardsma was gonna have a Huston Street-like career. Thanks for sharing that, cal.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Great re-cap.

You missed Fred Lewis (picked in the 2nd round in '02). He wasn't great (in fact his fielding was atrocious) but he did have more than a cuppa in the show.

Concerning the '07 draft... remember all the screaming and gnashing of teeth when Alderson was traded for Freddie Sanchez? Alderson still isn't in the show, is no longer a starting pitcher, and has been 'meh' to 'pretty much sucked' since the trade. Great call by the Giants to trade Alderson and keep Bumgarner.


Interesting factoid : starting pitcher Doug Fister (of Seatle & Detroit fame) was first drafted by the Giants (in '03), but chose to go to Cal State Fresno instead. Had he signed with the Giants, that could have raised the '03 draft to an "A" grade. Besides, how cool it would have been to say "the Dodgers got 'Fisted' last night, 5-1".

 

[tzill]

Great re-cap.

You missed Fred Lewis (picked in the 2nd round in '02). He wasn't great (in fact his fielding was atrocious) but he did have more than a cuppa in the show.

Concerning the '07 draft... remember all the screaming and gnashing of teeth when Alderson was traded for Freddie Sanchez? Alderson still isn't in the show, is no longer a starting pitcher, and has been 'meh' to 'pretty much sucked' since the trade. Great call by the Giants to trade Alderson and keep Bumgarner.


Interesting factoid : starting pitcher Doug Fister (of Seatle & Detroit fame) was first drafted by the Giants (in '03), but chose to go to Cal State Fresno instead. Had he signed with the Giants, that could have raised the '03 draft to an "A" grade. Besides, how cool it would have been to say "the Dodgers got 'Fisted' last night, 5-1".

Fister? I don't even KNOW her...

 

[calsnowskier]

Great re-cap.

You missed Fred Lewis (picked in the 2nd round in '02). He wasn't great (in fact his fielding was atrocious) but he did have more than a cuppa in the show.

Concerning the '07 draft... remember all the screaming and gnashing of teeth when Alderson was traded for Freddie Sanchez? Alderson still isn't in the show, is no longer a starting pitcher, and has been 'meh' to 'pretty much sucked' since the trade. Great call by the Giants to trade Alderson and keep Bumgarner.


Interesting factoid : starting pitcher Doug Fister (of Seatle & Detroit fame) was first drafted by the Giants (in '03), but chose to go to Cal State Fresno instead. Had he signed with the Giants, that could have raised the '03 draft to an "A" grade. Besides, how cool it would have been to say "the Dodgers got 'Fisted' last night, 5-1".

Fair enough with Lewis, but he was basically a bust the entire time he played, that's why I called his MLB time just cuppa time. I also said Niekro only has cuppa time, and he was a mainstay for a couple seasons.

Just for the record, I did mention Fister in my opening caveat, saying that players like him were not factored into this recap.

I may be remembering the arguments inaccurately, but I thought much of the Alderson/Sanchez complaints were in combination with losing Barnes to Cleveland for Garko. I think people were more upset that they gave up 2 top(ish) prospects for a one-season wonder and a never-was instead of packaging them for the power bat that we supposedly needed. I do not remember who was available, but I seem to remember that there were a couple.

I am not saying that the trade did not turn out great, just that the arguments were a little more nuanced at the time.

Edit:

Niekro was not included in these drafts. I could ave sworn he was when I made this statement...

 

[MarcoPolo]

Fair enough with Lewis, but he was basically a bust the entire time he played, that's why I called his MLB time just cuppa time. I also said Niekro only has cuppa time, and he was a mainstay for a couple seasons. Just for the record, I did mention Fister in my opening caveat, saying that players like him were not factored into this recap.

I may be remembering the arguments inaccurately, but I thought much of the Alderson/Sanchez complaints were in combination with losing Barnes to Cleveland for Garko. I think people were more upset that they gave up 2 top(ish) prospects for a one-season wonder and a never-was instead of packaging them for the power bat that we supposedly needed. I do not remember who was available, but I seem to remember that there were a couple.

I am not saying that the trade did not turn out great, just that the arguments were a little more nuanced at the time.

Edit:

Niekro was not included in these drafts. I could ave sworn he was when I made this statement...

Sorry if I was unclear - I wasn't saying you missed Fister, it was more of a "what if" thing ... and I couldn't pass up the "dodgers got Fisted" one-liner In fact, your mentioning him is what caused me to make the comment about him.

Concerning Lewis, I have to dispute your term of "bust". Yes, he was a defensive nightmare (in fact, I used to bet with my row-mates in '08 - $1 per guess : "how many steps in the wrong direction will Freddy take before racing in the correct direction?"). But offensively he was pretty much average. Never a star, never as bad as Garko.

 

[calsnowskier]

Just to update...

2008
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Juan Perez (13)

2009
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Jake Dunning (33 - drafted as a SS)

Perez does not add to the class. The class was already an A+++, but he potentially adds to the legendary-ness of the class.

'09 is still too raw to grade, but now they have 2 graduates. A good sign.

 

[calsnowskier]

Also...

2009
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Zach Wheeler (1)

2 MLB debuts from this class in the last week...

 

[calsnowskier]

2000
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Bonser (1)
Niekro (2)
Threets (7)
Shabala (10)
Ellison (22)
Burres (31)
Lunsford (33)

When Jason Ellison is the class of the class, you know the group was not a HR. What a nightmare.

Grade: D

 

[calsnowskier]

1999
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Ainsworth (1)
Williams (1)
Taschner (2)

WOW! A complete punt of an entire draft. If BA is accurate (and I doubt that it is, for the record), they only signed 5 guys out of the entire class. Ainsworth and Williams were highly rated prospects, but neither accomplished ANY of the fanfare that came with them.

Grade: F No quality OR quantity.

 

[MarcoPolo]

1999
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Ainsworth (1)
Williams (1)
Taschner (2)

WOW! A complete punt of an entire draft. If BA is accurate (and I doubt that it is, for the record), they only signed 5 guys out of the entire class. Ainsworth and Williams were highly rated prospects, but neither accomplished ANY of the fanfare that came with them.

Grade: F No quality OR quantity.

I think that you're mis-interpreting the data somehow. The Giant signed more than 5 guys, but only 4 made it to the majors (3 w/ the Giants) and Williams was the best of the lot. You can go to ( http://www.thebaseballcube.com/draft/research.asp ) search for 1999 Giants draft and it's easier to see who never signed with anybody, and how far up the minor leagues they made it.

 

[calsnowskier]

I think that you're mis-interpreting the data somehow. The Giant signed more than 5 guys, but only 4 made it to the majors (3 w/ the Giants) and Williams was the best of the lot. You can go to ( Draft Research - The Baseball Cube ) search for 1999 Giants draft and it's easier to see who never signed with anybody, and how far up the minor leagues they made it.

GREAT tool, thanks.

My next phase in this was to start looking at entire drafts and comparing the Giants to other teams, but the BA tool was awkward at best, and I was intimidated by the amount of work required to tackle that task. TBC has a better interface to accomplish that project.

Thanks again.

 

[MarcoPolo]

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