Friday, August 5, 2011

Worst Draft Ever?

My debut post here on The UPL Blog chronicled my Draft Day Dilemmas. Seeing as how now we're in August, I've gone back and looked at the draft. It's actually quite stunning to see how poorly I did. In fact, I probably shouldn't be doing anything to bring attention to this embarrassment, but here goes:

Round 1 - Ryan Raburn (2B/OF) - Some people thought Raburn was ready for a breakout season, putting up 20+ HRs at the weak 2B position. Well, those people are never to be trusted again. We're well into August and Raburn has only 10 jacks, 35 RBI, and a paltry .266 OBP. 32 2Bs are rated ahead of Raburn.

Round 2 - Chris Sale (RP) - Sale got his chance to close just as I had hoped. But then he promptly went on to prove that he can't close. He struggled mightily early in the season with an ERA of 5+ and WHIP of 1.6+ through May.

Round 3 - Luke Gregerson (RP) - He's been injured for much of the season; and when he hasn't been injured, he's been mediocre.

Round 4 - Mike Minor (RP) - Last name says it all. With a 1-2 record and ERA of 4.59, he's right were he belongs: The minor leagues.

Round 5 - Alcides Escobar (SS) - With a .287 OBP, I have no idea what I was thinking when drafting him. I also have no idea what he's currently doing on Westy's roster.

Round 6 - Marlon Byrd (OF) - Normally when an outfielder has 6 homers and 2 steals heading into the 2nd week of August, I'd make fun of him. But at this point, Byrd rates as one of my best picks.

Round 7 - David Murphy (OF) - His 5 homers and 6 steals make him my team's "Draft Pick of the Year." Not bad for a part-time player.

Round 8 - Eric Young (OF/2B) - After spending nearly the whole season in the minors, Young got his big break and has even been batting leadoff for the Rockies. He also has an OBP of .308 and SLG of .225, which probably means the Rockies can't wait to send him back down to the minors.

On the bright side, from here there's nowhere to go but up!

3 comments:

Westy said...

In fairness, I've been coveting Escobar for a long time.

That said, yes, your draft didn't give you the parts you needed to be successful, that seems clear.

Funny to contrast with your thoughts right after the draft...

Chairman said...

Sale was a great draft pick. 22 years old, with a ton of upside. Probably going to be a SP next year. Has put up a line of 2.75/1.17 with more than a K/IP.

Don't get me wrong, grabbing Santos was a good move. But dropping Sale before he was able to right the ship was less successful than drafting Sale :-)

Greg McConnell said...

Westy, Escobar is young and already showing speed, so there's hope there.

Chairman, yeah, the argument can be made that dropping Sale was worse than drafting him. But I didn't want this post to be too negative. ;-)

If I were rate each of my draft picks on a scale of 0 to 2, with 0 meaning they hurt my team, 1 means they haven't helped, and 3 means they've helped, none of them would be in the category of "helped." If I had kept Sale, then that eventually would have changed, but I'll wait for Sale to turn into a quality starter before I officially regret dropping him.