How do the rookie drafts look a few years down the road? Did PureBaseball managers do a good job of sifting through the dirt and picking out the gems?

1998

The 1998 draft had a good bit of talent in it; a few stars and decent depth made it a golden opportunity for teams to acquire some major talent. I’ll list the best players (my subjective opinion) and then the top 10 picks. For the best players I’m only selecting from the group of players who had at least one first round selection because I’m too lazy to do more research. It included:

Todd Helton (14.05 average selection)
Miguel Tejada (15.35)
Magglio Ordonez (26.05)
Bartolo Colon (11.35)
Derrek Lee (11.5)
Matt Morris (2.35)
Kevin Millwood (11.35)
Richard Hidalgo (28.9)
Paul Konerko (6.6)
Derek Lowe (26.05)

The top 10 were:

1. Ben Grieve (1.5)
2. Matt Morris (2.35)
3. Bret Tomko (3.2)
4. Paul Konerko (6.6)
5. Jose Guillen (6.6)
6. Jose Cruz (9.05)
7. Tony Saunders (9.6)
8. Jaret Wright (10.45)
9. Bartolo Colon (11.35)
10. Kevin Millwood (11.35)

The top three players in the draft went at 14,15 & 21. Hmmm, this may be harder than we thought. Four of the top players went in the top 10. Not good. The downside of drafting pitchers is on display as Saunders and Wright show that when they don’t work out they often give you nothing at all. Konerko may not have turned out as envisioned but at least he has contributed. The Ben Grieve alien possession theory looks good.

1999

Best Players:

Carlos Beltran (17.25)
Eric Chavez (5.25)
Roy Halladay (24)
Kerry Wood (2.75)
Troy Glaus (13.5)
Aramis Ramirez (26.9)
Randy Winn (41.7)
Adrian Beltre (8.5)
Matt Clement (21.35)
Eric Milton (32.15)

Top 10:

1. J.D.Drew (1.50)
2. Kerry Wood (2.75)
3. Rolando Arrojo (4.5)
4. Eric Chavez (5.25)
5. Orlando Hernandez (5.7)
6. Travis Lee (7.15)
7. Adrian Beltre (8.5)
8. Carl Pavano (9.25)
9. Mike Caruso (9.55)
10. Bruce Chen (12.25)

1999 was not a very strong draft in retrospect. It did have a lot of 3B’s though. For the second straight year an outfielder was the consensus #1 pick and hasn’t panned out. At least Drew has played well when healthy and still has the chance to be a star. Again only four of my top 10 players were drafted in the top 10 spots. Beltran and Halladay lasted a long time, although to be fair, they both required some patience along the way.

2000

Best players:

Vernon Wells (13.45)
Tim Hudson (2.6)
Eric Gagne (15.55)
Alfonso Soriano (17.85)
Carlos Lee (22.4)
Kip Wells (17.75)
Octavio Dotel (20.3)
Erubiel Durazo (8.7)
A.J. Burnett (21.6)
Jacque Jones (35.7)

Top 10:

1. Rick Ankiel (1.8)
2. Tim Hudson (2.6)
3. Kris Benson (3.7)
4. Freddy Garcia (3.8)
5. Scott Williamson (8.05)
6. Ruben Mateo (8.5)
7. Erubiel Durazo (8.7)
8. Warren Morris (10.3)
9. Ryan Rupe (10.65)
10. Jeff Zimmerman (12.1)

Yikes! The danger of a pitcher-dominated draft, with 7 of the first ten players selected being pitchers, is that four years later you have very little to show from this draft. It was a weak draft but PB GM’s took only 2 of the ten best players in the first ten slots.

2001

Barry Zito (1.92)
Rafael Furcal (1.28)
Mark Buehrle (14.72)
Mark Mulder (15.92)
Aubrey Huff (15.92)
Juan Pierre (21.56)
Milton Bradley (22.68)
Jimmy Rollins (18.24)
Brad Penny (6.4)
Pat Burrell (4.76)

Top 10:

1. Rafael Furcal (1.28)
2. Barry Zito (1.92)
3. Pat Burrell (4.76)
4. Adam Eaton (5.36)
5. Corey Patterson (5.4)
6. Chuck Smith (6.36)
7. Brad Penny (6