Beyond the Boxscore has been running some pieces on team drafts fin 2000 and beyond and trying to assemble current teams only from the players that team drafted. Their intro with rules:
Building through the draft is something that every team thrives to do. Some do better than others, obviously. But I’ve been curious to see exactly what kind of team you could throw together for each franchise using just the draft. So over the next couple weeks, I’m going to throw together lineups and rotations for every organization using only players drafted and signed by that team. We’re not looking at projection here, though; this is about finding the best present-day players among draftees of the club.
And to throw a bit of a twist into things, we’re only going to look at drafts since 2000, to get a better idea of what teams have been doing lately. We’re going to start today with the A’s, and move alphabetically from there. And just remember that if a team drafted him but didn’t sign him, that player doesn’t count. You don’t get bonus points for being smart enough to draft a player, but not smart enough to pay him.
They recently ran the Cardinals draft squad, which looks like a so-so team though I’m here to make some changes to it.
5) DH Mark Hamilton – 2006 2nd Round Pick
In a word, no. Mark Hamilton has to be one of my least favorite zombie players of the current era. It’s sure seems like he’s a classic Quad A player who has neither the defensive skills nor offensive skills to warrant being on a team but, in a fashion that would make John Gall proud, he continues to be touted as an option. Instead, I’d almost certainly pick Brett Wallace here. It’s Wallace’s natural position (i.e. one where the only glove he wears is a batting glove) and while Hamilton has done virtually nothing in the big leagues, Wallace is accumulating an impressive .420 wOBA to start 2011 in Houston.
8) 3B Jarrett Hoffpauir – 2004 6th Round Pick
This is a terrible position for the Cardinals. If you’re going to have Allen Craig in the outfield and, frankly, there isn’t a convincing draftee to not put him there, then you’re left with Jarrett Hoffpauir and . . . Matt Carpenter to choose from. Personally, my appreciation for Carpenter is well know and I think that his skillset plays at the majors while Hoffpauir’s probably doesn’t. That said, Hoffpauir has produced more in AAA than Carpenter so there’s a defensible argument for him.
The starting rotation has a formidable 1-2 punch but beyond that, it’s pretty anemic. I highly recommend checking out the rest of the article.
One last takeaway is a somewhat deceptive list at the bottom:
DISTRIBUTION OF PICKS
By Year
2000: 2; 2001: 2; 2002: 1; 2003: 2; 2004: 1; 2005: 2; 2006: 5; 2007: 0; 2008: 1; 2009: 0
2006 looks like a good year, no? If you look at the players coming out of that draft (Gregerson, Perez, Jay, Hamilton and Craig) you’ll find a set of nice role players. If you look at the pair from the year before that (Rasmus, Garcia) you’ll find a pair of core, star quality player. I’ll take the 2005 draft over the 2006 one every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
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Wow…that is a pretty shoddy team.
Good thing we have made some truly brilliant trades/free agent signings and drafted a no-doubt HOFer in the 13th round. I know we didn’t all agree with all of Jocketty’s methods in the minors and drafting, but on the major league level we wound up with Rolen, Edmonds, and Carpenter for a pittance.
You have to take Wallace over Hamilton or Barton but I see no reason to call Hamilton a AAAA player when he hasn’t yet been giiven much of a chance. In the outfield, doesn’t Crisp qualify or was he signed in ’99? For 3rd, why not Descalso? i don’t think Hoffpauer is even in the majors unless he was recently recalled.