BA ranks Angels farm 30th (hilarious Servais quote)

[Inside Pitch]

I read an article that says about 17% of all draft picks since 2000 have made the big leagues. It puts things into perspective for sure, but I don't think a draft that produces only one everyday starting position player would be considered a success. Granted, not every player who makes the majors will end up being an every day player, but I think most teams would hope for 2-3 regulars in every draft.

 

Yeah -- 17% make it to the majors -- but how many are actual everyday position players or consistent performers?  

 

Don't get me wrong, I agree, a team would hope for more than that but when it's all said and done -- one everyday player per year would make for a tremendously successful franchise.  Ideally you'll get a SP every so often and you're always going to get RPs and guys who hang around as back ups, but everyday players aren't as easy a find.  

Again, just sticking with the 2010 draft people here are discussing... Calhoun, is one of 9 players with as many as 200 at bats in MLB.   To date there have been 8 guys who have managed as many as 100 IP.   It's still early, but we're talking a total of 17 players who have made any sort of real contribution at the highest level out of at least 1247 who were drafted through the lowest pick (Seth Maness of StL), to have reached the majors to date. All told 57 players from that draft have have notched any amount of time in MLB..  So, about 4.5%

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Donn Roach may yet make it with San Diego.  Kaleb Cowart and Cam Bedrosian may pan out for us still -- if all those guys ended up having any sort of a MLB career to go along with Calhoun it would be hard to argue it wasn't a success.   Sort of a trip, that we could have two guys with the initials K.C, make it to the majors from the same draft.

 

Looking at our recent history

 

2000 - Mike Napoli and Tommy Murphy were the only hitters to make it -- and only Naps has made any sort of an impact.  Pitching wise, Chris Bootcheck and Bobby Jenks were the hits.  Matt Hensley also made the majors.

2001 - Kotchman and Mathis were the only real regulars.  D-Mac made it but broke down.  Ryan Budde has a cup of coffee or two -- as did Nick Gornault.  Pitching wise, Jake Woods topped the IP totals with 162 -- mostly with Seattle.

2002 - Howie Kendrick and Bobby Wilson made it.  Only Kendrick was really worth anything.  Pitching wise, the Angels did pretty well with Joe Saunders and Kevin Jepsen -- Steve Delabar was drafted but didn't sign.

2003 - Reggie Willits, Brandon Wood, Sean Rodriguez, made it -- none were ever a real regular player although Rodriguez has seen lots of PT in TB.  Pitching wise, Fernando Rodriguez has been the biggest contributor (with Houston).  The big miss -- Brandon Morrow.

2004 - Mark Trumbo and the only other guy with more than 32 at bats is Martin Maldonado of Milwaukee -- another catcher.  Pitching wise, Jered Weaver Bobby Cassevah and Nick Adenhart made it..  

2005 - Peter Bourjos..   That's it.  Of course the guys we drafted and didn't sign were pretty good.  Chris Davis now with Baltimore, and Buster Posey of the Giants.   Trevor Bell, Sean O'Sullivan, and Bobby Mosebach made it to the majors, as did Brian Matusz who we failed to draft.

2006 - Hank Conger is the closest thing to an everyday player drafted.  Only David Herndon and Jordan Walden have logged any significant IP

2007 - Nobody...  Andrew Romine has the most at bats by any draftee that year.  The big miss, Matt Harvey.  Ryan Brasier is the top IP guy.

2008 - Nobody...  Not one single hitter drafted has has ANY at bats at the MLB level.  Tyler Chatwood, Buddy Boshers, Will Smith (KC), Kohn, Johnny Hellweg (Mil), and Andrew Taylor have all seen MLB time.   Chatwood tops the IP with 300+

2009 - Mike Trout -- that's it.   Skaggs, Corbin, Richards, David Carpenter have all pitched in MLB, as has Josh Spence who we failed to sign.

 

So there you have it -- going back to 2000 -- we have seen all of 7 everyday players drafted... and that includes a guy in Bourjos who has only been healthy to be a regular for one year and a catcher who's career max for at bats was 498 last year when he was a 1B mostly.  

 

We would be in MUCH better shape if we had been able to produce one regular per year.

Edited January 14, 2014 by Inside Pitch

[Brent Maguire]

It's hard to develop everyday players in this day and age.

 

The Cardinals have done a pretty fantastic job drafting Craig, Adams, Carpenter, and Jay in recent years but there isn't a ton of teams that have had huge successes trying to do this. 

 

Giants, Red Sox, Rays, Pirates, Rangers are a few teams that have done a pretty good job drafting in the past 5-10 years but the Rays and Pirates also benefited from being so godawful that they had top picks every draft. 

 

The Angels were constantly a good team in the mid to late 2000's so they didn't have as many chances at landing an everyday player. The past few years of wasting 1st round picks on free agents has made it super difficult to find any impact everyday player too. 

[Inside Pitch]

It's hard to develop everyday players in this day and age.

 

The Cardinals have done a pretty fantastic job drafting Craig, Adams, Carpenter, and Jay in recent years but there isn't a ton of teams that have had huge successes trying to do this. 

 

Giants, Red Sox, Rays, Pirates, Rangers are a few teams that have done a pretty good job drafting in the past 5-10 years but the Rays and Pirates also benefited from being so godawful that they had top picks every draft. 

 

The Angels were constantly a good team in the mid to late 2000's so they didn't have as many chances at landing an everyday player. The past few years of wasting 1st round picks on free agents has made it super difficult to find any impact everyday player too. 

 

The success hurt them, but as you pointed out, the Cards, Red Sox and other teams have done well despite being extremely successful during the Angels run.  Some of it comes from the Angels tendency NOT to offer salary arbitration -- those decisions costs the Angels picks.  They also cut themselves off from what had been a VERY strong talent stream -- Latin America.

 

Angels did fairly well with international signings.   Kendrys, Krod, Santana, Segura, Callaspo, even lesser guys like Amarista and Alexi Cassila have had decent runs as spot players.

 

The lack of an international presence for a few years hurt this team as much if not more than the lack of draft picks.