Here's to Hope

Dick Grant played 436 minor league games for the Braves and Indians organizations between 1965 and 1971. He hit .259 with a .730 OPS in 1353 at bats. He also pitched 177 innings and walked 3 times as many batters as he struck out. Dick Grant was taken with the 12^th pick in the very first entry draft in 1965. With the 36^th pick, the Reds picked a kid named Johnny Bench out of high school in Oklahoma.  


The baseball draft is historically the riskiest proposition of all of the major sport entry drafts. Even with advanced scouting and projection techniques, it is where the most diamonds in the rough are found in the lowest of rounds – of course that goes back to the time when the NFL and NBA drafts were much bigger than today. Mike Piazza- 62^nd round; Don Mattingly 19^th round, Tony Gwynn 10^th round,  are shining examples that it is often nurture and not nature in the world of big league development.


Let’s put it in perspective- the Mets have chosen 12^th once- his name was Lastings Milledge. In the 47 years of the draft, we’ve had heartache- Steve Chilcott, Les Rohr, Tim Leary, Gregg Jefferies, Jay Payton and Paul Wilson. We’ve had flameout- Shawn Abner, Tim Foli, Al Shirley, Eddie Williams, Randy Sterling, and Butch Benton. We’ve had contributors- Wally Backman, Hubie Brooks, Bobby Jones, and franchise icons- Jon Matlack, Lee Mazzilli, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, and David Wright.


Overall number 12? Not much better- there has been Nomar Garciaparra, Kirk Gibson, Jered Weaver, Matt Morris, Billy Wagner and not much else. Some contributors there- Brett Myers, Doug Glanville, DeLino Deshields and John Curtis. Last year’s number 12, Taylor Jungmann is underwhelming in high A, and Yasmani Grandal is on the fast track to San Diego with a great start in AAA this year.


This is also the reason why I can’t get too excited about the  first round of the MLB draft- in the past, we were all given the promise of David Proctor, Al Shirley, Lee May, Jr., Eddie Williams, and most recently Bradley Holt. We have watched the injury flameouts of Paul Wilson, Jay Payton, and the ceilings reached for countless other pitchers (Pelfrey, Strange, Keppel, etc.) and that is more the norm than the exception.  But there is no better excitement for a die hard fan than being able to follow the progress of our prospects and I remember doing this as early as the time of Ron Darling, Dwight Gooden, and Gregg Jefferies and still have the same thrill seeing the box score of a dominant performance by Zach Wheeler or the re-emergence of Wilmer Flores. For a lot of 2002, David Wright struggled in Low A ball and he was rather underwhelming in St. Lucie in 2003, but I kept following every morning as I will with Brandon Nimmo, Mike Fulmer, and others.

So while the draft order doesn’t interest me, the prospects do- and while we root for talent, with my head, I root for hope. I root for a Duda and a Niuwenheis. I still watch and hope for Reese Havens and Jefry Marte.

It’s kind of a big picture proposition, and while an Eddie Kunz may be on top, a Jim Thome might be toiling and developing his tools somewhere within that nondescript list of draftees come 2015.