Fire Joe Morgan takes apart not-so-smart column about Moneyball/Jeremy Brown

[LouisEly]

Yep the draft is a total crapshoot. Look at other players from that draft.

• #44 Joey Votto
• #50 Micah Owings
• #54 Dave Bush
• #57 Jon Lester
• #60 Jonathan Broxton
• #64 Brian McCann
• #68 Chris Snyder
• #74 Elijah Dukes
• #80 Curtis Granderson
• #112 Rich Hill
• #136 Hayden Penn
• #166 John Maine
• #173 Scott Olsen
• #182 Pat Neshek
• #193 Matt Capps
• #294 Howie Kendrick

And that's just from the first 10 rounds of that one draft.

So of the roughly 270 players picked after Brown in the first 10 rounds of the draft, 16 of them have had somewhat successful major league careers so far. So what are you trying to say?

 

Let's take a look at some of the players picked ahead of Brown that year:

 

#3 - Chris Gruler (Reds)

#5 - Clint Everts (Expos)

#8 - Scott Moore (Tigers)

#10 - Drew Meyer (Rangers)

#20 - Denard Span (Twins)

#21 - Bobbie Brownlie (Cubs)

#27 - Sergio Santos (D-backs)

#28 - John Mayberry Jr (Mariners) (wasted pick - didn't sign)

#29 - Derick Grigsby (Astros)

 

And I wouldn't put Bryan Bullington (#1), Adam Loewen (#4), Joe Saunders (#12), and Russ Adams (#14) much ahead of Brown either. (Yes, Loewen and Saunders have logged quite a few innings but based on their numbers it is very questionable whether they deserve to be in the majors. The only difference between them and Brown is how much slack they are being given to prove themselves in the majors, which is usually much higher for a pitcher.) Brown had good minor league stats and made it to the majors; in other words, he did better than some picked before him and most picked after him. So he was an average pick for a player at that slot. Big deal.