Draft History

[balsamlaker]

MLB drafts are definitely unique in that the percent of players that make a major league impact is extremely minimal. Even in the "glory days" of Jack Z. rarely were two great players found in an individual draft and even rarer were pitchers developed. A lineup was put together one player per year with Hart (2000), Hardy (2001), Fielder (2002), Weeks (2003), and Braun (2005). The top other players drafted during those years were likely Brantley (who developed in CLE) and Gwynn. Under Seid's watch there were not as many superstars but solid contributors in Davis, Gennett, Cravy, Fiers, J. Nelson, Thornburg, Rivera, Jungmann, Reed, Barnes, Haniger and Banda (turned into Davies), Magnifico, and Suter. Many more pitchers have developed during this time which is a good sign for Milwaukee.

 

As Tod Johnson takes over the draft it will be exciting to see how the Brewers draft philosophy changes. Over the last four years the only player that is really contributing at the major league level is Jonathan Villar via Cy Sneed. Will one or more of the top three youngsters in the class of 2014 develop (history says not more than one)? Will the analytically-based Johnson play Moneyball? Time will tell, but hopefully the team can put together some drafts with multiple major league players like Gallardo and Cain (2004) and Lawrie and Odorizzi (2008).

[adambr2]

I would hardly call Gwynn Jr. a solid contributor, much less a top player, and I think you're missing some big names in Lucroy and Gallardo. But overall I think your post is a good reminder of how we probably expect too much from our draft picks. It's a long journey from draft day to MLB.

[MrTPlush]

I would hardly call Gwynn Jr. a solid contributor, much less a top player

 

Nor is:

 

Tyler Cravy

Damien Magnifico

Yadiel Rivera

Michael Reed

Brent Suter

Anthony Banda

 

 

What people get caught up on is:

 

1) Lack of developing elite starter(s)

 

2) So many busts with our top picks

 

 

Overall I don't think we have done that bad, but its sad we are failing some much with our top picks. It should be easier to get solid contributors with those picks instead we are getting a bunch of guys that can't even make an MLB roster. Now as far as #1 goes I am a lot more forgiving. We don't typically pick very high and it is very hard to actually get elite pitching, get it to stay healthy, and to have it perform at the MLB level. So yes we haven't done that bad, but doing ok is not going to get the Brewers anywhere. We are a smaller market and having good/great drafts is how we build a winner. We did that in the 2000s and it gave us two really good teams. If we aren't excelling in the draft it is going to make it hard to make a winner and even harder to sustain that success once we get there.