History of Braves 1st Round Picks
August 23, 2009 at 1:10 pm by Capitol Avenue Club under Atlanta Braves, Draft
I’m bored before the game and I’ve been all draft-tastic over here lately, so I’m going to write a history of the Braves’ 1st round picks. Since 1990. Their overall pick is in parenthesis.
1990 – Chipper Jones (1). That one seemed to work out alright.
1991 – Mike Kelly (2). Drafted as an outfielder. Hit .220/.273/.383 in 233 PA’s. He was later traded for Chad Fox and the PTBNL in the deal was my favorite person ever, Ray King.
1992 – Jamie Arnold (20). Wound up being a career minor-leaguer and only totaled 108 and 1/3 big-league innings.
1993 – No pick. Some guy named Alex Rodriguez was taken first overall in that draft.
1994 – Jacob Shumate (27). Never made it out of AA.
1995 – Chad Hutchinson (26). He didn’t sign. Wound up signing with the Cards 3 years later after being drafted again. He got a cup of coffee in 2001 and totaled 4 MLB innings. His career MLB ERA is 24.75. Which might be some kind of record, but I doubt it.
1996 – A.J. Zapp (27). .255 career minor-league batting average. Never made it to MLB.
1997 – No pick. The Braves were too busy trying to re-teach Mark Wholers how to pitch.
1998 – No pick. The Phillies took Pat the Bat number 1 overall in 1998.
1999 – No pick. Did the Braves forget to do the draft in the late 90′s?
2000 – Adam Wainwright (29). Traded to the Cardinals in the J.D. Drew deal. A successful major-leaguer. The Braves had back-to-back first round picks that year and took Scott Thorman at pick number 30. He sucks.
2001 – Macay McBride (24). Looked like he’d make it in the big leagues after sporting a career 3.24 ERA in ~500 minor league innings. But fell apart and only pitched 103 and 1/3 major league innings. Five picks later, the Braves took Josh Burrus. He never made it to the show and hit .243 in his minor-league career.
2002 – Jeff Francoeur (23). He sucks.
2003 – No pick. Delmon Young, who sucks, was taken 1st overall by the Rays. The most successful first rounder is probably Nick Markakis, taken 7th.
2004 – No pick. Matt F’n Bush! was taken 1st overall in that draft. Folks, this is why you consider character when you draft.
2005 – Joey Devine (27). Good pick. He’s now with Oakland. I’d trade Luis Sumoza for Joey Devine right now.
2006 – Cody Johnson (24). He’s that guy who strikes out all the time and hits a lot of home runs for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Lincecum was taken at pick number 10 in this draft.
2007 – Jason Heyward (14). He’s going to be good for a long time.
2008 – No pick. Thanks, Tom Glavine. Example number 294,787,029,745 why the compensation system is fucking stupid. Tom Glavine a type A? What a joke.
2009 – Mike Minor (7). Made his professional debut the other day pitching 2 perfect innings with 2 K’s. I’ve come around on him. Still wish the Braves had taken someone else, though.
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It’s sad to see how bad the Braves have been with their #1 picks over the years. Granted, I’d take no pick to Make F’ing Bush any day of the week, but overall, just kind of depressing. The farm system has been a hallmark of the Braves’ success, and you’ve gotta wonder where we might be if we drafted as well first round as we did in the later rounds. Of course, the MLB draft is always such a crapshoot that maybe there’d be no difference.