Nats/Expos recent draft history: Minaya and Bowden

Here's part 2 of my draft history research. See part 1 here. I'm going to point out here that "still with the Nationals" for the most part will refer to significant guys-ones who have a chance of being major leaguers still.

2002:

GM: Minaya

Total picks: 50

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 3-Darrell Rasner (2), Mike O'Connor* (7) and Jason Bergmann* (11)

Still with Nationals: 3-O'Connor and Bergmann, plus Clint Everts (1)

Total ML games amongst draftees: 168

A not-so-good draft. Even though this is the earliest draft that featured guys still in our organization, the Nats had busts at 5th overall as well as rounds 3-6. Insult to injury: the 6th and 7th overall players taken were Zack Greinke and Prince Fielder. That being said, using hindsight to judge a draft isn't the proper way to look at it: you're drafting 18-year-olds and hoping they develop into solid major leaguers. If Everts didn't blow his elbow out, he could have been as good as Greinke. But since he was a bust, so was the Expos' draft 2002 draft.

2003:

GM: Minaya

Total picks: 50

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 3-Chad Cordero (1), Jerry Owens* (2) and Kory Casto* (3)

Still with Nationals: 2-Casto, Luke Montz (17)

Total ML games amongst draftees: 516

This draft doesn't look terrible, but that's because of Cordero on top. Owens was dealt for Alex Escobar and Casto is simply not that good. Hopefully Kory can turn it around and Montz can follow up his successful 2008 season and make it to the majors soon (note-now that Cabrera's gone and Montz is up, I'll amend this to "make it to the majors for good soon").

2004:

GM: Minaya

Total picks: 50

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 3-Bill Bray* (1), Collin Balester* (4), Brett Campbell (34)

Still with Nationals: 4-Balester, Ian Desmond (3), Marvin Lowrance (7), Leonard Davis (8)

Total ML games amongst draftees: 149

An unimpressive draft, mainly because it happened 5 years ago and still has only produced three major leaguers, one of which actually stuck. Balester's still a good prospect, Desmond looks more like a AAAA guy (if he can even get there) and Lowrance and Davis have proved that they can destroy AA pitching but not much else. Minaya, you suck.

2005:

GM: Bowden

Total picks: 48

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 5-Ryan Zimmerman* (1), Justin Maxwell* (4), Marco Estrada (6), John Lannan* (11) and Craig Stammen* (12)

Still with Nationals: 4-Zimmerman, Maxwell, Estrada, Lannan, Stammen, Mike Daniel (7), Jack Spradlin (8) Marcus Jones (38, re-drafted in 2008)

Total ML games amongst draftees: 573

The best draft I've rated so far. Zimmerman was a no-brainer at 4th overall, but Maxwell, Lannan and Stammen were all good finds considering where they were taken. Knock Bowden all you want, but he was twice the drafter Minaya or Beattie could even dream of being.

2006:

GM: Bowden

Total picks: 52

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 0. Yup, 0.

Still with Nationals: 6-Chris Marrero (1), Colten Willems (1), Cory VanAllen (5), Zech Zinicola (6), Sean Rooney (8), Adam Carr (18).

Total ML games amongst draftees: 0

Still a young enough draft that we can't call it a "bust" per se, as Marrero, Zinicola and Rooney are all decent prospects while Gibson turned into Elijah Dukes. Give it an "incomplete" to this point, but it doesn't appear that much other than Marrero will turn out nice for the Nats.

2007:

GM: Bowden

Total picks: 53

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 2-Ross Detwiler* (1) and Jordan Zimmermann* (2)

Still with Nationals: 6-Detwiler, Josh Smoker (1s), Michael Burgess (1s), Zimmermann, Derek Norris (4), Brad Meyers (5), Jack McGeary (6)

Total ML games amongst draftees: 10

Every time I look at this draft, I'm more impressed. Even if it doesn't turn much up in terms of results, this was the first Expos/Nats draft in recent memory where money wasn't the main factor for who the franchise picked. Detwiler was a great pick I'm convinced, Smoker/Burgess/McGeary were all overslot guys and Zimmermann, Norris and Meyers were good finds. Maybe it's because I've viewed drafts through Minaya-tinted glasses, but Bowden wasn't a terrible drafter. Also note that this was Rizzo's first draft.

2008 is too early to judge to be honest, and there's no real way to look at it when you factor in Crow.

So, at least the Nats' drafts have been on the upturn. Hopefully we can get past last year's speedbump and get another good draft this year!

Nats/Expos recent draft history: Intro and the Jim Beattie Era

Since the draft takes place two weeks from tomorrow, I figured I'd run a mini-series evaluating the Nats/Expos drafts since 1995 (a completely arbitrary date to pick, simply because there was a leadership change from Kevin Malone to Jim Beattie as GM). Your 4 GM's being evaluated are Malone (just his last draft), Beattie, Omar Minaya and our favorite, Jim Bowden (note-Larry Beinfest served as the interim GM from 2001-02, but did not draft in his short reign).

So, starting in 1995:

GM: Malone

Total picks: 46

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML in 2009): 6-Michael Barrett* (1), Henry Mateo (2), J.D. Smart (4), Brian Schneider* (5), Jeff Austin (10) and Pete LaForest (16).

Still with Nationals: 0

Total ML games amongst draftees: 2228 (dominated by Barrett and Schneider's combined 1928)

Out of the 6 players they drafted, only 2 are still active and they were really the only two to stick in the majors. Funny that 3 of the 6 drafted were catchers in the majors. While this draft was a major failure talent-wise, it at least produced ML players in 4 of the top 5 picks. Also worth noting: the Expos picked 28th overall, the latest non-supplemental first round status in franchise history, as they were the best team in baseball in the strike-shortened 1994 season. Overall, it was a pretty bad draft.

1996:

GM: Beattie

Total picks: 46

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 8-John Patterson (1), Milton Bradley* (2), Christian Parker (4), Jamey Carroll* (14), Andy Tracy* (16), Chris Stowers (17), Tim Young (19) and Carl Sadler (34).

Still with Nationals: 0

Total ML games amongst draftees: 1834

Like many of the drafts I'll be examining, there was an excellent find in the top few rounds: Milton Bradley. Another trend that goes hand-in-hand with that: Bradley barely played 100 games for the Expos. Remember that Patterson didn't sign with the Expos, but instead with the Diamondbacks (according to Wikipedia, "Montreal lost the draft rights to Patterson on a legal technicality: they sent him a contract offer that was not printed on official team letterhead, and he signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks for $6.075 million."). So even though this draft produced two ML batters with 700+ games played in Bradley and Jamey Carroll, the Nats got pretty much nothing out of this draft.

1997:

GM: Beattie

Total picks: 56

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 5-Brian Hebson (1s), TJ Tucker (1s), Talmadge Nunnari (9), Scott Strickland (10), Matt Blank (11)

Still with Nationals: 0

Total ML games amongst draftees: 437

Worst. Draft. Ever. In. The. History. Of. Everything. This is completely unfathomably bad. The Expos had 7 supplemental first round picks and 9 total in the top 100. Out of these, 2 made the majors: Brian Hebson (2 career games) and TJ Tucker (171 career games). This is ineptitude that surpasses even Jim Bowden. Out of the top 15 drafted, 2 made the majors. Of the 13 that didn't, 11 were High Schoool picks and 2 were Junior College selections. Pretty much the textbook year for the "DON'T DRAFT HS PLAYERS" way of thinking.

1998:

GM: Beattie

Total picks: 47

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 2-Brad Wilkerson (1s) and Jimmy Serrano (18)

Still with Nationals: 0

Total ML games amongst draftees: 982

Despite the fact that there were only 2 Major Leaguers in the Expos' 1998 draft, at least they didn't blow 7 of 8 supplemental first rounders. Wilkerson was an average-or-better hitter for 5 full seasons and Serrano pitched 32 and 2/3 innings of league-average ball in 2004. But wow, what a killer 2-year stretch for the Expos. I didn't put a * beside Wilkerson because, even though he played a little bit for the Red Sox' AAA affiliate this year, he officially retired.

1999:

GM: Beattie

Total picks: 48

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 5-Brandon Phillips* (2), Matt Cepicky (4), Brandon Watson* (9), Val Pascucci* (15) and Matt Watson (16)

Still with Nationals: 0

Total ML games amongst draftees: 818

Another terribly top-heavy draft that didn't benefit the franchise at all. Phillips turned into a very good 2B, but nobody else stuck in the Majors out of this draft. 4th straight year of little return for the franchise. No wonder the Expos were so bad.

2000:

GM: Beattie

Total picks: 49

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 11-Justin Wayne (1), Grady Sizemore* (3), Cliff Lee* (4), Shawn Hill* (6), Wes Littleton* (7), Phil Seibel (8), Fred Lewis* (20), Jason Bay* (22), Russell Martin* (35), Anthony Ferrari (44) and Jeff Karstens* (45) (note-Littleton, Lewis, Martin and Karstens did not sign).

Still with Nationals: 0

Total ML games amongst draftees: 2606

Awesome draft. Too bad only Hill did anything for the Nats. This draft was a victim of Omar Minaya, who dealt Lee, Sizemore and Brandon Phillips (along with Lee Stevens) to Cleveland for Bartolo Colon (and Tim Drew) during the 2002 season. Thank goodness Minaya, one of the most overrated GM's of the current era, is in New York now. At least there he can attempt to cover up his mistakes by spending large sums of money on FA's.

2001:

GM: Beattie

Total picks: 50

Major Leaguers (* denotes 1 or more GP in ML or AAA in 2009): 4-Mike Hinckley* (3), Josh Labandeira (6), Chad Bentz (7) and Chris Schroder* (19)

Still with Nationals: 0

Total ML games amongst draftees: 137

Ummmm...when Chris Schroder is the best pick in a draft, it's a pretty bad one. That being said, I really wish we still had Schrodes to anchor or bullpen-Billy Beane, will you give him back? Pretty please?

At this point the Jim Beattie era mercifully ended. His totals: 35 major leaguers in 6 drafts...pretty bad. There were some diamonds in the rough, but none of them stuck around long enough to matter for the Nats. I'll get Minaya and Bowden done sometime tomorrow. Key stat: 0 players in drafts before 2001 are still with the Nats. Look at it this way: at least things can't get worse than this. And at least Jim Beattie isn't running the franchise anymore. You know he went to Dartmouth? For someone so smart, he's pretty stupid.