A look back at big hits, bad calls as MLB eyes new draft era
NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball's amateur draft is about to enter the next phase of its ongoing development — same as all those young prospects picked every year.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 version was ticketed for a move to Omaha, Nebraska, to coincide with the College World Series. The idea was to stage a bigger television event with more elite players on hand, like Arizona State first baseman Spencer Torkelson and Vanderbilt infielder Austin Martin.
Of course, the COVID-19 outbreak scuttled the CWS and sent draft headquarters back to mostly empty MLB Network studios this week in Secaucus, New Jersey. Major League Baseball owners and players agreed to slash 40 rounds to five, beginning Wednesday night with the first 37 picks. The remaining 123 will be made Thursday.
MLB Network and ESPN will both produce broadcasts Wednesday, the first time multiple networks will provide live coverage in prime time. Much like the NFL draft in April, remote cameras will show premier prospects and club executives in their homes or offices.
For months now, scouts benched at home with no prep games to attend have been relegated to evaluating video and meeting on Zoom.
“I've slept more this spring than I have in other springs, so I'm a little more rested. That'll help,” Tampa Bay Rays senior director of amateur scouting Rob Metzler said with a chuckle. “It's just a different challenge.”
Next year, teams can cap the draft at 20 rounds if they choose. MLB also has proposed cutting the minimum number of minor league affiliations from 160 to 120, allowing each organization to drop at least one.
So with owners intent on streamlining farm systems, and the current labor agreement set to expire after 2021, it seems reasonable to think the June draft that began in 1965 might never look the same. Perhaps 20 rounds (or even fewer) will become the norm.
• • •
A look back at some of the biggest busts, best decisions and pivotal moments that mark the evolution of Major League Baseball's amateur draft since center fielder Rick Monday was selected first overall 55 years ago by the Kansas City Athletics out of Arizona State:
ON SECOND THOUGHT
Monday became a two-time All-Star who played 19 big league seasons and hit 241 home runs — plus a momentous one that put the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1981 World Series. But with the top pick in the second June amateur draft in 1966, the New York Mets swung and missed. They went for high school catcher Steve Chilcott, who never made the majors. Next, the A's grabbed Hall of Fame slugger Reggie Jackson from Arizona State. Not only was Mr. October the 1973 World Series MVP in Oakland's seven-game victory over the Mets, he also starred in three Fall Classics for the crosstown New York Yankees, leading them to two titles.
Ouch.
Other regrettable 1-2 choices: Matt Anderson (Tigers) over J.D. Drew (Phillies) in 1997; Matt Bush (Padres) over Justin Verlander (Tigers) in 2004; and Mark Appel (Astros) over Kris Bryant (Cubs) in 2013.
BACK-TO-BACK HOME RUNS
Hall of Fame third basemen George Brett and Mike Schmidt came off the board with consecutive picks early in the 1971 second round. Brett went 29th overall to the Kansas City Royals out of high school in California, then Schmidt at No. 30 to the Philadelphia Phillies from Ohio University.
“One of the most exciting times in my life,” Schmidt said in an email last week.
The sluggers stayed connected at the hip for almost two decades, too.
Each won his league's MVP award in 1980, when Schmidt and the Phillies beat Brett and the Royals for their first World Series championship. Good friends, they retired neck-and-neck in a key (and disputed) category.
“George and I finished with the same number of career RBIs — 1,595. But when he realized that, he hired someone to go back through his career and find an RBI,” Schmidt wrote. “He succeeded and now has 1,596. Anything to top me. My comeback is that I hit the roof of the Astrodome with 2 on base and settled for a single, that's 3 RBIs . ... I should have 1,598.”