Thor superior illustrates draft crapshoot

I KNOW it is so 1998, but I still read boxscores daily, and when I come upon an unfamiliar name I look the guy up to satisfy curiosity. That brought me the other day to Deck McGuire after he made his major league debut at age 28 for the Reds.

Turns out McGuire was once the 11th pick in the draft, by the Blue Jays in 2010. But what really caught my attention was that Toronto had four firstround picks that year, and their next two — Nos. 34 and 38 — were Aaron Sanchez and Noah Syndergaard. So it was not too long ago that the Blue Jays were prioritizing McGuire over Syndergaard and Sanchez, which shows the fickle nature of the draft considering they both got Cy Young votes last year, and McGuire has been a minor league journeyman.

Look, lots of teams make mistakes. The Yankees, with the 32nd pick that year, could have selected Sanchez or Syndergaard and took Cito Culver. But I was interested in what Toronto saw in McGuire that put him on its board higher than Sanchez and Syndergaard.

So I asked Alex Anthopoulos, then the Blue Jay GM and now a top Dodgers executive, who wrote in a text: “[McGuire] was a standout at Georgia Tech and was considered a polished, come-quick pitcher up to 95 mph with a plus slider at 85-88. In pro ball, he ended up settling in around 89-92. Lots of John Lackey comparisons out of the draft. Since we had the sandwich picks we felt confident the high school right-handers [Sanchez and Syndergaard] would still be available, and McGuire wouldn’t have gotten past the Brewers at 14 overall.”

McGuire moved on to the systems of the A’s, Dodgers and Cardinals before getting this chance with the Reds, where he joins a staff with Asher Wojciechowski, who was the Blue Jays’ fourth first-round pick in 2010, No. 41 overall.