Baltimore Orioles: Draft Analysis – 2000

As the New York Mets,  Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros make their presence felt in the 2015 MLB Postseason, those teams deserve much credit for making the right  moves over the past few years to turn around losing franchises.

The Mets (21) and the Astros (29) are outside the top 20 in payroll, indicating that they’ve had some successful drafts over the past few years, allowing them to promote many of their prospects and open a window of competitiveness for the next few years before those prospects reach Free Agency.

This got me thinking about the Orioles recent draft history. Indeed the O’s have had some success as players like Manny Machado, Matt Wieters, and Zach Britton have become stars. However the strength of the Baltimore farm system has been uneven over the years which seems indicative of marginal success in the June draft.

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Over the next few weeks, I’ll analyze the Orioles drafts of the 21st Century to see exactly what went right…and more importantly what went wrong. To kick things off, let’s take a look at what is widely considered one of the worst MLB drafts in history, the 2000 June Amateur Draft.

With the first pick in the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft, the Florida Marlins select, Adrian Gonzalez, First Base, Chula Vista, CA… and then it got ugly. The entire 2000 Draft boasted only 22 All Stars, two Cy Young Awards, two Rookies of the Year and zero MVPs. For comparison, just the year earlier there were six All Stars, one Cy Young, one Rookie of the Year, and one MVP in the First Round alone.

For the Orioles, it was utterly forgettable. With the 14th overall pick, the O’s drafted RHP Beau Hale, who never made it past AA Bowie. If that was not bad enough, with the next pick, the Philadelphia Phillies selected future perennial All Star Chase Utley. Ouch.

The Orioles had another first round pick though, a supplemental pick which they used on another RHP, Tripper Johnson, who also never made it past Double A ball. Johnson eventually quit baseball and was a 26 year old walk on for the Washington Huskies Football team. Once again, a future Major League player was selected with the following pick, this time Dustin McGowan by the Toronto Blue Jays.

C – Yadier Molina

1B – Adrian Gonzalez

2B – Chase Utley

3B – Edwin Encarnacion

SS – Aaron Hill

OF – Grady Sizemore

OF – Jason Bay

OF – Jose Bautista

DH – Mike Napoli

SP – Adam Wainwright

SP – Cliff Lee

SP – Brandon Webb

SP – James Shields

SP- Chris Young

RP – Bobby Jenks

RP – Brian Wilson

For the next 30 rounds, the Orioles drafted zero Major League baseball players and only four who would advance to the AAA level; BJ Littleton in round 7, Casey Cahill in round 10, Kris Wilken in round 12, and Brian Forystek in round 14.

Then in the 32nd round it happened….they picked a player who would one day wear an Orioles uniform; Short Stop Brandon Fahey. He wouldn’t sign in 2000 but two years later Baltimore would once again select Fahey, 20 rounds earlier. In 2006 he’d make his Major League debut and play in 189 mostly uneventful games.

In round 33 the Orioles chose OF Kurt Birkens who would eventually make it to Baltimore as a LHP. Birkens was the only player the Orioles selected in the 2000 draft that signed and would one day make it to MLB. He was one of only five players selected by the Birds that played in the Major Leagues for any team. The others were 34th round pick Josh Banks who later became a 2nd round pick for Toronto, 35th round pick Jeff Salazar, who would be an 8th round pick for Colorado, and 36th round pick Tim Stauffer, who would be a 1st round pick in 2003 for the Padres.

In the midst of an awful Baltimore draft, 18 other teams would find All Star players. The Anaheim Angels plucked Bobby Jenks, Aaron Hill, and Mike Napoli. The Montreal Expos selected Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, and Jason Bay. Arizona grabbed Brandon Webb and Ian Kinsler, although Kinsler did not sign. Atlanta chose future stars Adam Wainwright and Adam LaRoche, but no team seemingly did it better than the Pittsburgh Pirates. They drafted RHP’s Chris Young, Ian Snell, and Scott Baker, and OF’s Jose Bautista and Nate McLouth. Bautista and Young are both making a difference for their current teams in the 2015 post season.

Although the 2000 MLB Draft is widely considered an awful draft across the board, there were some diamonds in the rough that found their way to the Major Leagues. The Orioles however seemed to only find the lumps of coal, that no matter how hard they polished, never paid off.

Next: Baltimore Orioles: Play safe and play hard

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