As the 2010 baseball season progresses and looms over my head like a Cambodian Mud Monkey ready to steal my soul once again, I look at my Dodgers and wonder ‘will this be the year?’ I took a careful look at our team and while the roster may have several solid, home-grown kids in the lineup such as Silver Slugger & Gold Glove outfielder Matt Kemp, Silver Slugger and MVP candidate Andre Ethier and former Silver Slugger & Gold Glove recipient Russell Martin, I can’t help but wonder what this team could possibly look like had we actually done a better job of drafting players in the past and theoretically kept them in the organization. I went back to the 1994 draft which was a pretty good pick in Paul Konerko and then began the study the following year which shows some lack of foresight. Of course any good Dodgers fan knows that Paul Konerko was eventually traded to the Reds for Jeff Shaw which eventually gave all Dodgers fans indigestion in the 9th inning. Please note that this only reflects the Dodgers 1st round draft picks in the respective years.
In 1995 with the 20th overall pick the Dodgers drafted LHP David Yocum. The following year Baseball America had him listed as the #7 top prospect in the Dodgers farm system. He never made the major leagues. In fact, I can’t find any record that he even played in the minor leagues. That very same year a skinny Puerto Rican was drafted in the 2nd round #49 overall by the name of Carlos Beltran. Carlos didn’t make it to the show full-time until the 1999 campaign when the Royals made him their starting center fielder and leadoff man, meanwhile that year the Dodgers where signing an aging Devon White *shudder* to a 2 year deal worth $6.5 million to be our everyday centerfielder and leadoff man. I’m in no way saying Carlos Beltran would still be a Dodgers but we would have never traded him in 2004 to Houston because we were actually having a good year then and we would have never had to suffer through Devon White, Tom Goodwin, Dave Roberts or Jose Cruz Jr. as our opening day centerfielders .
In 1996 with the 23rd overall pick the Dodgers drafted 3B Damian Rolls. This kid had some promise. The year after his draft Baseball America had him as the #6 top prospect in the Dodgers Farm system. While he never played for the Dodgers he has played in parts of five major league seasons with Tampa Bay and got as high as AAA Columbus in the Yankees system, which means he was good enough to play for Tampa Bay. That same year a skinny kid from Weir Mississippi by the name of Roy Oswalt was taken in the 23rd round. 23rd round! After winning a Gold Medal in the 2000 Olympics, which was of course managed by Dodger Legend Tommy Lasorda, he went on to a 14 win rookie season in 2001, a 19 win season in 2002 and a 20 win season in 2004. In 2001 the Dodgers paid Andy Ashby $6 million to pitch in two games and get hurt. Bet it would have been nice to have been able to call up Roy Oswalt! In 2002 the same Andy Ashby went 9- 13. And finally in 2004, the combination of Hideo Nomo, Wilson Alvarez, Edwin Jackson and Brad Penny (late season acquisition) couldn’t muster up more wins than Oswalt did that year. I bet it would have been nice having a 20 game pitcher in that October series against the Cardinals.
1997 was an interesting year. The Dodgers drafted 1B Glenn Davis 25th overall while there were two pitchers who were drafted after him that would have greatly improved the Dodgers in the future; Tim Hudson and Randy Wolf. I’m going to focus on the latter for these reasons. 1. Randy Wolf was drafted by the Dodgers in 1994 but didn’t sign. 2. He’s from LA and the Dodgers should scout better in their backyard 3. He eventually played for the Dodgers… twice! 4. He won 16 games in 2003. Imagine had the Dodgers drafted Randy Wolf in 1997, we would have had a hometown favorite who could have pitched for us from 1999-2009. I mentioned 2003 because that would have been Roy Oswalts down year where he only won 10 games. Glenn Davis of course never made it passed AA and is now out of baseball. Tim Hudson would have eventually left LA to play for his hometown Braves anyways.
In 1998 the Dodgers drafted Bubba Crosby. Remember him? No? Well, he played nine games for the Dodgers in 2003 and played three seasons with the Yankees in 2004-2006. He hit a total of four career homeruns, all of them with the Yankees. Shawn Green hit four in one game back in 2002! You know who else hits a ton of homeruns? Adam Dunn. The same Adam Dunn who was drafted by the Reds in the 2nd round that same year. The Same Adam Dunn who hit 40 homeruns five consecutive years. The same Adam Dunn who in 2004 hit a homerun in Ohio that didn’t stop travelling until it got to Kentucky off then Dodgers starter Jose Lima; may he rest in peace. Can you imagine that Outfield? I’ll explain later.
Which leads me to the 1999 1st round draft pick…. Nobody. We gave up our 1st round pick when we signed Kevin Brown to that ridiculous deal and later traded him to the Yankees for Jeff Weaver.
The 2000 draft is still making me pull my hair out. Probably why I buzz cut these days, easier to avoid baldness and gray hairs from stressed induced by the Dodgers. Ben Diggins was drafted 17th overall. Grady Sizemore drafted 75th overall by the Expos! Gahh! Ben Diggins was traded to Milwaukee in 2002 where he had an 0-4 record and was never heard from again. On the other hand, Grady Sizemore became the Cleveland Indians full-time center fielder in 2005 where he has been an All-Star, gold glover, silver slugger and a 30-30 man. Sound familiar? I swear I’ll get to it in the end.
Almost done. Swear.
In 2001, we also had to forfeit our first round draft pick because of Andy Ashby this time. You all know how I feel about Andy Ashby so I won’t go into it any further.
Now, from 2002 and beyond I won’t really say much other than who we’ve drafted mainly because they’re on the current roster and are making strong contributions to the ball club.
2002: James Loney
2003: Chad Billingsley
2004: Scot Elbert and Blake DeWitt
2005: No pick (Derek Lowe)
2006: Clayton Kershaw
Interestingly enough, in 2003, Andre Ethier was drafted by Oakland after Chad Billingsley and in 2006 2-time Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum was drafted after Clayton Kershaw.
Okay… Now just think that had the Dodgers drafted the way I just detailed could have been possible, they would have had Carlos Beltran patrolling centerfield from 1999-2004 eliminating the need for Devon White, Tom Goodwin, Dave Roberts and even Juan Encarnation. The Dodgers would have been able to afford to let him go after that year because they had a stud centerfielder in the minors by the name of Grady Sizemore who would still be in center today. Can you imagine replacing a 30-30 centerfielder with another 30-30 centerfielder? So what about Matt Kemp? He would be playing left field because there would have been no need to trade for Manny in the first place. Randy Wolf would have joined the rotation in 1999 with Roy Oswalt joining in 2001 Adam Dunn joins the club in 2002 replacing an aging Eric Karros at 1B eliminating the need to sign the Crime Dog Fred Mcgriff and you’re looking at a 2004 Dodgers team with an outfield of Milton Bradley, Carlos Beltran and Shawn Green, and an infield of Beltre, Izturis, Cora and Dunn, a rotation with Oswalt, Wolf, Lima, Weaver and Ishii. This team could easily have won 100 games which is 7 more than they already won, payroll would have been relatively small because of the young players on the team and we quite possibly win a world series that year instead of still waiting for one today and I would have never had had to deal with Andy Ashby.
Tags: Dodgers —
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