Since 1998, the
A's have taken college players with their first pick all but once. That trend just continued as Billy Beane took James Simmons, RHP from UC-Riverside. Peter Gammons is not well. He revealed that he used his one day away from the hospital after his unfortunate aneurysm to watch Simmons pitch in the Cape Cop summer league. Simmons finished the summer with a 1.18 ERA and apparently has some nasty command of his fastball. The Tigers then took high school pitcher Rick Procello, apparently the best high school pitching prospect since Josh Beckett. Ben Revere goes 28th to the Twins. Blah, blah, blah...let's get back to making GM's of the past feel inferior!
- 1970: The Padres grab catcher Mike Ivie, a career .269 hitter. Goose Gossage goes to the White Sox in the ninth round. These things really are a crap shoot.
- 1971: The White Sox make catcher Danny Goodwin the top pick and then fail to sign him. Jim Rice goes 15th to the Red Sox.
- 1972: This draft stunk, plain and simple. Dave Roberts went first to the Padres. Thirty-two years later his base running prowess helped the Red Sox to a World Series.
- 1973: This year made up for the previous year. The Rangers took David Clyde first. Clyde went on to have an all-time record of 18-33. Catcher John Stearns went second to the Phillies. They let him go after one season and he went on to make four all-star appearances with the Mets. Two guys named Robin Yount and Dave Winfield went third and fourth respectively. Fred Lynn and Eddie Murray went in the second and third rounds respectively. But seriously, David Clyde had tremendous signability at the time.
- 1974: Padres took Bill Almon. Dale Murphy goes fifth to the Braves. Almon blasts 36 career round-trippers, Murphy a respectable 398.
- 1975: The Angles make Danny Goodwin the first man to be the top pick twice. He hits .236 in a 252-game career. Andre Dawson goes in the 10th round.
- 1978: The Braves pass up the likes of Cal Ripken, Jr., Gaylor Perry and Kirk Gibson for Bob Horner.
- 1979: The Mariners grab Al Chamers, a Pennsylvania high school outfielder. Yanks go with an Indiana high school outfielder named Don Mattingly. Funny until you realize that 16 years later the Mariners will end Mattingly's career.
Since 1998, the A's have taken college players with their first pick all but once. That trend just continued as Billy Beane took James Simmons, RHP from UC-Riverside. Peter Gammons is not well. He revealed that he used his one day away from the hospital after his unfortunate aneurysm to watch Simmons pitch in the Cape Cop summer league. Simmons finished the summer with a 1.18 ERA and apparently has some nasty command of his fastball. The Tigers then took high school pitcher Rick Procello, apparently the best high school pitching prospect since Josh Beckett. Ben Revere goes 28th to the Twins. Blah, blah, blah...let's get back to making GM's of the past feel inferior!
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