SI says Brewers have had the best draft history over the past 10 years

Jun. 09, 2009

4:00 a.m.

This is a very cool breakdown on SI.com of each MLB team's draft history over the past 10 years. It's even cooler that the Brewers are ranked number one and are given props for being the prime example of how to build a club through the draft (thank you Jack Z!). I've posted the criteria they used and the first three teams:

We examined each pick for every team over the past 10 years, amounting to nearly 15,000 selections, in an effort to identify the teams that are the most successful at uncovering talent in the annual amateur entry draft. We then categorized them by how far those players have advanced in their careers, and used those relative degrees of success to determine each team's rank. Some of the most interesting findings are shown in the table below.

In addition to the current players selected over that time span, we also identify a number of other notable tidbits:

- The total number of picks each team made (including sandwich picks earned and lost in free agency).

- The total number of those picks that have reached the majors (whether with the team that drafted them or not).

- The best pick from players taken outside of the top two rounds.

- The player taken highest in the first round who never reached their potential.

- The best player who was drafted but never signed and then went on to stardom elsewhere.

- And finally, the player who was drafted and signed, but was then either traded, released or otherwise lost.

1Milwaukee Brewers

Picks	MLB	Steal	Bust	Unsigned	Traded/Cut
489	29	Manny Parra (42nd round, 2001)	Mike Jones	Hunter Pence	Dana Eveland

Current Key Players: Prince Fielder, Corey Hart, J.J. Hardy, Manny Parra, Rickie Weeks, Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo (pictured)

Lowdown: The prime example of a good team built through the draft. Seven of Milwaukee's current top 10 in RBIs are homegrown, as is the ace of the rotation.

2Boston Red Sox

Picks	MLB	Steal	Bust	Unsigned	Traded/Cut
502	37	Kevin Youkilis (8th round, 2001)	Rick Asadoorian	Pedro Alvarez	Freddy Sanchez

Current Key Players: Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon (pictured), Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester, Manny Delcarmen

Lowdown: Boston's system is dripping with young stars (Youkilis, Pedroia, Papelbon) and a seemingly never-ending supply of live arms.

3Philadelphia Phillies

Picks	MLB	Steal	Bust	Unsigned	Traded/Cut
479	29	Ryan Howard (5th round, 2001)	Greg Golson	Joe Saunders	Michael Bourn

Current Key Players: Howard, Chase Utley (pictured), Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, J.A. Happ

Lowdown: Few teams can match the talent the Phils have cobbled together on draft day over the last 10 years, including MVPs of the NL (Howard) and World Series (Hamels).