2014 Draft

[chpettit19]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5557861/2024/06/14/mlb-draft-biggest-misses-2014-astros-brady-aiken/

Keith Law did a pair of articles over at The Athletic about the 2014 draft. I thought it was a good reminder of how hard drafting and developing is and how many flat out misses there are in drafts. His article on the biggest misses that year included 20 first round picks. Nick Gordon being among them. I know people are disappointed in what Nick ended up becoming, but the first 2 picks in that draft (Brady Aiken and Tyler Kolek) never made it to the majors. The number 6 pick (Alex Jackson) has accumulated -1.4 WAR. That's 3 top 10 picks who never reached the majors or have been bad there. Gordon has 0.4 WAR so he's nothing to be excited about, but this drafting stuff is hard.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5556843/2024/06/14/mlb-draft-2014-redraft-trea-turner/

Law's other article was doing a "redraft" of that year. Trea Turner- Matt Chapman-Aaron Nola-Logan Webb-Dylan Cease were his 1-5 picks. No Twins picks made his 30 man 1 round draft. Overall, I just thought it was an interesting look back at a draft from 10 years ago.

[chpettit19]

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-dog-ate-my-prospect/

This article has been passed around on a few other threads and thought it'd be worth adding here as some context on how well the Twins develop. Not going to lie, they're higher than I'd have guessed. 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

3 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-dog-ate-my-prospect/

This article has been passed around on a few other threads and thought it'd be worth adding here as some context on how well the Twins develop. Not going to lie, they're higher than I'd have guessed. 

Wow! There is a lot to chew on in that article.  I agree, while I didn't think they were terrible compared to other teams, they ranked higher than my expectations, especially on the hitter side of the ledger.  I guess they really have churned out quite a few bats over the years.  Makes me feel pretty good about the organization.  Unfortunately, the current fan discourse says that the Twins can't do anything right.  I'm guessing that this won't change anyone's mind. 

[bean5302]

4 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-dog-ate-my-prospect/

This article has been passed around on a few other threads and thought it'd be worth adding here as some context on how well the Twins develop. Not going to lie, they're higher than I'd have guessed. 

It is hard to follow, and there are philosophical questions which come into play as to who gets credit for drafting and development. For example, based on what I read, the Twins get all the credit for drafting and developing Joe Ryan despite the fact they did neither thing, and Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober are the reason the Twins were moved so far up rankings somewhere or another in the evaluation.

I appreciate the authors efforts to quantify the development in a meaningful way. These types of projects are enormous undertakings that are probably best left to data sites and active databases. Maybe Fangraphs will take up the data processing at some point in the future.

[Mike Sixel]

Man I wanted Turner that draft.....but yes, picking the right guy, having him be healthy, and you and him gelling on his development, likely over 3-5 years, is really hard.