Where #SFGiants Draft Picks Rank in bWAR
Baseball Reference has a nifty tool where you can check out how Draft Picks rank based off positions, names, years, rounds, franchises, and you can sort it by hits, home runs, stolen bases, whatever. I’m going by BR’s version of Wins Above Replacement, or what some call “bWAR” or “rWAR.” BR has data from 1965, which is when the Draft was first implemented, so I’m going to go as far down as I can to see how high overall Giants Draft Picks have performed at the MLB level, which is difficult to reach itself. I’ll start from the first overall pick and tell you some of the notables and progress all the way to the 30th pick. The Giants will be selecting 25th overall, then 64th overall on Day One of the MLB Draft, which you can see on MLB Network. Their coverage of the Draft will begin at 3PM PST.
1st overall pick — Never picked 1st overall
2nd — Will Clark (2nd overall to Reggie Jackson, 53.2 bWAR, 1985 Draft)
3rd — Matt Williams (3rd overall, 43.5, 1986)
4th — Jason Grilli (a bit down the list and traded with Nate Bump for Livan Hernandez, 3.0, 1997)
5th — Buster Posey (8th overall, 14.4, 2008)
6th — Johnnie LeMaster (last place of players that made the MLB, -6.8, 1973)
**The Giants signed a pretty good 6th overall pick once upon a time, he wore the #25 for them, you’ve probably heard of him?
7th — Calvin Murray (down the list, 1.9, 1992)
8th — No 8th pick made the Majors
9th — Alan Cockrell (0.0, 1984) had 8 AB in the bigs
10th — Tim Lincecum (8th overall, 22.8, 2006) and Madison Bumgarner (9.3, 2007) are the stars of the show.
11th — Steve Stanicek (-0.1, 1982) had 16 AB, but it wasn’t for the Giants since he was traded to Milwaukee for Rob DeWolf
12th — Never picked 12th overall
13th — Never picked 13th overall
14th — Al Gallagher (2.2, 1965 — the Giants’ first ever amateur draft pick!)
15th — Royce Clayton (5th overall, 16.4, 1988) and Scott Garrelts (9th, 8.8, 1979)
16th — Mike Remlinger (9.5, 1987), though he was traded for a pitching package of names with an old star to the Seattle Mariners in ’91
17th — Gary Matthews (3rd overall, 27.3, 1968)
18th — Dave Rader (3.5, 1967), and two other guys were just above 0.0.
19th — Rob Dressler (2.0, 1972), though he wasn’t with the professional club long
20th — No 20th pick made the majors, though 2012 pick Chris Stratton hopes to change that
21st — Brad Hennessey (2.3, 2001)
22nd — David Aardsma (1.7, 2003) whom is still active, and only pitched in 11 games for the Gigantes
23rd — Never picked 23rd overall
24th — Terry Mulholland (6th overall, 8.4, 1984), but fellow 24th overall pick Gary Brown hopes to do better
25th — Matt Cain (2nd overall, 31.5, 2002) and might get his spot taken by the AL Rookie of the Year some day
26th — Never picked 26th overall
27th — Never picked 27th overall
28th — Never picked 28th overall
29th — Ted Wood (near the bottom, -1.1, 1988) didn’t do so well, but hopefully Joe Panik (2011) and Wendell Fairley (2007) do better, though the public really never hears anything on Fairley from scouts
30th — You remember Noah Lowry, don’t you? (9.5, 2001)
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