The 1999 Draft kind of stunk

by Oriole on Jun 27, 2009 3:06 PM EDT Comment 16 comments

Not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but I was intending to do a post on my blog today about the O's draft picks of the last decade. Once I got to the carnage that was the O's 1999 Draft, that changed. I did a pretty detailed look at the 4...yes, that's correct FOUR....first round draft picks that the Baltimore selected in the 1999 Draft.

Thought it might be worthy of a share

Here's the link

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1999 Draft

Don’t forget the Orioles got Brian Roberts and Erik Bedard in that draft, so it was probably one of the BETTER drafts of the 90s for the O’s.

The 2000 draft was much, much worse. Only Fahey, Birkins, and Jeff Salazar made the majors.

by dkdc on Jun 27, 2009 4:02 PM EDT reply actions

Actually

Neither Fahey nor Salazar actually signed in 2000, so Kurt Birkins was the only member of that draft class to make the majors.

by dkdc on Jun 27, 2009 4:04 PM EDT up reply actions

+1

Any draft that nets two above average players is a good draft. It doesn’t matter if they were your first or 50th round pick, it counts. Especially because of how better players fall due to bonus demands sometimes.

Also to defend Joe Jordan, our current scouting director, since he’s been here our 1st round picks have been good (other than Rowell).

"I have seen the future and his name is Matt Wieters." Keith Law

by Reddrummer9187 on Jun 27, 2009 6:02 PM EDT up reply actions

shoot. I made reference about Bedard, but I overlooked Roberts.

Thanks. I’ll have to edit that.

http://www.mvn.com/oriolecentral

by Oriole on Jun 27, 2009 4:05 PM EDT reply actions

fixed it

http://www.mvn.com/oriolecentral

by Oriole on Jun 27, 2009 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions

The Bigbie article -

the steroids one obliquely mentioned in the post – was an interesting read. For some reason, I didn’t know Bigbie was the catalyst that ignited the steroids shitstorm. But now I do.

by PhilR8 on Jun 27, 2009 4:10 PM EDT reply actions

Getting Bedard and Roberts is nice, but...

We have to remember that we had SEVEN of the top 50 picks overall that year. And we turned that into…Brian Roberts. No one else sniffed the bigs. That’s what makes it so horrible.

by U2boy417 on Jun 28, 2009 1:24 AM EDT reply actions

yea but

Our first pick was #13, and between picks 13 and 51 the only good players were Alex Rios and Brian Roberts. Although Crawford, Lackey, Brandon Phillips and Ryan Ludwick went between 52-84. 1999 just was not a strong draft class for anybody really.

I would rather bash 2002 or 2004 if we are bashing drafts. 2002 was a year with a lot of talent and we could have done better than to take Loewen and rush him. Not to mention John Maine was the only decent player to come from our draft that year. Also 2004 for the rubbish that was the Townsend ordeal and then the fact that Jeff Fiorentino was our best pick. Those years overshadow 1999 in my mind.

"I have seen the future and his name is Matt Wieters." Keith Law

by Reddrummer9187 on Jun 28, 2009 2:43 AM EDT up reply actions

Fair enough

Obviously the Loewen pick was awful.

Ahh, how fun it is to realize just how much this team was run into the ground for a while. Is it baseball reference that allows you to look at all your team’s recent draft picks and see whether they made the majors? I know I saw that somewhere. I believe Fahey was our highest pick to make the majors from his year. Shudder.

by U2boy417 on Jun 29, 2009 2:12 AM EDT up reply actions

Don't forget that

Bedard landed us Jones, Sherril, and Tillman.

by Afghanistan Steve on Jun 29, 2009 5:36 AM EDT up reply actions

We had no choice but to rush Loewen because he wouldn’t have signed without a major league contract. If the Orioles had not signed him, message boards would have frothed over with indignation.

Besides, Loewen seemed to be turning a corner when he got hurt for good.

As for 1999, Paradis actually FELL to us according to some mock drafts, because people thought the Pirates were going to take him. Also Stahl was a consensus first round pick by everyone. Injuries did him in. The strange picks were Cenate and Rice, although Cenate was done in by injuries too.

Part of the problem was DeMacio. He was the only one who scouted Cenate, and he did not do much discussion with scouts for picks 1-5, according to subsequent stories. He only took scout input starting with #6.

Jordan takes a lot of input for all the picks. He also really seems to have a good strategy every year. One aspect is taking players that have fallen due to injury concerns. Bundy last year, Berry and Cowan this year.

by Ampontan on Jun 28, 2009 2:51 AM EDT reply actions

i dunno dude...

loewen NEVER seemed to be turning a corner.

"If they pitch to you, make them pay."

--Diamond Dave to the Phenom

by j.q. higgins on Jun 28, 2009 9:41 AM EDT up reply actions

yea

I dont remember him turning any corner, but that may just be because I dislike him (btw, I was a big Loewen supporter til he decided to peace and go to Toronto. I ALWAYS thought he’d turn the corner). Regardless, it would have been alot better to have had him not sign and get a pick the following year. Hignsight and all, ya know…

"I’m sure glad he didn’t try to bunt." - DD on Melmo's game winning double, 6/17

by daveh873 on Jun 28, 2009 7:29 PM EDT up reply actions

It would have been better to have never drafted him

by U2boy417 on Jun 29, 2009 2:09 AM EDT up reply actions

No... it would have been better to have not selected him at all and taken ...

Zack Greinke
Cole Hamels
Jon Lestor

just to name a few of the pitchers selected after him that are playing major league ball.

hakkaa päälle !

by timg56 on Jun 30, 2009 12:05 PM EDT up reply actions

I thought he'd turned a corner

I thought he turned a corner in 2006…he was able to double his K/9 rate while halving his BB/9. He did himself no favors by signing that stupid Major League contract…and of course injuries happen. Loewen was very heavily touted so it’s hard to fault the Orioles for that pick. Speaking of which, at #3 in that draft, the Reds grabbed the immortal Christopher Gruler, who never even made it to A+ ball.

Librarians are hiding something

by dfa on Jun 29, 2009 11:49 PM EDT up reply actions