To call the Major League Baseball draft a crapshoot is an understatement. Teams do tons of scouting, sending their scouts all over the country to look for talent that can be projected to the big leagues. Baseball is the only major sport with four levels of minor leagues, and that doesn’t even include instructional leagues at teams’ Spring Training complexes. The odds of making it to the Major Leagues AND having an impact are much, much smaller in baseball than in any other sport.
Luckily, instead of doing all of the work myself, I can poach a tremendous write-up on the 2002-06 drafts from Bless You Boys, the SB Nation blog of the hated Detroit Tigers. Rather than regurgitate the entire piece, which is great and I recommend that you read, I will highlight some of the most pertinent stats:
Like most Indians fans, I have spent the majority of this season being frustrated with Asdrubal Cabrera. The subject of plenty of trade talks this past offseason, Cabrera is having one of the worst seasons of his career at the most inopportune time. Not only has his performance negatively affected an Indians team that is in contention for a playoff spot, but it would seem to have lowered his trade value.
Sorry for the run of inactivity lately, I know you missed the rundown in your mornings. But my mornings have been starting pretty early, which never really jive well when you are dealing with a team playing on the west coast. Hard to write when you sleep, eh?
Who would have thought it is Ubaldo Jimenez that was claiming a spot in the rotation and showing he is worth keeping in that spot and Kazmir showing some vulnerability?