At least a year ago, maybe longer, I had an idea: wouldn’t it be cool to go through every draft pick in major league history, pick the best player for each one, and create sort of an Ultimate Draft? (NFL.com did something like this a couple years ago, so maybe that’s where I got the idea from, but they only did the first round. I can’t find anyplace that’s done it for baseball.)
I tried it last offseason, but determining the best player at each position could be an arduous task. Alex Rodriguez or Ken Griffey Jr. at number one? Paul Molitor or Robin Yount at number three? Dwight Gooden or Mark Teixeira at number five? And so on and so forth.
Then Baseball-Reference, my source for all this information in the first place (as well as about 95% of my baseball information over the past decade), came through in the clutch, adding Wins Above Replacement (WAR) to each player’s stat line. I don’t know if WAR is a perfect measure of a player’s value. What I do know is that it is highly regarded by people who actually understand where these numbers come from, and so gave me a number that I could use to rank the players at each draft position and easily select the number one guy.
So that’s what I did.
There are over 1,200 players listed here, so I broke this up into rounds of fifty picks each. We’ll run one round each day.
All-Time Draft: Picks 201-250
Total WAR: 791.1 (15.8 per player)
High WAR: Andre Dawson (57.0)
Low WAR: Rich Hill (-0.4)
Hall of Famers (2): Rich Gossage (204), Andre Dawson (250)
Most Valuable Players: Andre Dawson (1987)
Cy Youngs: Brandon Webb (2006)
Rookies of the Year: Dontrelle Willis (2003); Steve Sax (1982); Mark Fidrych (1976); Al Bumbry (1973); Andre Dawson (1977)
201 – Doug Fister, RHP, Seattle Mariners (2006)
202 – Gary Gentry, RHP, Houston Astros (1965)
203 – Curt Leskanic, RHP, Cleveland Indians (1989)
204 – Rich Gossage, RHP, Chicago White Sox (1970)
205 – Jason Schmidt, RHP, Atlanta Braves (1991)
206 – Brad Radke, RHP, Minnesota Twins (1991)
207 – Eric Soderholm, INF, Kansas City Athletics (1967)
208 – Tom Pagnozzi***, C, St. Louis Cardinals (1983)
209 – Rich Hill*, LHP, Anaheim Angels (2001)
210 – Matt Holliday, 3B, Colorado Rockies (1998)
211 – John Farrell, RHP, Oakland Athletics (1980)
212 – Jeff Montgomery, RHP, Cincinnati Reds (1983)
213 – Mike Proly, RHP, St. Louis Cardinals (1972)
214 – Derek Lowe, RHP, Seattle Mariners (1991)
215 – Terry Steinbach, 3B, Oakland Athletics (1983)
216 – David Ross, C, Los Angeles Dodgers (1998)
217 – A.J. Burnett, RHP, New York Mets (1995)
218 – Mark McLemore, SS, California Angels (1982)
219 – Glenallen Hill*, OF, Toronto Blue Jays (1983)
220 – Israel Sanchez, LHP, Kansas City Royals (1982)
221 – Dan Johnson, 1B, Oakland Athletics (2001)
222 – Coco Crisp, 2B, St. Louis Cardinals (1999)
223 – Dontrelle Willis, LHP, Chicago Cubs (2000)
224 – Tony Fossas, LHP, Minnesota Twins (1978)
225 – Charlie Leibrandt, LHP, Cincinnati Reds (1978
226 – Greg Harris, RHP, California Angels (1974)
227 – Mike Lamb, C, Texas Rangers (1997)
228 – Billy Sample, 3B, Texas Rangers (1976)
229 – Steve Sax, SS, Los Angeles Dodgers (1978)
230 – Jay Buhner, OF, Atlanta Braves (1983)
231 – Dave Stapleton, 2B, Boston Red Sox (1975)
232 – Mark Fidrych, RHP, Detroit Tigers (1974)
233 – Fred McGriff, 1B, New York Yankees (1981)
234 – Marc Hill***, C, St. Louis Cardinals (1970)
235 – Ron Schueler*, RHP, Pittsburgh Pirates (1966)
236 – Chris Speier, SS, Washington Senators (1968)
237 – Milt May, SS, Pittsburgh Pirates (1968)
238 – Al Bumbry, OF, Baltimore Orioles (1968)
239 – Billy Grabarkewitz, 3B, Los Angeles Dodgers (1966)
240 – Bob Stoddard, RHP, Seattle Mariners (1978)
241 – Justin Duchscherer***, RHP, Boston Red Sox (1996)
242 – Adam Lind, 1B, Minnesota Twins (2002)
243 – Kevin Youkilis***, 3B, Boston Red Sox (2001)
244 – Nick Masset, RHP, Texas Rangers (2000)
245 – Jim McAndrew*, RHP, New York Mets (1965)
246 – Joe Inglett***, OF, Cleveland Indians (2000)
247 – Pete Incaviglia, 3B, San Francisco Giants (1982)
248 – Ben Oglivie, INF, Boston Red Sox (1968)
249 – Brandon Webb, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks (2000)
250 – Andre Dawson, OF, Montreal Expos (1975)
Active Players Who Are Close To The Best WAR (Denoted By Single Asterisk)
209 – Jon Niese (1.1)
219 – John Axford (4.8)
235 – Jemile Weeks (1.6)
245 – Clayton Richard (2.5)
Player Listed Was Second-Highest; First Highest Already Appeared (Denoted By Triple Asterisk)
208 – Jim Barr
234 – Kevin Tapani
241 – Jon Lieber
243 – Jimmy Key
246 – Cliff Lee
