Over 56% of the draftees in the first 5 rounds were pitchers. The yanks and sox even advertise their lust for pitchers in the draft on their websites. Is this gonna turn the tide on a hitting-based MLB?
"I am free of ALL prejudices, I hate everyone equally." -WC Fields
Pitchers always seem to be drafted in bunches in the MLB draft, so I went and looked up past drafts and here is what I came up with.
2004 - 53% were pitchers (I know you said 56%, I counted twice)
2003 - 46%
2002 - 51%
2001 - 53%
2000 - 57%
1995 - 50%
1990 - 45%
1985 - 47%
1980 - 46%
For most of the last 10 years, pitchers have been going at around 52%, so 2004 was a little high but I think its a bit early to signify the start of a big change. If the trend continues upward then we could look back and say that this was the begining.
From my data it looks like a change was made in the early 90's toward more pitchers being drafted.
I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. -Crash Davis
Stewie : [watching a baseball game] Why does that man drop his club before he runs? I would bring it with me!
She said in the first 5 rounds 56% were pitchers. I'm not even sure if that's an anomaly, or if it's normal for hitters to be drafted near the end of the draft But either way, I don't see much of a change. Except a lot fo the focus seemed to be on Jered Weaver and those Rice guys. Maybe that's why we get the feeling that it's pitcher-based. But I'm sure the Rickie Weeks/BJ Upton/Delmon Young/Prince Fielder cal;ibre hitters will appear within a year.
"Jack, will you call me, if you're able?"
"I've got your phone number written, in the back of my Bible."
Andy1234 wrote:All my percentages were for the first 5 rounds of the draft, I wasn't about to look at 50 rounds for each year.
Oh I thought you got the stats from somewhere. Geez, that's still a lot of work to do. And I still think that since the draft focused on Weaver/Rice pitchers people think it's pitcher based. But probably nothing out of the ordinary.
"Jack, will you call me, if you're able?"
"I've got your phone number written, in the back of my Bible."
I guess I was looking at this from a different angle when presented. When Chick brought it up I thought about drafting from a fantasy baseball perspective.
I think you would have a better chance of a position player panning out in a draft of young players than a pitcher. In "Moneyball" Beene never drafted High school phenoms because statistically they just didn't payoff as often as college pitchers.
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by baseballchick123 » Sun Jun 13, 2004 3:00 pm 
