{"id":5344,"date":"2012-12-28T10:02:01","date_gmt":"2012-12-28T15:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=5344"},"modified":"2013-10-06T10:33:59","modified_gmt":"2013-10-06T14:33:59","slug":"nats-franchise-draft-history-biggest-best-worst-draft-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=5344","title":{"rendered":"Nats Franchise Draft history; biggest, best, worst Draft Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Face of the Franchise Zimmerman easily represents the best player drafted in the Washington era (by WAR). Photo team official<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the Third in a long-delayed series of “Best of” posts, breaking down the transactions of both the club’s General Managers. \u00a0Previously:<\/p>\n

1. Biggest\/Best\/Worst Trades<\/a> in Nats History (March 2012)<\/p>\n

2. Biggest\/Best\/Worst Free Agent signings<\/a> in Nats History (November 2012).<\/p>\n

Here’s Part 3: looking at the Biggest, Best and Worst Draft picks<\/strong> the team has made since arriving here in Washington.<\/p>\n

Ground rules for this article:<\/p>\n

1. Unlike the trades and free agent posts, assiging “credit” or “blame” for draft picks on the General Manager is not entirely straightforward. \u00a0Baseball teams rely heavily on Scouting Directors and their staffs when it comes to the draft, especially once you get past the first few rounds. \u00a0So, perhaps for the purposes of this article it is better to talk about the “Reign of Jim Bowden<\/strong>” and the “Reign of Mike Rizzo<\/strong>” instead of insinuating that every draft decision was made by the GM during these times. \u00a0Much like the President of the US gets credit\/blame when \u00a0the US economy as a whole rises or falls (whether or not you’d like to argue that a president’s decisions can influence a multi-trillion dollar economy), so does the GM get the credit\/blame for his staff’s draft picks. \u00a0Most baseball pundits that I’ve read generally say that the GM\/Team Ownership is always directly involved in making any 1st round and supplemental first round picks (because of the money), and will be involved if over-slot bonuses come up in later rounds, but that by the 5th round or so the entire draft is being conducted without the GM’s involvement. \u00a0Which leads us to point #2…<\/p>\n

2. Related to #1; Mike Rizzo, whom Bowden hired in July of 2006, may not have been the Scouting Director but he certainly had a say in the drafts (coming from a scouting background in Arizona). \u00a0 I’ll list scouting directors tenure here as well, related to #1 and #2. \u00a0But, it probably isn’t going to be entirely fair to the GM to say that such-and-such a pick was “good” or “bad” if it was actually being done by his staff.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0It is entirely “hindsight is 20\/20” in nature. \u00a0But, it is what it is. \u00a0If you draft a 1st rounder who flames out in low-A, he’s a failure. \u00a0If you draft a major leaguer in the 21st round, he’s a fantastic success. \u00a0Mostly here in judging the “best draft picks” I’m looking for value in later rounds. \u00a0As it turns out judging “worst” draft picks mostly will be around first round busts.<\/p>\n

Just for review, here’s the tenure period of both GMs<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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