Milwaukee Brewers

StaTuesday: History of Brewers first-round draft picks

Published Jun. 6, 2018 10:54 p.m. ET

Dave Heller

Major League Baseball's draft is unlike the other pro sports, beyond the fact it lasts 40 rounds.

When it comes to first-round picks, there's a lot of waiting around. Unlike the NFL and NBA, and sometimes the NHL, first-round picks don't emerge with the big club for some time, often taking years to reach the major leagues, if they do at all.

There is no instant impact. In fact, only one No. 1 overall pick has been inducted in the Hall of Fame, Ken Griffey Jr. (Chipper Jones, who goes in this summer, will join him soon). But that doesn’t mean there isn't any impact.

The MLB draft began in 1966, with the Milwaukee Brewers entering the league in 1969 (as the Seattle Pilots). In that time, the Brewers have had nine first-round picks (which they've signed -- there's another difference between baseball and other sports) -- post a career WAR of 20 or higher, with a 10th just coming up short.

However, 10 of the signed first-rounders posted a WAR of less than 1.0 and 24 of their signed first-round picks never reached the majors (or have yet to, although some are on the horizon).

First, here's a list of the signed first-rounders yet to play in the bigs, along with the year they were drafted (* - supplemental round or compensatory pick):

Rick O'Keefe (1975), Nick Hernandez (1978), Isaiah Clark (1984), Gordon Powell* (1989), Ty Hill (1991), Gabby Martinez* (1992), Ken Felder (1992), Joe Wagner* (1993), Chad Green (1996), J.M. Gold (1998), Mike Jones (2001), Evan Frederickson* (2008), Kyle Heckathorn* (2009), Kentrail Davis* (2009), Eric Arnett (2009), Victor Roache (2012), Clint Coulter (2012), Jake Gatewood* (2014), Kodi Medeiros (2014), Nathan Kirby* (2015), Trent Grisham (2015), Corey Ray (2016), Tristen Lutz* (2017) and Keston Hiura (2017).

Milwaukee failed to sign four of their first-round picks, three of whom have appeared in the major league: Bill Bordley (1976), Ken Henderson (1991), Alex Fernandez (1988) and Dylan Covey (2010).

When it comes to players who have signed and reached the majors, the Brewers (and we suspect it's a trend with most teams) have had far more success with hitters than pitchers.

Milwaukee had a lot of success with the No. 3 overall pick, nabbing both future Hall of Famers Robin Yount (1973) and Paul Molitor (1977) there. Both were selected as shortstops and among first-rounders who were drafted at that position, only Alex Rodriguez and Chipper Jones have higher career WARs.

Drafted as a third baseman, Ryan Braun has the seventh-highest WAR among players drafted at that position. Like Braun, not all of those above Braun in WAR stuck at third and some never played there. The six (in order of WAR): Manny Ramirez, Robin Ventura, Mark Teixeira, Evan Longoria, David Wright and Matt Williams.

Of course, Molitor appeared for teams other than the Brewers, as did other players, including guys like Gary Sheffield and Darrell Porter, both of whom were traded. With that being said, here's the list of Brewers signed first-round position players in order of career WAR (through June 4, for those players who are still active):

PLAYER	YEAR	WAR	G	AB	HR	BA	OPS
Robin Yount	1973	77.3	2856	11008	251	.285	.772
Paul Molitor	1977	75.7	2683	10835	234	.306	.817
Gary Sheffield	1986	60.5	2576	9217	509	.292	.907
Ryan Braun	2005	45.2	1505	5782	308	.300	.899
Darrell Porter	1970	40.9	1782	5539	188	.247	.763
B.J. Surhoff	1985	34.4	2313	8258	188	.282	.745
Prince Fielder	2002	23.6	1611	5821	319	.283	.887
Geoff Jenkins	1995	21.9	1349	4700	221	.275	.834
Gorman Thomas	1969	19.8	1436	4677	268	.225	.772
Brett Lawrie	2008	15.1	588	2217	71	.261	.734
Rickie Weeks	2003	11.8	1324	4417	161	.246	.764
Bill Spiers	1987	10.2	1324	4417	37	.271	.711
Dion James	1980	6.2	917	2708	32	.288	.755
Mitch Haniger	2012	5.3	188	689	33	.270	.831
Dan Thomas	1972	0.8	54	175	6	.274	.820
Dave Krynzel	2000	0.2	21	48	0	.188	.486
Todd Dunn	1993	0.0	50	128	3	.224	.598
Tommy Bianco	1971	-0.2	18	34	0	.176	.469
Antone Williamson	1994	-0.8	24	54	0	.204	.513
Matt LaPorta	2007	-1.0	291	967	31	.238	.694
Dale Sveum	1982	-2.4	862	2526	69	.236	.676

Pitching, not surprisingly, can be harder to figure out in the draft. Milwaukee did get a gem in Ben Sheets, who is 45th in WAR among all the pitchers selected in the first round since 1966. (Fernandez, who Milwaukee selected at No. 24 in 1988 but didn't sign and was drafted two years later at No. 4 by the White Sox, is one of them at 28.6.)

Dan Plesac has the ninth-most saves among first-round picks, but among those who turned out to be relievers in the majors, he has the third-highest WAR behind only Billy Wagner (27.7) and Roberto Hernandez (18.5).

PITCHER	YEAR	WAR	G	W	L	SV	ERA	WHIP
Ben Sheets	1999	23.3	250	94	96	0	3.78	1.22
Dan Plesac	1983	17.0	1064	65	71	158	3.64	1.29
Cal Eldred	1989	15.9	341	86	74	9	4.42	1.40
Jake Odorizzi	2008	8.7	141	43	40	1	3.85	1.23
Jeremy Jeffress	2006	6.1	300	22	6	31	3.07	1.37
Jeff D'Amico	1993	5.6	139	45	52	0	4.61	1.34
Kelly Wunsch	1993	3.1	257	11	6	1	3.76	1.32
Taylor Jungmann	2011	1.1	30	9	13	0	4.54	1.38
Mark Rogers	2004	1.1	11	3	1	0	3.49	1.12
Kyle Peterson	1997	0.3	20	5	9	0	4.71	1.47
Butch Edge	1974	0.1	9	3	4	0	5.23	1.63
Jed Bradley	2011	0.0	6	1	1	0	5.14	1.86