Crack of the Bat

By David Rawnsley

 

The Draft and Follow Rule

An Obituary 

 

The new Basic Agreement between the Player’s Union and MLB has eliminated the draft and follow process by establishing a hard August 15^th deadline for players to sign or relinquish their draft rights.

 

The rule change ends a 20 year run for the draft and follows, an era filled with plenty of great players and even more controversy and debate about the process, which enabled teams to retain the signing rights to drafted players who went to junior colleges until a week before the draft.

 

The rule change is personal for me in many ways, as I was in charge of the Houston Astros draft and follow program for eight years, a period in which the Astros were consistently criticized for what was perceived as our abuse of the program.  It was a standard agenda item at the annual Scouting Director’s meetings, how to do away with the draft and follow rules.  Every year, Dan O’Brien, the Astros Scouting Director, and I, along with a few like minded head scouts, would lobby and explain and coax enough that the rules would survive another year.

 

For the teams that used the process, the benefits were obvious.  You were able to keep more players under your control and you were able to watch and evaluate them (thus the original phrase for the process “Draft, Follow and Evaluate” or DFE) before you made them a concrete contract offer.  It was like buying a year at no cost to evaluate a player. 

 

But many teams saw it as a corruption of the draft, that it was unfair to the players who were drafted and not given a real chance to sign and unfair to the area scouts, who were burdened with more work.  The Commissioner’s Office thought the process was inflationary, since it often resulted in 37^th round draft picks getting upper round bonus amounts.  What they didn’t seem to realize was that paying a 37^th round draft pick who could play $150,000 was infinitely better than paying a couple of players $50,000 who couldn’t play.

 

 

The First “Big” Draft and Follow:  RHP Darryl Kile

 

Up to 1986 there were “secondary” drafts in June after the regular Rule 4 draft and in January that dealt primarily with junior college players.  In 1986 the rules were changed to eliminate those cumbersome drafts but to allow teams to retain the signing rights to JC players for 51 weeks following the June Draft.

 

A group of Astros California scouts, including Reggie Waller, Paul Weaver, Ross Sapp and Doug Deutsch, quickly realized what the rules meant and aggressively promoted the process.  In the 1987, Sapp selected a 6-5 freshman first baseman/right handed pitcher from Grossmont JC named Darryl Kile in the 30^th round, knowing that he was going to become a primary pitcher the next spring. 

 

By next spring Kile was throwing in the mid-90’s with a killer breaking ball and was paid a 6-figure signing bonus (then first round) money to sign.  C Rick Wilkins (Cubs) was another JC player who got first round bonus money after being drafted out of junior college (23^rd round).  That quickly got everyone’s attention on how the draft and follow process could be used.

 

 

The Houston Astros and New York Yankees

 

Many teams were able to use the Draft and Follow process to their advantage over the years to sign future Major League players.  Two teams stand out, though, the Astros and the Yankees.

 

Kile doesn’t have the distinction of being the most successful DFE that the Astros signed.  That probably belongs to Roy Oswalt, a 23^rd round pick in 1996 as a JC freshman at Holmes JC (Mississippi) who received first round money before the 1997 draft to sign.  Oswalt, who was scouted by James Farrar, might of weighed 150 lbs with his cleats on and a couple of bats in his hands as an 18 year old throwing in the upper 80’s in May, 1996.  Over the next year he got stronger and was throwing 94-96 mph pretty consistently when he signed.

 

Julio Lugo was a 43rd round pick as a freshman centerfielder at Connors State JC in 1994.  Astros scout Chuck Edmondson knew that Lugo was going to play his more natural position, shortstop, as a sophomore.  When I went and saw Lugo play a doubleheader during April of 1995, I was shocked at his ability.  I actually left the second game before it was over to find a phone (pre-cell phone days) to tell Edmondson and O’Brien “We Have to sign this kid, he’s a top 5 round talent.”

 

Maybe my personal favorite, though, was an obscure LHP from rural Tennessee named Danny Young.  Being a trivia type, I knew that the highest player to be drafted and eventually play in the big leagues had been former KC Royals outfielder Al Cowens (not Mike Piazza, as many think), who was a 75^th round draft pick in 1969. 

 

My goal was to draft a player in a higher round that Cowens who would eventually play in the big leagues.  Because of a flaw in the Major League Baseball computer program that assigned numbers to draft eligible players, I was able to determine for a select group of players each year if any other team had turned them in for selection.  If no one else had turned a player in, I could pick him after the 75^th round without potentially losing him, then see if things turned out a year later.

 

We drafted Young in the 83^rd round in 1990 at the recommendation of scout Jug Deford and followed him at Aquinas JC (Tennessee).  He was throwing in the upper 80’s as a 6-4, 200 lb southpaw by the next draft and was very signable, so we took an inexpensive flier on him.  When Young pitched in 4 games in 2000 with the Chicago Cubs (allowing 7 runs in 3 innings for a career 21.00 ERA), he became the highest drafted player ever to play in a Major League game.

 

Unfortunately (for me, at least), that record was short lived, as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays called up RHP Travis Phelps, an 89^th round draft choice out of Crowder CC (Missouri) at the beginning of the 2001 season.  3B Scott Seabol, an 88^th round pick by the Yankees out of West Virginia U., also debuted in 2001, but he wasn’t a draft and follow selection.

 

 

You only need to know the names of two players who the Yankees signed as draft and follow players, although they signed many, to know the impact on that franchise:  LHP Andy Pettite and C Jorge Posada.

 

Pettite was a well known high school prospect in the Houston area in 1990.  However, he also weighed somewhere well above 250 lbs and was basically just a fat young lefty with a good arm.  The Yankees drafted him in the 22^nd round and Pettite went to JC powerhouse San Jacinto JC for a year, where he lost significant weight and proved to the Yankees he was serious about baseball.  Since then Pettite has won 186 regular season games and 14 post season games, plus earned in excess of $75M in salary.  Pretty good 22^nd round draft pick.

 

I know less about Posada’s draft and follow background but do know that he was a 24^th round pick out of Puerto Rico by the Yankees in 1990 (2 picks after Pettite…that was one heck of a draft) and signed after a year at Calhoun CC (Alabama).  In fact, the Yankees drafted and signed six (6!!) players in rounds 20-28 in that draft who went on to play in the Major Leagues; Pettite, Posada, 2B Kevin Jordan, OF Shane Spencer, OF Tom Wilson and LHP Matt Dunbar.  That has to be some kind of record.

 

 

Goodbye Draft and Follow.  I’ll Miss You!

 

 

This column represents the thoughts and opinions of the author and are not necessarily those of Perfect Game.