By losing nine of their last 10 games in 2008, the Washington Nationals won a spirited battle
for the No. 1 pick in the 2009 draft—effectively the Stephen Strasburg Sweepstakes.
The Nationals finished the 2008 season with a 59-102 (.366) record, the worst record in
the big leagues. They edged out the Seattle Mariners, who scored a rare final
weekend
sweep of the Oakland A’s, to post a 61-101 (.377) mark. Five wins in their final nine games
also took the San Diego Padres (63-99, .389) out of the running—a
bittersweet development
for the Padres as Strasburg is a San Diego State product.
The 2009 draft is scheduled for June 9-10, which makes it the latest start date
in the event’s 44-year history. Twice before, in 1976 and 1981, the draft has ended
on June 10, but in both those years it was a three-day affair that began on June
8.
The later dates next year were set, in part, to accommodate both teams and players.
They will enable clubs to scout NCAA super-regional tournaments in their entirety
for the first time in years, and a Tuesday/Wednesday selection process will avoid
any possibility of college players potentially being drafted on the same day they
might be playing. The 2009 draft will be held in the week before the College World
Series is scheduled to begin.
The second and final day of this year’s draft coincided with the opening day of
the super-regionals and caused a lot of unwanted anguish on the part of numerous
draft-eligible college players.
Washington will have the No. 1 pick in the draft for the first-time in its brief
history, although the old Washington Senators picked first overall in 1969 (Jeff
Burroughs). Between them, the Mariners (4) and Padres (5) have had the top pick
nine times.
The first selection goes to the team with the poorest overall record
the previous season, and that may take on extra importance in 2009 as Strasburg is a heavy favorite to be the top pick next
June. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound righthander went 8-3, 1.57 with 133 strikeouts and
only 16 walks in 97 innings as a sophomore at San Diego State, starred this summer
for Team USA’s undefeated college national team and capped his summer season by
being the only college player selected to play for the bronze-medal
winning U.S. team in the Beijing Olympics.
The Nationals will also have the distinction of having two selections in the first
10 picks for the first time in draft history. The team’s inability to sign its first-round
pick in June, Missouri righthander Aaron Crow, has provided the Nationals with the
corresponding selection (plus one) in the 2009 draft. Crow was the ninth overall
pick, so the Nationals will be awarded the 10th overall selection in addition to
having the first pick.
The Yankees will also gain an extra first-round pick (29th overall) because of their
inability to sign their first-rounder, California high school righthander Gerrit
Cole, and Seattle will also earn an extra first-round choice if it is unable to
agree to terms with its first-rounder, Georgia righthander Josh Fields. The window
remains open for the Mariners to still sign Fields, however, as he was a college
senior.
Crow not only didn’t sign with the Nationals, but also elected to forgo his final
year of college eligibility at Missouri by signing with the Fort Worth Cats of the
independent American Association, while the unsigned Cole is a freshman at UCLA.
Crow will be eligible again in 2009, but Cole won’t be again until 2011.
The Pittsburgh Pirates will pick fourth overall in 2009, giving them the dubious
distinction of picking in the top four for the fourth year in a row. In fact, they
will pick fourth for the third time in the last four years—the exception being this year when the Pirates picked second.
The conclusion of the 2008 major league season on Sept. 28 essentially set the order
of rotation for the 2009 draft—at least through the first eight picks. The ninth
through 12th picks remained unresolved, pending resolution of the American League Central makeup
game between the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers a day later.
The Tigers
entered the extra day with the 10th poorest record overall, but ended
up securing the ninth
pick with a loss to the White Sox.
The Tigers and Colorado both had 74-88 records, but the Tigers earned the tie-breaker and will pick ninth as they had the earlier selection
between the two teams in this year’s draft. The Nationals have the 10th pick as a result of not signing Crow,
while the Rockies will pick 11th.
In all, there will be 32 or 33 first-round picks in 2009—pending resolution of Seattle’s
ability to sign Fields. There will also be extra selections granted to the Pirates
(Tanner Scheppers) and Yankees (Scott Bittle) in the second round, and to Houston
(Chase Davidson) in the third round.
Like Crow, Scheppers decided against returning to college (Fresno State) for his
senior year and will likely sign with an independent team before next year’s draft,
while Bittle chose to return to Ole Miss for his senior year. Questions surrounding
the health of both pitchers’ arms caused them to go unsigned, while Davidson ended
up in college at Georgia.
Righthander Zach Cone, a second third-rounder currently attending college at Georgia,
also went unsigned but there will be no compensation to the Los Angeles Angels because
a team doesn’t receive compensation if it fails to sign essentially the same pick
two years in a row. The Angels received Cone as compensation for not signing third-rounder
Matt Harvey in 2007 draft.
For a complete team-by-team list of 2008 player signings and the schools the unsigned
draft picks are attending, please click here.
A list of the raw order of selection in the 2009 follows, along with the team’s
2008 draft position (in parentheses) and winning percentage. The order is subject
to change this offseason as teams sign ranked free agents—provided salary arbitration
is offered to departing players by their former clubs.
|
| 1. |
Washington (9) |
.366 |
| 2. |
Seattle (20) |
.377 |
| 3. |
San Diego (23) |
.389 |
| 4. |
Pittsburgh (2) |
.414 |
| 5. |
Baltimore (4) |
.422 |
| 6. |
*San Francisco (5) |
.444 |
| 7. |
*Atlanta (18) |
.444 |
| 8. |
*Cincinnati (7) |
.457 |
| 9. |
*Detroit (21) |
.457 |
| 10. |
# Washington |
| 11. |
*Colorado (25) |
.457 |
| 12. |
Kansas City (3) |
.463 |
| 13. |
Oakland (12) |
.466 |
| 14. |
Texas (11) |
.488 |
| 15. |
Cleveland (29) |
.500 |
| 16. |
Arizona (26) |
.506 |
| 17. |
Los Angeles-NL (15) |
.519 |
| 18. |
Florida (6) |
.522 |
| 19. |
*St. Louis (13) |
.531 |
| 20. |
*Toronto (17) |
.531 |
| 21. |
& Seattle |
| 22. |
Houston (10) |
.534 |
| 23. |
Minnesota (14) |
.540 |
| 24. |
Chicago-AL (8) |
.546 |
| 25. |
*New York-NL (22) |
.549 |
| 26. |
*New York-AL (28) |
.549 |
| 27. |
Milwaukee (16) |
.556 |
| 28. |
Philadelphia (24) |
.568 |
| 29. |
@ New York-AL |
| 30. |
Boston (30) |
.586 |
| 31. |
Tampa Bay (1) |
.599 |
| 32. |
Chicago-NL (19) |
.602 |
| 33. |
Los Angeles-AL (27) |
.617 |
| |
*In case of teams with identical records, priority given to team that had the earlier draft position in 2007.
# Compensation for failure to sign 2008 first-rounder Aaron Crow
& Compensation (provisional) for failure to sign 2008 first-rounder Josh Fields
@ Compensation for failure to sign 2008 first-rounder Gerrit Cole
|
RELATED:
Crack of the Bat: Raw Draft Order Set
by Patrick Ebert Posted: 10/2/2008 |
|