I am the vessel. The draft is God's. And God is the thirsty one.
—Dag "Atlee" Hammarskjöld

I am come, young ladies, in a very moralizing strain, to observe that our pleasures of this world are always to be for, and that we often purchase them at a great disadvantage, giving readi-monied actual happiness for a draft on the future, that may not be honoured.
—Jane Austen "Kearns"

What was the best draft in baseball history? What was the worst?

What team drafted the most talent in one draft class? The least? Has any team ever had a draft so bad that none of the players drafted ever contributed at the major-league level?

After sifting through the data for developing talent at an organizational level, it occurred to me that the statistics that Studes and I developed could be used to evaluate individual drafts.

So which draft class had the most talent ever? Let's ask Mr. Owl…

Based on Win Shares Above Baseline (WSAB), here are the top ten:

What made 1985 so special besides Foreigner's classic "I Want To Know What Love Is" and, of course, the nonpareil Starship rendition of "We Built This City"? Here are the top players drafted that year:

There are maybe a half dozen Hall of Famers in that group plus a good many with productive careers as useful regulars and or long-time role players. And of course, it had the best player from the amateur draft era in Barry Bonds.

The next best draft was 1981:

There are a lot of good players in their, possibly more depth than in 1985, but only one surefire HoFer (Gwynn) and one borderline one, at least in the future voters' minds (McGriff).

The next best draft was 1989:

A lot of the players are still active in this group so their value could rise. Bagwell and Thomas are probable HoFers with a handful of potentials.

Next is 1968, the year of Dodger infielders and Phillies outfielders:

No probable HoFers in this group but a lot of very talented players. And we'll revisit the Dodgers angle in a minute.

Rounding out the top five is 1978:

Two HoF middle infielders (Ripken and Sandberg) and a bunch of useful players. Not bad at all.

OK, so which were the worst drafts? This gets complicated. First, because more recent drafts are for players whose careers are, in most cases, nowhere near completion. The second complication is that Retrosheet has draft data only for players active through 2002.

Given this I am giving any draft since 1994 a Mulligan. Here are the worst ten drafts outside that period:

1980 was the worst draft ever? I wonder who the number one pick was, perhaps the most disappointing player of the draft era:

I remember when Strawberry was signed. It was before the draft was front page news even in the sports section, but Darryl was so highly touted that the draft was pretty big news.

You know, the list of players does not look that bad. Strawberry and Davis had some great years and a number of the others were pretty good, but there really isn't much of an All-Star team that could be put together here.

The next worst was 1993, which might be unfair. It just missed our arbitrary cutoff, but we have to have some sort of cutoff, so…

I would say that the general caliber of player is higher here than in 1980. This class should be better served when all is said and done. Still, A-Rod should be a HoFer when he retires and Rolen and Wagner may get there.

Next is 1992, which again contains a good number of active players:

Jeter is probably the player with the best shot at the Hall here.

Next is 1975:

Dawson and Smith are still on the active BBWAA ballot for the Hall, and I would have to think that Whitaker will get some strong consideration from the Veterans. However, it's not inconceivable that no one from this class will get into Cooperstown, not even Tim Stoddard.

Rounding out the top five worst drafts is 1966, the second year of the draft:

Jackson was the plumb here. There's no one else who would even be considered strong Hall candidates.

Now, let's look at the best individual drafts per team. Here are the top fifteen, what that heck:

Wow, the Dodgers really kicked that draft in 1968. We saw how well the Dodgers did in 1968 earlier, but they really blow away everyone else. Here is their entire Dodger draft class:

That may be as good as a few of the poorer drafts for all teams combined above. It seems incredible that they garnered three-quarters of their great infield in well fell swoop, but there it is. Plus Buckner who was a pretty good first baseman (and outfielder) as well as a couple of starting pitchers, a catcher, and a couple of bench guys.

The 1985 Pirates are number two on the list. I wonder why…

Player	Career WS	WSAB Career
Barry Bonds	664	474
Bill Sampen	17	3
Tommy Gregg	13	0
Brett Gideon	2	0

Yep, Bonds and a few stiffs.

Numero tres: The 1976 Red Sox draft

One Hall of Famer (Boggs) and basically most of the early Eighties Sox plus Chico Walker…priceless.

Number four is also from 1976, the Tigers draft class:

Trammell and Morris are still both on the BBWAA Hall ballot. And most of the rest were part of the Tigers' core in the early Eighties.

Number five was the Red Sox again, in 1983:

They got arguably the best pitcher of his era and very good center fielder/DH in Burks, but not much else.

I'm throwing in the 1981 Padres since they were one point out of fifth and since I like their group:

One Hall of Famer, two pretty good regulars, and a couple of average pitchers. Not quite the Dodgers in 1968 but I like it.

Now for the worst drafts…This also gets complicated. There are sixteen teams that had zero Win Shares in total for the players that reached the majors. That's pretty bad, but there were four teams that didn't even have one player drafted reach the majors at all (prior to 1998).I'd say that they qualify for the worst. They are:

Other entries in the Trade Series:

Mike: I'll Take Manhattan: Baseball's Most Lopsided Trades: Parts I, I (revised), II

A Quick One (Happy Mike)

Lee Even Stevens: Parts I, II—The Sexy Version

Cain and A-Rod—A Bling-Bling Rivalry: Parts I, II

Kansas City Blues: Parts I, II

Baseball's Most Lopsided Trades—The Revenge of Glenn Davis

Awe-Phil?: Parts I, II, III

Gone With the Draft

Organizational Skills

Studes: The Best and Worst Teams of the Trade

Smoltz for Alexander

The Biggest Deals of All Time

Sources:

Sean Lahman's Baseball Database

Retrosheet's Transaction Data