Adored high school pitchers? III

Gray (No. 54) was drafted by the Athletics in the 1st round of the 2011 Draft from Vanderbilt University 

It’s been almost 17 years since the book Moneyball published. The book has changed baseball and sports in several perspectives. As I read the book again, these lines really capture my attention again, “The scouts adored high school players, and they especially adored high school pitchers. High school pitchers were so far away from being who they would be when they grew up that you could imagine them becoming almost anything. High school pitchers also had brand-new arms, and brand-new arms were able to generate the one asset scouts could measure: fastball’s velocity. The most important quality in a pitcher was not his brute strength but his ability to deceive, and deception took many forms.”

The book was published in 2003. After the book was published, baseball has indeed changed a lot. In the draft, competitive balance picks are available for 10-lowest revenue clubs and MLB franchises have new methods to identify talented players.

	First Round Picks	College	High School	High School Pitchers	Note
2011	60	28	32	16
2012	60	25	35	15
2013	39	22	17	7
2014	41	21	20	10
2015	42	21	21	9	Austin Riley (3B-P)
Total	242	117	125	57

In 2011 and 2012, MLB teams selected more high school players than college players in the first round (including competitive balance and compensation) of the draft. In total, from 2011 to 2015, there were 125 high school players selected in the first round, among these 125 players, 57 were high school pitchers.

Paul DePodesta worked with the Mets GM Sandy Alderson from late 2010 to 2015, focusing on player development and scouting. The Mets didn’t have a 1st round pick in 2015 since they surrendered their pick to sign Michael Cuddyer. From 2011 to 2014, the Mets used their 1st round picks to select several great players. They selected 6 players in these 5 years, all 6 players made their way to the big league. Michael Fulmer won the Rookie of the Year in 2016, unfortunately, it was with the Tigers since the Mets traded him to the Tigers in 2015. However, Michael Conforto became an all-star in 2017. He and Brandon Nimmo are key pieces of the Mets lineup.

Year	Pick	Player	School (Type)	Position
2011	13	Brandon Nimmo	High School	OF
2011	44	Michael Fulmer	High School	P
2012	12	Gavin Cecchini	High School	IF
2012	35	Kevin Plawecki	College	C
2013	11	Dominic Smith	High School	IF
2014	10	Michael Conforto	College	OF

Billy Beane didn’t select high school pitchers in the first round from 2011 to 2015. In these 5 years, the only pitcher that Billy Beane selected in the first round was Sonny Gray, a pitcher from Vanderbilt. Gray was a great pick. During his 5 years with the Athletics, he earned 44 wins and threw more than 600 strikeouts. He was an all-star in 2015 and 2019 (with the Reds).

Year	Pick	Player	School (Type)	Position
2011	18	Sonny Gray	College	P
2012	11	Addison Russell	High School	IF
2012	34	Daniel Robertson	High School	IF
2012	47	Matt Olson	High School	IF
2013	24	Billy McKinney	High School	OF
2014	25	Matt Chapman	College	IF
2015	20	Richie Martin	College	IF

All these 6 players drafted by the Athletics are big leaguers. Currently, only Matt Olson and Matt Chapman are still playing for the A’s. Olson and Chapman each have won the gold glove award twice. In the past 3 seasons, they contributed 163 home runs and 419 RBIs.

From 2011 to 2015, we only see that only 1 high school pitcher was selected in the first round when DePodesta was with the Mets. When was the last time that Billy Beane selected a high school pitcher in the first round? In 2001, Billy Beane selected Jeremy Bonderman from Pasco high school. Thus, Billy Beane hasn’t picked a high school pitcher in the first round since Moneyball was published.