Grading Every Single Indians Draft Ever

The amateur draft is coming up on June 12th and thanks to a great finish in 2016 and the loss of their first round pick due to signing Edwin Encarnacion, it’s certainly likely to be a boring one for the Tribe. In fact, it could be one of the worst ever just based on lack of drafting opportunities.

No matter how things work out, we won’t be able to really judge the draft for at least a few years, but that doesn’t mean we can’t judge every other draft ever. There have been quite a few, 52 primary June drafts, so a complete ranking would be tedious. Instead, we’ll break them down by grade, lumping the best together first and ending up with the absolute worst. For the sake of keeping things even, we’ll grade this thing on a curve. A Cody Allen curve.

A+ Drafts (Plus one unknown)

In the history of the MLB Amatuer draft, the Indians have taken exactly one Hall of Famer, Dennis Eckersley. While he played the majority of his career away from Cleveland, we’re not going to worry about where a player was great, just that he was. In fact, no moves after a player signed are considered. In addition, the Indians snared a Gold Glove starting center fielder in Rick Manning in the same draft. In the others listed, Thome was one of five regulars drafted in 1989 (one of whom was Brian Giles) and is a potential future Hall of Famer while Ramirez was one of three in 1991 including Chad Ogea and Paul Byrd, who were both regular starters for a long period. We aren’t ready to judge 2016, so ignore their inclusion here, but at the moment it’s looking like more of a low C.

A Drafts

Like 2016, it’s way too early to judge 2015, but at the moment it appears that each of the first six picks have MLB potential along with a few later picks. Both the 1987 and 2011 drafts were lofted by a single player, but a couple relievers, Steve Olin in 1987 and Cody Allen in 2011, have made them more significant. In 1969, the WAR was greater thanks to the long career of Bell and Andy Ashby, but in a few years that will not be the case as Lindor, Allen, Ryan Merritt, Shawn Armstrong and Cody Anderson continue to add value.

A- Drafts

The final potential based rank, Zimmer is holding up 2014 on his own so far, but Justus Sheffield could be a star in the making for New York while Mike Papi and Bobby Bradley each have decent potential. As far as actual results, the nine players to sign and make the majors in 2006 is the most for the Indians in any draft ever (tied with 1989) and many of those players continue to add to their value, including Steven Wright (2nd round) with Boston, Archer with Tampa and Josh Tomlin in Cleveland. If there was a failure in this draft, it was retaining these players. Thanks a lot Lars Anderson and Mark DeRosa. For both 1998 and 1988, it was a single Indians all time great player who propped up an otherwise lackluster draft.

B+ Drafts

This is where things start to get mediocre and, if we weren’t basing on an Indians curve, we could skip into the C’s. In the Kipnis draft, he has provided nearly 100% of the value with Vidal Nuno (mostly with Arizona and Seattle) coming in second with 3.1 WAR. There may have been eight MLB players from 2009, but there have been six really bad MLB players.

The seven in 1994 were much more impressive and included Danny Graves and Jaret Wright. Swindell was the biggest factor in 1986, but he also had a little value from Rudy Seanez. Likewise, Sexson was the majority of the value from the 1993 draft with Steve Kline adding little.

B Drafts

While none are A+ quality talent, the three regulars (Chisenhall, Zach Putnam and Roberto Perez) from 2008 are each slowly providing value and will likely do so for years. In each of the other three drafts, it was one player who made all the difference with All-Star outfielder Hayes, long term starter Guthrie and Gold Glover Fosse each being solid picks who slightly justified the entire draft class.

B- Drafts

You could say that the eight Major Leaguers from the 1990 draft were solid reasoning for that being a good draft, but the first pick was Tim Costo. In the entire draft, only Bell and Dave Mlicki had a positive career WAR. The same is true down the line with the slight exception of 1984, when the Indians picked Cory Snyder and Farrell one and two. After that point, it was really ugly and the fact that more than half the picks didn’t sign didn’t help.

C+ Drafts

These were some ugly years including 1992, where the Indians picked a right handed reliever in the first round and he ended up being the top player taken by the team that year. At least Church and Hassey ended up being fairly decent Major Leaguers.

C Drafts

If we weren’t basing this on a curve, everything from this point down would be a solid F. Kouzmanoff is essentially the worst of the top players listed, but that draft was bolstered by slightly positive performances from Aaron Laffey and Ryan Garko. Tony Wolters may have some future value along with Pomeranz from the 2010 draft, but neither will do so for Cleveland.

C- Drafts

Since we’re not looking at subsequent moves, the 2013 draft could eventually be a huge one if Clint Frazier takes off for the Yankees, but if you do look at subsequent moves, it’s already paid off by gaining Andrew Miller. The other three drafts were all valued as high as they are based on the performance of one mediocre Major Leaguer.

D+ Drafts

Naquin could still save the 2012 draft, but other than him only Joey Wendle has made his debut after five years and few others have anything near MLB potential. Many of the 26 signed have been cut already. In the others, a couple relievers who had decent short careers are the only positive notes. There’s a slight positive in 2005 of what could have been as Tim Lincecum and Dan Jennings were drafted, but didn’t sign.

D Drafts

If the last group were saved by relievers, this one was saved by poor catchers. When Chris Bando is the only MLB player from an entire draft, you know it’s not going to be pretty. The 1985 draft could have been significantly better if the Indians had been able to sign Brian Jordan.

D- Drafts

Here are four drafts without an MLB regular between them and only ten players with any MLB experience out of the 145 players drafted and 74 signed.

F Drafts

There has never been an Indians draft that didn’t produce at least one Major League player, so you could say that the 1978 draft was the worst with just one, but at least Bando was a positive player. The three drafted in 1999 and two in 1982 combined for a negative total WAR and those in 2007 and 1973 weren’t much better. These drafts were equally disgusting and should never be mentioned again. In fact, forget about all those drafts listed D or below. It will really help your view of the Indians front office over the last half century.