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Tuesday, January 8, 2019

MLB Draft Deep Dive: Miami Marlins

In order to satisfy my innate curiosity as it pertains to the MLB Draft, I have taken a comprehensive look at the 2018 draft for each of the 30 MLB organizations. But I also wanted to get an idea of what each of the teams had done for the 20 years prior so that is included as a prelude to the 2018 information. I'll be looking first at each team in each division, starting with the National League East, and then I'll follow up with a an overall look at both the historical draft results to date and the early 2018 results.

My goal is to get a better idea of the big picture as to how the systems compare in terms of draft results, as well as how a good or bad draft class affects a system, the overall impact of the draft on the baseball talent pool and the circuitous ways in which draft picks are used to bolster a system for which they may never even play. This project is just a first step. I intend to expand on this information over time (including a later revisit of the 2018 class and the addition of the 2019 class next offseason) and I will share my findings as I do so.

NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST

MIAMI MARLINS

Historical Draft Results from 1998 through 2017 (TO DATE)
Drafted 944 | Signed 628 | Pitchers Signed 334 | Position Players Signed 294
Total WAR 288.8
Total Players to MLB 84

Note: The following players are listed at the position at which they were originally drafted.

1998 | 2 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR 0.0, OF Chip Ambres (1st rd) & RHP Kevin Olsen (26th rd)
1999 | 5 to MLB | WAR 40.0 | High WAR 35.7, RHP Josh Beckett, 1st rd
2000 | 2 to MLB | WAR 61.0 | High WAR 42.2, 1B Adrian Gonzalez, 1st rd
2001 | 2 to MLB | WAR 0.2 | High WAR 0.3, RHP Chris Resop, 4th rd
2002 | 8 to MLB | WAR 29.6 | High WAR 24.3, RHP Josh Johnson, 4th rd
2003 | 3 to MLB | WAR (0.7) | High WAR 0.5, OF Jim Adduci, 42nd rd
2004 | 5 to MLB | WAR 17.9 | High WAR 16.0, LHP Jason Vargas, 2nd rd
2005 | 8 to MLB | WAR 6.1 | High WAR 4.8, 1B Logan Morrison, 22nd rd
2006 | 9 to MLB | WAR (1.9) | High WAR 0.7, RHP Alex Sanabia, 32nd rd
2007 | 4 to MLB | WAR 48.8 | High WAR 39.2, 1B Giancarlo Stanton, 2nd rd
2008 | 8 to MLB | WAR 11.2 | High WAR 5.1, LHP Dan Jennings, 9th rd
2009 | 3 to MLB | WAR 6.0 | High WAR 6.1, RHP A.J. Ramos, 21st rd
2010 | 8 to MLB | WAR 40.0 | High WAR 26.2, 1B Christian Yelich, 1st rd
2011 | 4 to MLB | WAR 17.3 | High WAR 14.0, RHP Jose Fernandez, 1st rd
2012 | 5 to MLB | WAR 3.6 | High WAR 2.5, LHP Andrew Heaney, 1st rd
2013 | 5 to MLB | WAR 7.3 | High WAR 5.0, RHP Trevor Williams, 2nd rd
2014 | 2 to MLB | WAR 3.2 | High WAR 3.8, 2B Brian Anderson, 3rd rd
2015 | 1 to MLB | WAR (0.8) | High WAR (0.8), RHP Ben Meyer, 29th rd
2016 | 0 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR N/A
2017 | 0 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR N/A

The highest WAR to date is that of 1B Adrian Gonzalez (2000, 1st round). The high total WAR is also from 2000 and includes OF Josh Willingham (18.8, 17th round) as the only other member of that draft class to make it to the bigs. Willingham played in at least parts of five seasons for the Marlins, but Gonzalez was traded (along with MiLB OF Will Smith) to the Rangers in July 2003 prior to his MLB debut. The Marlins received roughly half a season of right-handed relief pitcher Ugueth Urbina in return. The Marlins did go on to win the World Series that year with Urbina earning four postseason saves, including two in the World Series so it wasn't a totally uneven trade, but ....

2018 DRAFT
41 Drafted | 34 Signed | 20 Pitchers | 14 Position Players
30 College | 27 Signed | 20 Pitchers | 7 Position Players
3 JC/CC | 2 Signed | 0 Pitchers | 2 Position Players
8 HS/NS | 5 Signed | 0 Pitchers | 5 Position Players

Notable: The Marlins received one additional draft pick for Competitive Balance (Round B) and signed all but one of their top 31 picks with the lone holdout being 15th round college RHP Zach Greene.

PITCHERS
Of the 20 pitchers signed (18 RHP, 2 LHP), 17 logged at least some playing time but three college right-handers did not play (9th round Jake Walters, 16th round Sam Bordner and 19th round Justin Evans). Only one player received playing time above the Short Season A* level (consisting of one early inning in Advanced A followed by a return to SSA for the remainder of the season). None of these pitchers debuted on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Prospect list for the Marlins.

Noteworthy Debut

LHP Alex Vesia, 17th round, California State University East Bay, SSA
33.1 IP | 14 G / 0 GS | 1.35 ERA | 1.140 WHIP | 7 BB : 38 K

In total, the Miami 2018 Draft pitchers combined for a 3.92 ERA and a 1.352 WHIP over 328.1 innings as compared to the 3.67 ERA and 1.299 WHIP (average of 376.2 innings per affiliate) compiled by the total 2018 Draft class in 2018.

POSITION PLAYERS
All but one of the 14 position players signed (1B, 2B, 3B, 2 SS, 5 OF, 4 C) logged at least some playing time with the exception being HS C Cameron Barstad, 6th round. Eight players were promoted beyond the Short Season A* level, four to Full Season A and four to Advanced A. Four of the position players debuted on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Prospect list for the Marlins, including two Top 10 prospects in Scott and Banfield.

Top Prospects

🔟 OF Connor Scott (L/L), 1st round, H.B. Plant HS (FL), A
50 G | .218/.309/.296/.605 | 24 BB : 56 K

🔟 C Will Banfield (R/R), 2nd round, Brookwood HS (GA), A
39 G | .238/.308/.385/.693 | 11 BB : 43 K

SS Osiris Johnson (R/R), 2nd round, Encinal HS (CA), A
48 G | .250/.276/.378/.654 | 5 BB : 53 K

OF Tristan Pompey (S/R), 3rd round, University of Kentucky, A+
52 G | .299/.408/.397/.805 | 32 BB : 47 K

🔟 Top 10 Prospect

Noteworthy Debut

OF Davis Bradshaw (L/R), 11th round, Meridian Community College, SSA
46 G | .354/.418/.427/.844 | 12 BB : 27 K | 20 SB : 5 CS

In total, the Miami 2018 Draft position players combined to hit .260/.343/.353/.696 as compared to .261/.349/.386/.735 batting line compiled by the total 2018 Draft class in 2018.

*Notes on players include the highest level achieved for the 2018 season using the following abbreviations:
Rk = Rookie
SSA = Short Season A
A = Full Season A
A+ = Full Season A Advanced.

GENERAL NOTES: Information was obtained from Baseball-Reference and the MLB Draft History site. The occasional discrepancy in historical information was resolved to the best of my ability by delving into the player information available on B-R. On the historical information, the player position in the totals reflects the position at which the player was drafted (and not any subsequent change of position). On the 2018 information, the player position reflects the primary position played in 2018 for all players who were signed and the position at which the player was drafted for those who did not sign. Prospect listings on MLB Pipeline were as of late December and may not reflect any subsequent changes to that site.

Previously: Atlanta Braves

Coming Next: New York Mets

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