"Reach" picks that were successful

[Frobby]

I am curious, have there been some players who were picked surprisingly high in the first round, raising a lot of eyebrows, who turned out to be big success stories? I'm not enough of a draft follower to know.

[O-Arm36]

Not sure if it counts as a "reach" per se, but I remember many people saw Mauer over Prior as a bit of a signability pick. Prior had Strasburg-esque hype.

[Behemoth Jones]

The first name that leaps to mind is Vernon Wells, who was a reach at #5 in 1997 when there were still top guys like Adam Kennedy and Darnell McDonald available.

[wickedwitch]

Markakis. People thought he was 3rd round material as a hitter, and even as a pitcher, he was considered a bit of a reach at 7.

[Singleton]

Baseball Prospectus posted an article that is pretty much on this topic. Need to be a member to see the full article. Good read.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=14173

[Frobby]

Baseball Prospectus posted an article that is pretty much on this topic. Need to be a member to see the full article. Good read.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=14173

Well, Nick's in there.

[Stotle]

Baseball Prospectus posted an article that is pretty much on this topic. Need to be a member to see the full article. Good read.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=14173

Haha. Goldstein defending his boy, Gary Brown, who has all of a half-season of pro ball under his belt. Yup, we can clearly close the book on thsi one. Doubters were CLEARLY wrong on Brown. Love it...

[SrMeowMeow]

Tony Sanchez is a good recent example.

[flashjordnk]

ESPN actually just ran an article today on surprise picks.

They were listed as Adrian Gonzalez (1st overall, lots of quality college arms in this draft he was a high schooler),

Mauer (1st overall, over Prior),

Fielder (7th overall, many thought late first),

Markakis (7th overall, thought to be mid-first),

Lincecum (10th though it seems to be the case of teams liked him or hated him),

Revere (28th overall, thought to last another 30-50 picks...hitting .326 minor league hitter and in the MLB something 16 or 27 guys in front of him didn't do),

Storen (10th, reached for a reliever for Strasburg money...many said his stuff wasn't closer like),

Chisenhall (29th overall, major character issues which seemed to vanish as a pro, but his .750 OPS in AAA doesn't impress me personally right now) and

Gary Brown (24th overall, panned because he didn't walk, 9 walks in 210 college at bats, hitting 363/430/529 currently in high A ball)

insider link

It's protected content if you want to read the details of the whole article.