Gary Rajsich drafts

[cnmilton]

I don't think Gary Rajsich gets enough credit for his draft classes.

 

For Gary Rajsich, his classes include Trey Mancini, John Means, DL Hall, DJ Stewart, Austin Hays, Tanner Scott, Ryan Mountcastle, Cedric Mullins, Mike Yastremski, Hunter Harvey, Josh Hader, as well as several other players who have been in the Majors. One year his earliest pick was in the 3rd round. Some of his players drafted blossomed after being traded from the Orioles, but that wasn't Gary's fault.

 

Again, he deserves more credit in my mind.

 

 

[Frobby]

By my quick look, going into this season the AL East 2012-18 drafts rate as follows:

TOR 46.3 rWAR

BAL 41.7

NYY 27.1

TBR 19.1

BOS 17.2

So yes, I’d say Rajsich fared pretty well, though it’s still pretty early to judge.   

The numbers above include only players who were worth 1.0 rWAR or more through 2020.   I’ve assumed the rest is basically rounding error, guys slightly above or below 0 WAR.  
 

[joelala]

23 minutes ago, Frobby said:

By my quick look, going into this season the AL East 2012-18 drafts rate as follows:

TOR 46.3 rWAR

BAL 41.7

NYY 27.1

TBR 19.1

BOS 17.2

So yes, I’d say Rajsich fared pretty well, though it’s still pretty early to judge.   

The numbers above include only players who were worth 1.0 rWAR or more through 2020.   I’ve assumed the rest is basically rounding error, guys slightly above or below 0 WAR.  
 

That’s actually pretty staggering. Albeit he did have consistently high picks. Also how much of that credit goes to player dev? Maybe the narrative that our player dev was inept is a false one. Pitching development, maybe, but those WAR numbers are pretty shocking. 
 

 

[Frobby]

33 minutes ago, joelala said:

That’s actually pretty staggering. Albeit he did have consistently high picks. Also how much of that credit goes to player dev? Maybe the narrative that our player dev was inept is a false one. Pitching development, maybe, but those WAR numbers are pretty shocking. 
 

 

Rajsich didn’t have consistently high picks.   We had a .500+ record in 2012-16.   So, his only high picks were 2012 (Gausman) and 2018 (Rodriguez).   Even Rodriguez wasn’t that high (11th).  We didn’t have a first or second round pick in 2014 after signing Ubaldo and Cruz, but got a 1st round supplemental (Mountcastle) back when Cruz turned down a QO.

As to the WAR numbers, it’s still early.   Most of the production comes from 4-5 players.   We’ll know more in 5 years. 

[Sports Guy]

Did people bash Rajisch?

[Frobby]

42 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Did people bash Rajisch?

Not really, that I remember.   

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

On 7/20/2021 at 1:49 PM, Sports Guy said:

Did people bash Rajisch?

But Joe Jordan…oh my goodness was he atrocious 

[Frobby]

28 minutes ago, NelsonCruuuuuz said:

But Joe Jordan…oh my goodness was he atrocious 

He drafted Manny, worth 40 rWAR by himself.’  And Wieters, worth 18.   Bundy. Givens.   

That’s about all I got.   Snyder, Rowell, Matusz, Hobgood.  
 

[BohKnowsBmore]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

He drafted Manny, worth 40 rWAR by himself.’  And Wieters, worth 18.   Bundy. Givens.   

That’s about all I got.   Snyder, Rowell, Matusz, Hobgood.  
 

Zach Britton (14.5)

Jake Arrietta (24.1)

David Hernandez (4.6)

Nolan Reimold (2.8)

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

6 hours ago, Frobby said:

He drafted Manny, worth 40 rWAR by himself.’  And Wieters, worth 18.   Bundy. Givens.   

That’s about all I got.   Snyder, Rowell, Matusz, Hobgood.  
 

He drafted Givens as a SS when zero other teams thought he could hit. Manny, like Adley, slam dunk.

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

4 hours ago, BohKnowsBmore said:

Zach Britton (14.5)

Jake Arrietta (24.1)

David Hernandez (4.6)

Nolan Reimold (2.8)

Billy Rowell.

[Frobby]

12 minutes ago, NelsonCruuuuuz said:

He drafted Givens as a SS when zero other teams thought he could hit. Manny, like Adley, slam dunk.

I remember there was a pretty knowledgeable poster here who thought Christian Colon would be better than Manny and was the safer pick.   But I agree, the consensus that year was there was a clear top 3 and everyone else was a tier below.   

Edit: went looking for posts about Colon and found this:

Here was my comment on this:

 

[NelsonCruuuuuz]

That’s funny Frobby, I honestly get his concern but that’s why you gotta go BPA, particularly when you do it to save money for underslots and you don’t take any….

[Mooreisbetter27]

2 hours ago, NelsonCruuuuuz said:

That’s funny Frobby, I honestly get his concern but that’s why you gotta go BPA, particularly when you do it to save money for underslots and you don’t take any….

How do you know who is BPA?  Just curious.  Because every outlet that covers these guys doesn't cover them even remotely as close as scouts from a baseball team do (in my understanding).  

So you're basing BPA on, what?

[Jammer7]

Rajsich did a good job as scouting director. Some early round misses, but many lower round hits. Jordan had some hits, and some high pick misses that really set us back. But, what if these scouting directors had our current player development staff and the organizational relationships that exist now? Were the picks bad? In some cases, yep. Could others have been developed better? Yep. We’ll never know, but I never blame the scouting director as much as I do the GM’s. I often wondered how much those scouting directors dictated the first few rounds. Or was it ownership, McPhail and Duquette trying to address team needs. 
 

Elias gutted the organization and built it back up with the idea that scouts and PD folks work together through the entire process. They know what kinds of players they develop best and present value for this organization. And they seem to have autonomy to make baseball decisions without ownership interference.