Outfielder Matt Lipka signed as a free agent with the Texas Rangers. Transaction was posted Friday, but it well could have been a bit ago.
But my point is this: Has a first-round pick ever departed a franchise with less fanfare? This did not create even a ripple. Sure haven't seen anyone else post it here!
Minor league deal. Not on 40-man.
it not unusual for first round picks to bust...lipka was pick 35 in the supplemental round after the first round...if you look at picks 30-40 each year there are a couple who dont even make the majors...cody johnson was pick #24 and he washed out
He didn't even attain designated whipping boy status. Shame.
Tons of first rounders fade into obscurity within just a couple of years.
Love to blame Wren for this but its an organizational failure when a first round pick fails. But since it happens more than it doesn't hard to blame anyone for it.
Natural Immunity Croc
Going way back, somebody like Mike Kelly busting actually hurt because of the high pick and other players not selected instead. At least they eventually salvaged something in a trade (Roberto Kelly).Originally Posted by thethe
two years before kelly we took tyler houston with the first pick of the entire draft
This is true. In reality the Braves organization has been pretty poor when it comes to early draft picks.
Chipper jumps off the page as the exception and is the first go to. But, even he might have been bypassed if they had gotten the right signals from Van Poppel.
If you look at the greats of the dynasty years, not many were first round picks.
Gant - 4th round
Justice - 4th Round
Glavine - 2nd
Blauser - 1st (fifth overall 1984) good solid long term player but no star
Lemke - 27th round
Hunter - 8th
Avery - 1st (3rd overall in 1988) was a short time star
Mercker - 1st (5th overall 1986) solid ML for a long time
Stanton - 13th
Wohlers - 8th
Klesko - 5th
Tarasco -15th
Dye - 17th
The Braves got a lot of credit for there draft and home grown players. But what I see is a lot of wasted early picks over the years with a very few hits (mostly LH HS pitchers). They were VERY strong in finding hidden gems and developing them.
Matt Bush. Number 1 overall pick in the 2004 draft. Never got above A ball. They did switch him to pitcher and protected him for a year before DFA'ing him to make room for Cliff Floyd. He was traded for nothing. Cash considerations. The effective bucket of balls. He then was involved in a drunken fight. Toronto signed him to a minor league deal with a zero tolerance deal and he was cut before ST spending all of 2009 out of baseball. He's currently in the Rangers organization as a reliever.
Stockholm, more densely populated than NYC - sturg
Lilliquist was another one.
As Harry mentioned, Chipper was the exception but that was pure luck because Todd Van Poppel persuaded them not to draft him.
I don't know what to believe with respect to Chipper & van Poppel. There have been some claims we would have taken Chipper no matter what. But that might be revisionist history.
Houston was the 2nd pick.
Lipka was an athlete trying to become a baseball player and it was just a couple of years ago that it looked like his athletic skills were going to transfer to the diamond. Great tools. Baseball's a tough game.
Van Popple told every team not to draft him, as it was his intention to enter Univ. of Texas @ Austin. The A's told him that they offered him the best chance to appear in a W.S. As fate would have it, the A's last appearance would be that year (1990) in which they lost to the Reds. Obviously, the Braves first appearance would be the following year.
Last edited by Knucksie; 12-19-2016 at 12:50 PM.
Houston was No. 2 overall. Only No. 1s the Braves have had were Chipper and Horner.
Those two can't miss prospects didn't. One is a sure HOFer and the other was a very productive player, albeit for a shorter time than I would have liked to have seen.
This is the case for most organizations. Teams like the current Cubs are the outliers, where so many of their top picks hit and hit big. But of course, those guys were all taken near the very top of the draft.
and that's just when this front office is ready to pounce!
:sadface
Jaw (12-19-2016)
We get it chip... I promise...
Just for fun I looked back at our top 20 prospects in 2013 on mlb pipeline and it's a sad looking bunch
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/watch/y2013/#list=atl
So how many of those, given 2013 conditions, would be in our top 30 today? Maybe the top 6? The funny thing is that I would move Peraza and maybe Lipka up, and they would probably make it, but Cunningham and Northcraft almost certainly would not.
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