With all of recent draft happenings, I thought it would be interesting to look at the results of a past Giants draft. This was mostly a research project that entailed typing in the names of the players into Baseball Reference and logging what was spit out. I choose to look at the 2000 draft because it’s recent enough to still be relevant to today’s team and enough time has passed so that we can evaluate what happened. Here are the results:
| RD | POS | PLAYER | NOTES |
| 1 | RHP | John Bonser | Part of the trade that shall not be named. Started 60 games for the Twins. |
| 2 | 3B | Lance Niekro | Collected 500 at-bats with the Giants. Could not hit right-handed pitching. |
| 3 | RHP | Brion Treadway | Plateaued in AA. |
| 4 | LHP | Ryan Hannaman | Part of Sidney Ponson trade. Highest level was High A. |
| 5 | RHP | Kyle Gross | Could not control his mid-90s heat. Highest level was High A. |
| 6 | RHP | Chad Ashlock | Did not get past Salem-Keizer. |
| 7 | LHP | Erick Threets | Bouncing between AAA and the San Francisco bullpen. |
| 8 | CF | Nicholas Wilfong | Highest level was High A. |
| 9 | SS | Edwin Maldonado | Highest level was High A. |
| 10 | CF | Adam Shabala | Picked up 15 at-bats for San Francisco in 2005. |
| 11 | RHP | Jackson Markert | Plateaued in AA. |
| 12 | SS | Elliot Strankman | Did not get past low A. |
| 13 | C | Justin Knoedler | Did not sign. Drafted and signed by the Giants in 2002. Has 18 AB’s in the Majors. |
| 14 | RHP | Jason Farmer | Highest level was High A. |
| 15 | RHP | Matthew Faas | Did not get past Salem-Keizer. |
| 16 | RHP | Anthony Pannone | Plateaued in AA. |
| 17 | RHP | Rafael Rigueiro | Highest level was High A. |
| 18 | RHP | Luke Anderson | Injury; plateaued in AAA. |
| 19 | LHP | Daniel Padgett | Highest level was High A. |
| 20 | RHP | Jeff Clark | Plateaued in AA. |
| 21 | SS | Steven Gendron | Did not sign. Drafted in 2004 by Marlins, highest level was High A. |
| 22 | CF | Jason Ellison | Has over 500 AB’s in the Majors. Currently with the Reds. |
| 23 | RHP | Robert King | Did not get out of the AZL. |
| 24 | RHP | Ralph Harrelson | Did not get past Salem-Keizer. |
| 25 | LF | Daniel Trumble | Highest level was AA. |
| 26 | RHP | Matthew Larson | Did not sign. Drafted later by Tampa Bay. Did not get past short season ball. |
| 27 | LHP | Rejino Gonzalez | Could not find him. Presumably did not sign. |
| 28 | LHP | Alex Hinshaw | Did not sign. Was drafted a few more times before he signed in 2005. |
| 29 | LHP | Dennis Hernandez | Could not find him. Presumably did not sign. |
| 30 | CF | Jason Pekar | Did not get past Salem-Keizer. |
| 31 | LHP | Brian Burres | Selected by the Orioles in Rule 5 draft. Has a 5.47 ERA through 200+ innings. |
| 32 | RHP | Todd Uzzell | Plateaued in AA. |
| 33 | C | James Lunsford | Highest level was AAA. |
| 34 | RHP | Jonathan Albaladejo | Did not sign. Drafted by the Pirates in 2001. Pitched for the Yankees this year. |
| 35 | 1B | Matthew Keating | Highest level was High A. |
| 36 | 1B | Matthew Gibson | Could not find him. Presumably did not sign. |
| 37 | RHP | Jeremy Schmidt | Did not sign. Drafted again in 2002. Highest level was AA. |
| 38 | RHP | Elgin Graham | Did not get past low A. |
| 39 | SS | Gregory Stone | Did not sign. Drafted again in 2002 by the Red Sox. Highest level was High A. |
| 40 | RF | Mark Walker | Plateaued in AA. |
| 41 | C | Michael Cox | Could not find him. Presumably did not sign. |
| 42 | RF | Bryan Carter | Plateaued in AA. |
| 43 | RHP | Craig Molldrem | Did not sign. Drafted again by Florida in 2004. Highest level was AAA. |
| 44 | RHP | Jason Daily | Could not find him. Presumably did not sign. |
| 45 | 3B | Calvin Fugett | Could not find him. Presumably did not sign. |
| 46 | SS | Austin Allen | Could not find him. Presumably did not sign. |
| 47 | 2B | Bryan Gann | Did not get past low A. |
| 48 | SS | Lou Colletti | Nepotism pick? Did not sign. |
| 49 | C | Nick Conte | Another nepotism pick. Did not get past Low A. |
| 50 | C | Bennett Elder | Could not find him. Presumably did not sign. |
By my count, there were five signed players who have played or will play a significant amount of time (by significant I mean losing their rookie eligibility) in the Major Leagues: Boof Bonser, Lance Neikro, Erick Threets, Jason Ellison, and Brian Burres. The best of the bunch is probably Boof who John Sickels had regarded as an overdraft on draft day, not because of his pitches, but because of his mechanics and a possibility of weight problems. Thus far that assessment has held true. My guess is that none of these players will be in the majors in five years.
Here are some numbers.
Breakdown by highest level (at least 1 PA or IP):
MLB- 7
AAA- 2
AA- 8
A+- 8
A- 5
ssA- 4
AZL- 1
Did not sign/Could not find- 15
Breakdown by position:
RHP- 20
LHP- 7
C- 5
1B- 2
2B- 1
SS- 6
3B- 2
LF- 1
CF- 4
RF- 2
And of course:
Nepotism picks that amounted to something- 0
Nepotism picks that amounted to nothing- 2
By any measurement this was a terrible draft for the Giants.
