Pages

Monday, March 14, 2016

1998 First Overall Pick Pat Burrell

Last week the Broncos Superbowl Winning QB Peyton Manning officially announced his retirement.

We are taking this moment to take a look at a Phillies outfielder that has something in common with Mr Manning.

Pat Burrell
1999 Topps Stadium Club #151 Pat Burell

Within a few months of each other Peyton Manning and Pat Burrell were both draft first overall in their respective sports.

Burrell is one of twelve Draft Pick Cards that run from #149-#160 in the set. The Dozen cards are all RCs, none of which is more significant that Burrell. The subset does include another Phillies Draftee, Eric Valent.  

SABR
I have been a Member of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) since 2013 when the National convention was hosted in Philadelphia. This past weekend I gave my first presentation in front of the local SABR affiliate the Connie Mack Chapter. The subject was the success rate of #1 Overall picks in the MLB Draft.

The Phillies are drafting #1 for the first time since the Burrell pick in 1998. I was interested in finding out what the success rate of #1 Picks have been across the history of the draft. I found close to 3/4 of all #1s achieve at least one +2.0 WAR season. A more substantial single season +5.0 WAR season was achieved by a much more modest 1/3 of the candidates. Number Ones reached the playoffs at a rate of 65% of which just short of half (31%) reached the World Series.

In terms of these numbers I judged Burrell a success. His peak WAR was +4.5 which is substantially more that the +2.0 WAR of a pedestrian starter, but not quite an All-Star level of +5.0. However, more importantly to me as a Phillies fan he was among the 31% that reached the World Series and also the 23% that took home a ring.

The powerpoint slides from presentation are below, They are tough to follow without the commentary, but it gives you an idea what I was attempting to learn about the #1 pick. 




Sources and Links
WAR and the Draft Index
SABR
Baseball-ref
Baseball America
New York Times





No comments:

Post a Comment