MLB Draft is Real Crapshoot

MLB will hold its annual draft of players virtually no one has ever heard of on Monday night. And most of the roughly thousand or so players whose names will be called will never make the big leagues. So while the MLB draft is not exactly an exercise in futility, it is a crapshoot.

How much crap is being shot? Well, let’s take a look at drafted players who have made it all the way to the Hall of Fame. Since the draft started in 1965, just 39 players who were selected are in the Hall. That’s out of the more than 50,000 players taken, if you estimate a thousand per year.

Of players taken in the first round, just 12 have made it to Cooperstown. How about first overall selections, allegedly the cream of the crop? Well, just two — Ken Griffey, Jr. and new honoree Chipper Jones.

So the numbers are not great. Sure, many drafted players go on to have productive careers. But the bottom line is don’t get too upset about players your team may or may not have taken in the MLB draft. A 32nd round pick has basically the same chance as a first rounder of making it big.

Thanks to this now outdated article for some of the info.