Coming off a dreary 3 game series where we could have swept the Giants, I thought I'd make everyone happier by reminding them, just how bad things were from 1999-2001. I'm going to be doing a series and look at our drafts from the 2002 - 2005 seasons. However while doing the research I had forgotten or just didn't realize how little we got from the Kevin Malone years. Not only was the major league team being run by a car salesman, the farm system was gutted by three years of bad drafts. Three drafts. Zippo. Of those 3 drafts here is what it yielded.
1999
Round 1 - Jason Repko - more famous for wiping out our SS in a meaningless ST game then for anything he's accomplished in the Major Leagues.
Round 8 - Shane Victorino - thanks to Depo we got zero return on that, but the Phillies are happy, and of course we have McSlappy for the next 5 years so who needs the flying Hawaiian.
Round 23 - Reggie Abercombie - the best looking prospect ever in a uniform. Still can't hit
2000
Round 1 - Ben Diggins - career is already over, at his peak he might have been a solid closer before his arm blew out after we traded him
Round 2 - Joel Hanrahan - once he was a top prospect but then he regressed and after 3 years of fighting back he finally got his cup of tea with the Nationals this season and has done okay. If he's lucky he'll get a pension.
Round 4 - Koyie Hill - a backup catcher forever, his claim to fame was getting dealt in the Shane Green purge
Round 37 - Victor Diaz - Not much here, move along.
2001
Round 6 - Ed Jackson - Once the prime jewel in the system, for the 1st half of the year he was the worse pitcher in the worse rotation in baseball. He's turned things around in the 2nd half and might just stick around to be useful to a Tamp Bay team that figures to get better and better. Had the best debut of any Dodger pitcher in the 21st century. I had such high hopes. He's the reason I got interesting in the kids again. Between him and Greg Miller I thought we'd have a dynamite R/L combo.
That is it. Three drafts and other then Victorino, Jackson, and Hanrahan no one is contributing at the major league level, and none of those for us. If Kevin Malone had not been fired for fighting with a Padre fan I tremble to think where we'd be right now.
Things get much better, as I'll show with the 2002/2003 drafts. Much better.