JP admits gaff in '05 draft

[OldNo7]

From the same magazine issue that the Sox/Yanks prospect article was from (just received mine in the mail), JP talks about passing on Tulowitzki.

Toronto held the next pick. Tulowitzki waited for his phone to ring. The Blue Jays were torn between him and Ricky Romero, a lefthander from Cal State-Fullerton who'd been Tulowitzki's roommate on the powerhouse 2004 USA Baseball team, a squad that included Gordon, Clement and Zimmerman.

The Blue Jays had Russ Adams, 24, playing shortstop, and Aaron Hill, 23, a converted shortstop, as a utilityman. "We thought we had the position covered," says J.P. Ricciardi, Toronto's G.M. "One thing we thought about was, we can't get pitching unless we draft it. It wasn't as if free agents were knocking down our door."

Baseball America rated Mike Pelfrey and Luke Hochevar as the top pitchers in the draft, but both were being advised by agent Scott Boras. That ruled them out as too hard to sign. "Romero was aggressive, had a really good breaking ball and changeup, above-average fastball, was a great competitor," Ricciardi says. "All the things you saw in Tulowitzki as an everyday player, you saw in [Romero] as a pitcher. And being lefthanded, that was huge."

Interesting to note, even Theo was high on Romero:

Says Boston G.M. Theo Epstein, "I thought Romero was as sure a bet as any college pitcher."

Totally my call," Ricciardi says. "Right now we made the wrong choice. I've been in [talent] evaluation my whole life. It happens. When we were in Oakland, we took [Ariel] Prieto over [Todd] Helton. Romero hasn't come as fast as the other guys, but it's really only his third year. We still like him."

Romero hears it from the fans:

Last winter Tulowitzki took a vacation to Las Vegas with his friend Romero. Like Prieto and Helton -- or Sam Bowie and Michael Jordan -- they will always be connected. "Tulo," Romero told him, "the fans in the minors are all over me. They say, 'We should have picked Tulowitzki!' "

For me personally, this is the one that I cant let him live down. Adams didnt exactly look like a star at any level. Plus, with so many different levels of baseball, it should be about BPA.

The Rockies were next. Seattle, Milwaukee and Toronto had passed on Tulowitzki in part because of their organizational needs. "After what happened [in '05]," says one American League G.M., "I'm really convinced you should never let positional needs influence you. Just take the best player."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/w ... itzki0331/

Link is to page 1, quotes are all from page 5.

[risktaker91]

Good read and I agree with the end. So what if we had Aaron Hill, take the best player in the draft...

Oh and BTW anyone hav e any updates on Romero?

[OldNo7]

The update is.....JP still likes him.

[Griff83]

I wonder if JP would have picked Braun if he slid to the #6 pick instead of Romero.

[evilRyu]

Should always draft BPA

[xAIRNESSx]

Ricky Romero is JP's Hoffa.

[Schad]

Should always draft BPA

Yep. In a league where the majority of even 1st round picks amount to nothing, it takes 3-4 years to reach the majors, and there's always a hefty premium paid for young talent in trades, always take the best player and figure something out later.

[whysoserious]

Has JP admitted his gaffs in all the other drafts since taking over?

[Nolan]

-= original quote snipped =-



Yep. In a league where the majority of even 1st round picks amount to nothing, it takes 3-4 years to reach the majors, and there's always a hefty premium paid for young talent in trades, always take the best player and figure something out later.

agreed

[Yosemite Dan]

Well the story i read in some Toronto newspaper was that the scouts were urging JP to pick Tulowitski but he was adament that Russ Adams was a future starter and there was no need to take Tulowitski. The scouts told him that Adams was a very questionable fielder but JP was in love with his bat and thought he could be made into an adequate fielder and that his hitting was more important. Now that works for an OF but you can't survive having an adequate fielding SS unless he can hit like Arod. Boy did the scouts turn out to be right since Adams couldn't even throw to 1B. Sounds like the same thing that's gonna happen with putting Stewert in the OF and releasing Johnson.

Apparently JP is very stubborn like that. He doesn't like to take advice once he''s got his mind made up about something and he doesn't think defence is very important. No wonder he was trying to trade Rios. Now that Stairs has got an arthritic hip our OF should be fine as long as no one hits a flyball.

[Jakespeare]

I love Tulo as a player and everything and agree that J.P. gaffed, but is Romero being labeled a bust all ready?

[Michael Bradley]

I love Tulo as a player and everything and agree that J.P. gaffed, but is Romero being labeled a bust all ready?

For where he was picked, yes. The 2005 draft was insanely deep, and to have a top 6 pick only to end up with a projectable mid-ceiling lefty that was drafted solely to fill a need is pretty darn bad. Even more embarrassing is they didn't pick Tulo because of Russ Adams. I can understand if the Jays had Jeter and went with someone else, but Russ freakin' Adams? Romero is still young, so it's too early to write him off completely, but the pick itself was a disaster. The difference between Romero in AA and Tulowitzki in the Majors right now might be worth upwards of 5 wins.

Drafting for need in basketball is at least somewhat understandable since the players contribute right away, but needs in baseball change very quickly. The Jays were a pitching rich team in 2007 (and possibly still are), but they weren't in 2005. In other words, it only took one season to turn that weakness around, and Romero had nothing to do with it.

Always draft best player available in baseball. BPA is subjective depending on who is making the pick, but in this case, it was clearly a need pick. Awful in every sense of the word.

[Schad]

To add to the MB, what makes it even worse in my opinion is the extent to which baseball players can adapt to different positions. If you have a star center in basketball and draft a seven-footer, you can't exactly bump him to shooting guard.

Meanwhile, if you have a glut of shortstops, teach one to play second (as they did with Hill)...heck, if Adams turned into a star, Tulowitzki would make a heck of a third baseman with his arm and quick reactions.

As someone else noted, naught but stubbornness and hubris explains Romero at six; heck, I remember reading draft recaps that gave his upside immediately after the draft as 'solid #3 starter'.

[Harold_and_Kumar]

To add to the MB, what makes it even worse in my opinion is the extent to which baseball players can adapt to different positions. If you have a star center in basketball and draft a seven-footer, you can't exactly bump him to shooting guard.

Meanwhile, if you have a glut of shortstops, teach one to play second (as they did with Hill)...heck, if Adams turned into a star, Tulowitzki would make a heck of a third baseman with his arm and quick reactions.

As someone else noted, naught but stubbornness and hubris explains Romero at six; heck, I remember reading draft recaps that gave his upside immediately after the draft as 'solid #3 starter'.

yeap. I read some of those as well, I was never really happy with the pick. If i remember correctly, that was a time where JP was all about "mature, MLB-ready, college kids"

if he didnt stop with that BS, we wouldn't have Snider.

[StringerBell]

JP's biggest mistake was drafting low-ceiling university players instead of high-ceiling high-school players his first few years in charge.

...and neglecting young international players.

[asif9t9]

The worse part about this is JP has thrown Romero under the bus. Sure he made a mistake. But say stuff like, "Tulo would have been great. Not, "we made the wrong choice".

Watch Romero get dealt and then come back to make JP pay.