This made me laugh.

[Michael Bradley]

The Romero pick was much worse. I believe it was Baseball Prospectus that called it a franchise altering draft, and for the Jays that certainly seems appropriate. Tulowitzki, Maybin, Bruce, Ellsbury, Garza, Rasmus, Buchholz, etc, were passed on. Missing out on Kazmir, Hamels, Cain, etc, was bad in 2002, but at least there is an excuse that the Jays were losing a ton of money and may not have been able to afford some guys, but there's no excuse for Romero. Mind boggling on the Araujo scale.

[Schad]

IMO I think Russ can develop into a decent player. He is not an outfielder though, I think he's a 2B and with the Jays having Aaron Hill at 2B and Scott Campbell at AA waiting in the wings, I don't see him taking their spots.

Russ leads the Chiefs in HR's and RBI's, second in TB and walks and he gets on base pretty well. He doesn't hit for average but he is almost hitting over .300 (.294) with RISP, which can be said for something because the Jays as a team hit under .250 with RISP.

He can be a good player...he's just not on the right team.

I'm not so sure...the early-season power might be a bit of a fluke. His power numbers have gradually increased each year, but last year he topped out at 13 HRs in 500 ABs (~550 PAs), so a jump to the 20+ range would certainly raise eyebrows. Even in the minors, his OPS has consistently been in the .730-.750 range; that's a tick below average for the major league level, let alone AAA.

With his suspect glove, the only place I can see a fit would be as a National League super-utility guy and left-handed bat off the bench.

[The_Hater]

2002 MLB Draft

#14 Russ Adams
#15 Scott Kazmir
#16 Nick Swisher
#17 Cole Hamels

6 P Ricardo Rimero
7 SS Troy Tulowitski
10 OF Cameron Maybin
12 OF Jay Bruce
23 OF Jacoby Ellsbury

The list could go on

These 2 drafts illustrate the joke that JP is. Not so much that he picked the wrong guy as much for as his reasoning.

First he passes on 2 stud pitchers for Adams who only proved over time that he never had the arm to play the position he was being drafted to play. Then he passes on Tulowitski for a pitcher stating at the time (paraphrasing) that they're not going to be able to get good pitching without drafting it.

Of course the real issue in passing on Hamels and Kazmir was that JP refused to pick high schoolers which was partly based on Billy Beane's moneyball principals. Funny but this seems to be the only principals he brought with him from Oakland because everything else he has done seems to be anti-moneyball.

He just seems to be flying by the seat of his pants every season.

[Raptor_Guy]

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Wow.... yeah I recall him saying that.... we all know that in the NBA, it's always best to draft by "best player available"... well this rule should be EVEN MORE enforced in baseball because the drafted players don't even see action for at least a couple of seasons! so one need during the season can be completely filled by next season, and so on.... what a dumbass move by JP

I know! I never understood that at all, why draft by position when that players isn't even gonna make it to the Big Leagues for another 3 or 4 years AT LEAST.

[evilRyu]

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I know! I never understood that at all, why draft by position when that players isn't even gonna make it to the Big Leagues for another 3 or 4 years AT LEAST.

It's so true...... I never understand it one bit!