Wednesday, August 21, 2013

MLB - AL Contenders Home Grown

When the MLB regular season starts to wrap up and the playoff contenders start to show their colors I always have one constant thought every year.  Which of these teams have a team that truly was built from within (draft) and which team was built through free-agency and trades?

There is not a right or wrong way to build a team, each team has its own philosophy and some are successful and some are not.  This article is not to argue which philosophy is correct it’s intended for those curious minds that just wonder, like mine, which playoff contenders is the most “home” grown. 

The following will show the American League teams in contention and the players that were drafted by that particular team.  Again, I am only doing the teams that I believe still has a chance to make the playoffs via Division Winner or Wild Card.  I am also including foreign born players that were not drafted, because MLB teams need to go through many steps to obtain one of these particular players and most countries will not allow their players to be eligible for the draft.
American League East:  (% drafter players of Current Roster)

Tampa Bay Rays: (24%)                        Boston Red Sox (40%)                    Baltimore Orioles (28%)
Alex Cobb                                                Drake Britton                                   Wei-Yin Chin
Jeremy Hellickson                                  Felix Doubroni                                 Jim Johnson      
Jake McGee                                            Jon Lester                                         Brian Matusz
David Price                                             Junichi Tazawa                                 Matt Weters
Evan Longoria                                        Brandon Workman                         Manny Machado
Desmond Jennings                                Xander Bogaerts                             Brian Roberts
                                                                 Will Middlebrooks                          Nick Markakis
                                                                 Dustin Pedroia
                                                                 Jacoby Ellisbury
                                                                 Daniel Nava


American League Central: (% drafter players of Current Roster)
Detroit Tigers: (40%)                       Cleveland Indians:(16%)
Rick Porcello                                     Cody Allen
Bruce Rondon                                   Danny Salazar                  
Drew Smyly                                       Lonnie Chisenhall         
Justin Verlander                               Jason Kipnis 
Bryan Holaday                                  
Alex Avila
Omar Infante
Ramon Santiago
Andy Dirks
Don Kelly    
American League West: (% drafter players of Current Roster)
Texas Ranger:  (40%)                      Oakland A’s :(20%)
Yu Darvish                                         Sean Doolittle
Derek Holland                                  Sonny Gray
Martin Perez                                     A.J. Griffin
Robbie Ross                                      Dan Straily
Tanner Scheppers                            Yoenis Cespedes
Ian Kinsler
Mitch Moreland
Jurickson Profar
Craig Gentry
Leonys Martin  
Wild Card: (% drafter players of Current Roster)

New York Yankees : (48%)            Kansas City Royals: (48%)

J
oba Chamberlain                          Louis Coleman
Phil Hughes                                     Aaron Crow
Ivan Nova                                        Kelvin Herrera
Andy Pettitte                                  Luke Hochevar
Mariano Rivera                              Greg Holland
David Robinson                              Salvador Perez
Adam Warren                                 Eric Hosmer
Austin Romaine                              Mike Moustakas
Robinson Cano                               Jarrod Dyson
Eduardo Nunez                              Alex Gordon
Brett Gardner                                 David Lough
Alfonso Soriano                              Billy Butler

*All Research for the Players was through www.baseball-reference.com

Prior to the research I had a pre-notion of which teams would be towards the top and I was correct on some of them.  There were some surprises, such as the New York Yankees having forty-eight percent of their major league squad being from their farm system.  I was equally surprised that the Oakland A’s had only twenty percent on theirs
This should be a lesson learned:  beware of assumptions.  So many years’ baseball fans have heard comments that applied that the Yankees are big spenders and will buy what is needed and that the A’s are built through the draft.  As you can see here facts prove different.

4 comments:

  1. Your Yankee stat is a little skewed because Soriano and Pettitte are on the team because of trades or free agent signings. They should be at 40% with 10 players like a lot of other teams. But yeah, the Yanks keep a lot of players, and a lot of the A's success comes not from their drafts, but from trading people who are going to be free agents and replenishing their farm system that way.

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    Replies
    1. They were drafted by the Yankees but were traded and then traded back to the team. So you are right it is a little skewed because the two players in questions didn't stay with the team.

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  2. I think you have a typo for the Indians players. I believe those are all Red Sox players.

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