Top Draft Picks

My parents can back this up, I love drafts. I have always watched them, been obsessed by them. I remember in my elementary days reading about Ben McDonald and how his baseball cards were a prime card to get because he was a can't miss guy. What happened to him? He was average at best for a few years. That's why the draft is so great. It's kind of like the band Audioslave.

Audioslave is made up of the instrument section of Rage Against the Machine (my favorite band in HS) and the lead singer from Soundgarden (another adolescent favorite). When I was in college this all came together and I was excited. Looking at the "statistics" this band could not miss. Boy was I wrong. Audioslave sucks. That's why sports drafts are so much fun. One could argue that Pervis Ellison is the Audioslave of NBA top picks. Anyway you look at it, it's entertaining. Some busts you can see coming a mile away. I mean, who didn't see Ki-Jana Carter being a bust in the NFL? I called that one and I was only 13 at the time.

Anyway, in this post I'll go over the #1 picks in the NBA, NFL, and MLB drafts dating back to 1980. I guarantee you forgot some of these guys ever even existed. There will also be several very funny pictures. Here we go...

1980

MLB: Darryl Strawberry (Did lots of cocaine, hit 335 HRs)
NBA: Joe Barry Carroll (Nicknamed "Joe Barely Cares", picked before Kevin McHale)
NFL: Billy Sims (Played in 60 career games, picked before Anthony Munoz)
Verdict: Pretty lame top picks. They all fell far short of potential, some would say they squandered great gifts. 5/10

1981

MLB: Mike Moore (Won 161 games, solid career, picked before Tony Gwynn)
NBA: Mark Aguirre (Career average of 20ppg, 3-time all star, picked before Isiah Thomas)
NFL: George Rogers (Heisman trophy winner lasted 7 seasons, picked before Lawrence Taylor)
Verdict: Better than 1980, but not amazing. 6/10

1982

MLB: Shawon Dunston (Solid, 2 time allstar, played until he was 39, picked before David Wells)
NBA: James Worthy (7-time allstar, in the Hall of Fame)
NFL: Kenneth Sims (8 seasons, 17 career sacks, lousy, drafted before Marcus Allen)
Verdict: Worthy classes up this year. 7.2/10

1983

MLB: Tim Belcher (He sucked for the Tigers, 146 wins, picked before Roger Clemens)
NBA: Ralph Sampson (Bust. Had three good year, injuries ruined him, picked before Clyde Drexler)
NFL: John Elway (Hall of Famer, two time Super Bowl Winner)
Verdict: Doesn't get much better than Elway. 7.3/10

1984

MLB: Shawn Abner (Lifetime #s: 11HR, .227 avg, done by age 26, picked before Greg Maddux)
NBA : Hakeem Olajuwon (Hall of Fame, 2 titles, picked before Michael Jordan)
NFL: Irving Fryar (10th all time in catches, 5 Pro Bowls, picked before Boomer Esiason)
Verdict: Not bad at all, except for Abner. 8.3/10

1985

MLB: BJ Surhoff (Solid career, 2,300 hits, picked before Barry Bonds, Will Clark, etc.)
NBA: Patrick Ewing (9-time allstar, never won a title, picked before Uwe Blab)
NFL: Bruce Smith (NFL record 200 sacks, 11 pro bowls, picked before Jerry Rice)
Verdict: Best draft so far, 2 certain Hall of Famers. 9/10.

1986

MLB: Jeff King (I liked him on the Pirate, 154 HR, picked before Gary Sheffield)
NBA: Brad Daugherty (Came in with high hopes, lots of injuries, only 8 seasons, picked ahead of Dennis Rodman and Len Bias)
NFL: Bo Jackson (Amazing for his short time before the injuries, picked ahead of Pat Swilling)
Verdict: Meh, injuries really hurt this class. 6.5/10

1987

MLB: Ken Griffy Jr. (Great career despite the injuries, 563 HR, picked ahead of Craig Biggio)
NBA: David Robinson (The ultimate pro, Hall of Famer, picked ahead of Scottie Pippen)
NFL: Vinny Testaverde (Pretty good career, he's still playing actually, picked ahead of Rod Woodson)
Verdict: This is up there with the 1985 class, two hall of famers, 9.1/10

1988

MLB: Andy Benes (Solid, 155 wins, never an ace, picked ahead of Tino Martinez)
NBA: Danny Manning (Too many injuries, just a solid career, picked ahead of Mitch Richmond)
NFL: Aundray Bruce (Total bust, picked ahead of Tim Brown)
Verdict: Wow, pretty bad, worst so far. 4/10

1989

MLB: Ben McDonald (Major hype, responded with 78 wins, picked ahead of Frank Thomas)
NBA: Pervis Ellison (Not a very good player, 9.5ppg, picked ahead of Glen Rice)
NFL: Troy Aikman (A legend, multiple Super Bowls, picked ahead of Barry Sanders)
Verdict: Aikman saved them from being the worst so far. 6.3/10

1990

MLB: Chipper Jones (Has had a great career in ATL, won an MVP, picked ahead of Mike Mussina)
NBA: Derrick Coleman (Some say he could have been an alltime great, picked ahead of Gary Payton)
NFL: Jeff George (Another guy with lots of talent who let his attitude get in the way, picked ahead of Emmitt Smith)
Verdict: George and Coleman take away from Jones. 7.2/10

1991

MLB: Brien Taylor (Total Bust, never made it to the Majors, picked ahead of Manny Ramirez)
NBA: Larry Johnson (16ppg, career cut short by injuries, picked ahead of Mutombo)
NFL: Russell Maryland (Average career, nothing spectacular, picked ahead of Brett Favre)
Verdict: Pretty weak class here, gotta be towards the bottom. 4.2/10

1992

MLB: Phil Nevin (Late bloomer hit 208 HR, one all star game, picked ahead of Derek Jeter the best player of all time)
NBA: Shaquille O'Neal (One of the best of all time, picked ahead of Adam Keefe and Matt Steigenga)
NFL: Steven Emtman (Retired at the ripe age of 27, picked ahead of Terrell Buckley)
Verdict: Shaq saves them some. (7/10)

1993

MLB: Alex Rodriguez (He's good, 31 yrs old and 464 HR, picked ahead of Darren Dreifort)
NBA: Chris Webber (One of the best PF of alltime, kind of lame now, picked ahead of Mike Peplowski)
NFL: Drew Bledsoe (Pretty good career, 4 ProBowls, picked before Willie Roaf)
Verdict: One of the best classes. 8.9/10

1994

MLB: Paul Wilson (Lots of hype, lots of injuries, 40-58 in 7 seasons, picked ahead of Paul Konerko)
NBA: Glenn Robinson (Big Dog has been okay, 2 all star games, picked ahead of Jason Kidd)
NFL: Dan Wilkinson (Flop. Big Daddy has 54 career sacks and played yet this season, picked ahead of Marshall Faulk)
Verdict: Pretty disappointing all the way around. 5.7/10

1995

MLB: Darin Erstad (Had a few good years, still playing but not very well, picked ahead of Roy Halladay)
NBA: Joe Smith (The Darin Erstad of the NBA, picked ahead of Kevin Garnett)
NFL: Ki-Jana Carter (Yuck, 1,127 career yards says it all, picked ahead of Steve McNair)
Verdict: Erstad and Smith have been solid, keeping the from being the worst. 4.1/10

1996

MLB: Kris Benson (68-73 career record. Married to a model, picked ahead of Eric Chavez)
NBA: Allen Iverson (28ppg for his career, 7 time allstar, picked ahead of Jamie Feick)
NFL: Keyshawn Johnson (814 career receptions, a notorious jerk, picked ahead of Marvin Harrison)
Verdict: Pretty good class actually, full of characters. 8.4/10

1997

MLB: Matt Anderson (Threw really hard but hurt his arm throwing an octopus, picked ahead of Vernon Wells)
NBA: Tim Duncan (No complaints, 2 time champ, multiple allstar, picked ahead of Adonal Foyle)
NFL: Orlando Pace (Multiple AllPro, Super Bowl Champ, picked ahead of Tiki Barber)
Verdict: Anderson hurts this group a lot. 8/10

1998

MLB: Pat Burrell (Decent player who makes way too much money, picked ahead of Barry Zito and Nate Cornejo)
NBA: Michael Olowokandi (8.6ppg and 7 rpg for his career, picked ahead of Dirk Nowitzki)
NFL: Peyton Manning (One of the best of all time, picked ahead of Ryan Leaf and Curtis Enis)
Verdict: Manning bumps them way up, 7.7/10

1999

MLB: Josh Hamilton (Heroin addict has never played in the big leagues, picked ahead of Carl Crawford)
NBA: Elton Brand (Allstar has been stuck on lousy teams for most of his career, picked ahead of Trajan Langdon)
NFL: Tim Couch (Lasted five seasons in the NFL, his career is over, picked ahead of Champ Bailey)
Verdict: Pretty lousy, Brand saves them from being the worst. 6.1/10

2000

MLB: Adrian Gonzalez (Hit 24 HR in his first full season last year, picked ahead of Chase Utley)
NBA: Kenyon Martin (Injury plagued career, one all star game, picked ahead of Michael Redd)
NFL: Courtney Brown (19 sacks in 7 seasons, safe to say he's a bust, picked ahead of Brian Urlacher)
Verdict: Martin's draft as whole was lousy so it's not his fault he was #1. 5.9/10

2001

MLB: Joe Mauer (Won the batting title last year, great player, picked ahead of Jeremy Bonderman)
NBA: Kwame Brown (Michael Jordan ruined his life, picked ahead of Gilbert Arenas)
NFL: Michael Vick (One of the most overrated athletes of all time, picked ahead of LaDainian Tomlinson)
Verdict: Still a fare amount of talent here. 7.9/10

2002

MLB: Bryan Bullington ( Has thrown one inning so far, not a great start, picked ahead of Prince Fielder)
NBA: Yao Ming (Best center in the NBA, gets better each season, picked ahead of Marcus Taylor)
NFL: David Carr (Time's running out for him to prove himself, picked ahead of Julius Peppers)
Verdict: Ming helps, the other two are fast running out of time. 7/10

2003

MLB: Delmon Young (Can hit like crazy, but he is crazy, picked ahead of Lastings Milledge)
NBA: LeBron James (No complaints. Picked ahead of Steve Blake)
NFL: Carson Palmer (Great player, rebounded from injury, picked ahead of Charles Rogers)
Verdict: Yeesh, this could be three hall of famers. 9.3/10

2004

MLB: Matthew Bush (Lousy numbers in the minors so far, .220, picked ahead of Justin Verlander)
NBA: Dwight Howard (Getting better each season, rebounding machine, picked ahead of Robert Swift)
NFL: Eli Manning (Rating has gone up all three years, but people are losing patience, picked ahead of Philip Rivers)
Verdict: Bush hurts this draft, Manning makes or breaks it for the future. 6.8/10

2005

MLB: Justin Upton (Hit .263 at South Bend (A), better be good, he's on my fantasy team, picked ahead of Alex Gordon)
NBA: Andrew Bogut (Already can tell he'll be solid, but not great, picked ahead of Chris Paul)
NFL: Alex Smith (Played a lot better this year in his 2nd season, picked ahead of Shawne Merriman)
Verdict: Seems like each team could have picked someone who's much better already. 6.3/10

2006

MLB: Luke Hochevar (Was picked first because he was affordable to the Royals, picked ahead of Andrew Miller)
NBA: Andrea Bargnani (Picking up his game, already better than Darko, picked ahead of Brandon Roy)
NFL: Mario Williams (Up and down rookie season, mostly down, picked ahead of Reggie Bush)
Verdict: 7/10 give or take 3.


That took a long time. I learned a lot, hope you enjoy it. It was taking too long to get all the pictures, sorry.