1982 Baseball Draft

David Wells was taken in the 2nd round of the 1982 baseball draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. This little tidbit made me want to take a look back at that draft.

Shawon Dunston was the first overall pick. He was taken by the Cubs and he had a very decent career - playing for 18 years in the big leagues. That's 18 more seasons than what the number 2 pick - Auggie Schmidt managed. Auggie was taken second by the Blue Jays (who rebounded very nicely in the second round by taking Wells).

Dwight Gooden was the third pitcher taken in the draft. He went fifth to the Mets just after the Padres took RHP Jimmy Jones and the Twins took LHP Brian Oelkers. Do you think Gooden's career might have been different if he was taken by Minnesota instead of heading off to the bright lights, big city of NYC?

The rest of the first round of the draft is mostly forgetable though it is interesting to note that the Red Sox took the world's worst in-studio analyst Sam Horn with the 16th pick and the Brewers took current Red Sox third base coach Dave Sveum with the 25th pick. That's pretty cool that a guy picked before Wells in the same draft is now one of his coaches.