Indians Draft Picks

Every once and a while you read some minor detail that shocks you. Yesterday while reading a post on the Indians' pitching - this fact jumped out at me:

Jeremy Sowers - The former #6 overall pick is the only Indians first-round pick in the last 10 years on the roster.

Really? Mark Shapiro took over in 2001 and he's supposed to be the baseball equivalent of Scott Pioli of the New England Patriots. Right? I looked it up and the facts shook my beliefs. With the 1998 first round pick - CC Sabathia - now traded away Sowers is left as the only Indians first round pick on the roster. I don't know why that's so shocking to me.

Maybe its because I'm spoiled by the Red Sox success? Between 2001 and 2005 - here are the Red Sox top picks; Kelly Stoppach (2001), Jon Lester (2002), David Murphy (2003), Dustin Pedroia (2004) and Jacoby Ellsbury (2005). All of them are contributing for teams on the MLB level. And all the Indians have to show is Jeremy Sowers? Heck even the Yankees have a Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy to show as top picks since 2001.

I thought that Mark Shapiro was a sharp GM and a sharp judge of young talent. But looking at their starting line-up -Ryan Garko was a 3rd round pick and Ben Francisco was a 5th round pick in 2002. That's really it for draft picks. He did trade Bartolo Colon for Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore. He did trade for Travis Hafner. But he did trade Kevin Kouzmanoff for Josh Barfield. He did trade Coco Crisp for Andy Marte. He did draft Jeremy Guthrie in the first round in 2002 but then again he also gave up on Guthrie too. Now Guthrie has as many innings pitched this year and a better ERA than CC Sabathia but of course that's for Baltimore not Cleveland.

Maybe Mark Shapiro isn't all that and a bag of chips like I thought he was?

HT The Big Lead

EDIT: To clarify that Guthrie was another 1st rounder by Shapiro