Search Baseball Draft Picks by Type of School Attended — Baseball-Reference.com
Posted by Sean Forman on May 21, 2010
This afternoon, we added an option to the <a href="/draft/">draft</a> (look just below the first set of options for "Type of School Drafted From") that allows you to pick out players based on the type of school they attended: 4-year schools, jucos or high schools. We've characterized schools for about 80% of the picks, and should have most of the remainder done early next week. Some of these were sorted algorithmically, so <a href="/feedback/">please let us know if you find any schools that were miscategorized</a>.
One nice thing you can do with this select a type of school and enter a two-letter state abbreviation in the Came From option and get things like <a href="/draft/?query_type=came_from&came_from=MI&from_type_4y=1">All of the 4-yr School Draft Picks from Michigan schools</a>, and then sort them by who had the most wins above replacement, or overall pick or year or position.
May 21st, 2010 at 6:38 pm
I'm glad to see that DC works in the "Came From" box. The drafted players search function on the MLB.com web site does not include District of Columbia in its dropdown box. True, DC doesn't get many players drafted, but neither do some small states in cold climates such as Vermont, yet they are represented. (Anyone have a contact at the MLB.com web site that I could get through to before this year's draft to see about getting this fixed?) I also tried PR, since Puerto Rico is now part of the draft, and that also worked. I did not know the correct codes to use for Canada (or individual provinces), and I didn't try the other U.S. territories, such as the U.S. Virgin Islands, because I don't know if they are part of the draft.
I have one nitpicking (or maybe more major than nitpicking) complaint regarding where someone came from. I'll use Luke Hochevar as an example. In my book, when Hochevar was drafted by the Royals in 2006, he was from the University of Tennessee, even though he had left the school and was playing independent ball. However, he is always listed as being from "None" or "No school" or, in this database, "NULL". (As a computer person, I understand where this NULL comes from.)
My reasoning is that the most recent school where a drafted player participated in baseball should be what is listed as where he was drafted from, even if he did not play there this most recent school year. In a rare case where a drafted player did not play scholastic baseball, then perhaps "No school"/"None"/"NULL" is justified. I think, but I'm not certain, that Jose Mesa's son Juan, who was drafted by the Pirates in 2005, may fit this situation. While Luke Hochvar is listed here as "NULL", Juan Mesa is shown as "No school", with his hometown of Miami next to it.
There's a guy who was drafted from the University of Kentucky by Toronto last year, did not sign, wanted to return to the Wildcats, but had some eligibility questions raised due to his use of an agent in his dealings with the Blue Jays. I think he is now with an independent team. I'm guessing that if he gets drafted this year (and it sounds like he is a legitimate prospect and probably will), he will also be listed as "No school"/"None"/"NULL". But of course, I think he should be listed as University of Kentucky.
I know I'm probably in the minority of thinking this way, so NULL is probably here to stay. I did a search for "NULL" in the "Came From" box and got some interesting results. In addition to a lot of players who probably had situations similar to Hochevar's, there were a few "Selection voided" entries, mainly from the 1990s and a lot from the earliest years of the draft marked "No Selection".
Putting No School in the "Came From" box did not bring back any results. Modifying it by adding "(Miami, FL)" brought up both Juan Mesa and a 2007 Cubs draft pick named Roberto Sabates.
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:58 am
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May 23rd, 2010 at 1:41 pm
I got curious about how the "Drafted Out of" column would appear for Matt Harrington, a top prospect high school pitcher in 2000 who didn't sign with the Rockies that year and then was drafted over the next four years without either going to college or signing. (One of the stupidest decisions by a prospect ever, in my opinion and probably the opinion of others.)
The following is not going to line up properly, but I didn't know how to import it any better.
Year Rnd DT OvPck FrRnd RdPck Tm Pos WAR G AB HR BA OPS G W L ERA WHIP SV Type Drafted Out of
2004 36 1089 FrRnd 28 Yankees Matthew Harrington RHP No School (Palmdale, CA)
2003 24 711 FrRnd 14 Reds Matthew Harrington RHP No School (Palmdale, CA)
2002 13 374 FrRnd 2 Devil Rays Matt Harrington RHP NULL
2001 2 58 FrRnd 14 Padres Matt Harrington (minors) RHP Palmdale (Palmdale, CA)
2000 1 7 FrRnd 7 Rockies Matt Harrington (minors) RHP HS Palmdale HS (Palmdale, CA)
To be honest, it would have looked ridiculous for him to have been listed as being from Palmdale High School four years after graduation. And that's probably why his situation and those of Hochevar and others are also handled this way.
The guy from Kentucky who didn't sign with the Blue Jays last year is James Paxton, who was a first round supplemental pick as compensation for the loss of A.J. Burnett.