Adored high school pitchers?

Hamels was drafted by the Phillies in the 1st round of the 2002 MLB Draft from Rancho Bernardo high school 

It’s been almost 17 years since the book Moneyball published. The book has changed baseball and sports in several perspectives. As I read the book again, these lines really capture my attention again, “The scouts adored high school players, and they especially adored high school pitchers. High school pitchers were so far away from being who they would be when they grew up that you could imagine them becoming almost anything. High school pitchers also had brand-new arms, and brand-new arms were able to generate the one asset scouts could measure: fastball’s velocity. The most important quality in a pitcher was not his brute strength but his ability to deceive, and deception took many forms.”

The book was published in 2003. After the book was published, who did Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta each select in the 2004 draft? Any changes in the MLB draft?

Looking back to the first round (including supplemental round) picks draft from 2000 to 2005. There are 251 baseball players selected in the first round, among these players, 136 players from college and 115 players from high school. Only in 2000, more high school players were selected in the first round than college players. We can’t really tell whether college or high school players are much more favorable in the first round. However, from those players selected from high school, nearly 49% were pitchers. To some extent, high school pitchers are easier to get attention from scouts or the front office. For example, James Loney was exceptional as a pitcher in high school and most professional interests were on his pitching ability. Adam Jones was selected by the Mariners as a shortstop/pitcher, many experts believed that Marines would use him as a pitcher.

	First Round Picks	College	High School	High School Pitchers	Note
2000	40	15	25	13
2001	44	25	19	10
2002	41	22	19	9	James Loney 1B-P
2003	37	20	17	7	Adam Jones SS-P
2004	41	25	16	8
2005	48	29	19	10
Total	251	136	115	56

In 2004, Paul DePodesta, a key role of the Oakland Athletics front office, became the Dodgers general manager. In the 2004 draft, the Dodgers had 3 picks in the first round.

Pick	Player	School (Type)	Position
17	Scott Elbert	High School	Pitcher
28	Blake DeWitt	High School	Infielder
33	Justin Orenduff	College	Pitcher

DePodesta used his very first pick as a GM to select a high school pitcher and then a high school infielder.

How about Billy Beane? Did he select high school pitchers?

Pick	Player	School (Type)	Position
24	Landon Powell	College	Catcher
26	Richard Robnett	College	Center Fielder
36	Danny Putnam	College	Outfielder
40	Huston Street	College	Pitcher

Billy Beane had 4 picks and none of these picks were used to select a high school pitcher.

Previously, scouts might highly prefer high school pitchers as mentioned in the Moneyball. However, the front offices may not necessarily use their first round picks to select high school pitchers as we saw the first round draft results from 2000 to 2005. After the book was published, Paul DePodesta actually selected a high school pitcher in his first pick as a Dodgers GM while Billy Beane chose a college catcher. There are several factors to decide whom to select in the MLB draft. Also, there are several ways to evaluate players’ talents and potentials whether they are from college or high school. When we look back at the draft in 2004, we probably will not say that Paul DePodesta and Billy Beane made the right choices in their first picks. Neither Scott Elbert nor Landon Powell had an impressive career. Nonetheless, Houston Street won the rookie of the year in 2005 and was a 2-time all-star. Blake DeWitt used to be an everyday player with the Dodgers. These 2 picks are actually good, but they are just not high school pitchers.