The Top Ten Draft Picks from the 2008 PEBA Draft: A Retrospective

Now more than ten seasons ago, the 2008 draft is still having an impact on the current environment in PEBA.  The draft is famous for its top pick, starting pitcher Markus Hancock, who has gone on to have arguably the best career of a starting pitcher and possibly player in the league’s growing history.  As a writer for the Fargo Dinosaurs since that year and to this day, I also remember that draft because Fargo had the second pick in the draft right behind Tempe, who in their general manager’s infinite wisdom did not pass on Mr. Hancock, the jewel of the draft.  As you’ll soon see, the Dinosaurs did not find the same kind of star as Tempe did. Perhaps a lesson learned from this exercise is that by looking at the remainder of the top ten picks from that draft, we may see they weren’t the only ones, and also how truly great the impact was for Tempe and possibly a few other teams that were able to find star players in the early part of the first round that year.

“With the first overall pick the Tempe Knights select…”

1. Markus Hancock – Tempe Knights

Some may not remember but part of the great story of Markus Hancock was that not only was he drafted in 2008, but he also went on to pitch ten games for Tempe that year.  In fact there was much criticism tossed Tempe’s way at the time for supposedly rushing the top pick of the draft and possibly “damaging” him with that type of reckless promotion.  And for a period of time during that season this was considered quite possible, as Hancock performed pretty terrible in his ten game exposure to the majors that season.  He managed to skim just under a 7.00 ERA and ended up walking more batters than he had struck out, (24 walks to 20 strikeouts).  But the rest is history, his next season he went on to pitch 210 innings with a 2.27 ERA and 210 strikeouts.  He made the All-Star team that season and the next 8 seasons managed to do the same.  He has amassed 93.5 WAR (wins above replacement) in his career to this day.

1. Valentín Toro – Fargo Dinosaurs

“We were torn between Toro and Saurez, and in the end decided that pitching was the way to go”. That statement was from then head scout of the Dinosaurs Scotty Ross.  “Saurez” was 2B Rafael “Bingo” Saurez, who later went on to become an All-Star 2B in PEBA.  Valentín Toro was never able to prove his second overall selection worth unfortunately for Fargo.  A high-school product, he languished in the minors for years, finally making some progress as a middle reliever by the time he made it to AAA.  He made 10 appearances at age 25 in 2015 for the Dinosaurs, including two starts.  In the 15 1/3 IP that season he gave up 11 earned runs and had a 1.50 WHIP.  His only other appearance in PEBA was in 2017 for New Orleans, when he started seven games, making 11 appearances and having a 4.67 ERA with more walks (20) than strikeouts (12).  He finished his PEBA career with 0.1 WAR, and is currently in the Mexican League.

1. Leland Tatum – Kentucky Thoroughbreds

Leland Tatum, a pitcher drafted by Kentucky has achieved a nice seven season career in PEBA all with Kentucky.  Tatum was a college draftee out of Villanova. He spent 2008 in short-season A-ball and then up to high-A.   Three seasons later and he was making his first appearance in the majors.  Tatum’s best season came in 2013, when he earned a 116 ERA+, topping 200 IP for the first time, and accruing a 4.5 WAR for the season.  Unfortunately, that was the only season as a starting pitcher that Tatum was able to finish the year with an ERA+ over 100.  In 2016, Kentucky converted Tatum to a reliever and Tatum had a resurgence, as he finished the year with a 158 ERA+ over 84 1/3 IP.  A return to the rotation in 2017 didn’t fare so well, as Tatum ended the season with a 88 ERA+, though he did a fine job of eating innings topping 200 IP for the second time in his career.  Kentucky and Tatum decided to part ways after the 2017 season and he was last seen pitching in winter league ball.  Tatum earned 10.9 WAR through his career in PEBA to date.

1. Michael Burton – Aurora Borealis

Michael Burton was a left-fielder coming out of college and was taken fourth overall by Aurora.  Burton did well to advance to AAA by his fourth season in the Aurora system, but initially struggled and dropped back down to AA in 2012 only to perform very well (hit for a 149 OPS+ in AA) and vault to AAA where he finished the season off with a 119 OPS+, and a cup of coffee in the majors in September.  He ended up spending parts of the next three seasons bouncing back and forth from AAA and the majors, and this may have had more to do with depth of Aurora’s major league squad than anything Burton was doing, as Burton performed well both in AAA and at the big league level, hitting above league average each of those seasons.  He was able to finally get chance to play more regularly in 2016, when he topped 300 at-bats, and hit for a 125 OPS+.  All and all though, he has only topped 100 games once in a season (2018) and because of this and the time he has played in RF, where he has been a worse fielder than in LF, his total WAR is only 7.1 thus far.

1. Miguel García – Manchester Maulers

I was surprised to see “Sugar Bear”, as Miguel García went by, was no longer in the league, and then while looking at his history, I was reminded that he suffered a major setback to an elbow inflammation injury in 2013 and was forced to end his career early.  This was very unfortunate, as Sugar Bear had moments of pure domination through his time in the minors.  For instance, in year following his drafting, he pitched at AA and in 13 starts had a 235 ERA+.  There is a definitely a “what if” factor with García, who knows how he would have ended up compared to Hancock if he had not suffered such a devastating setback.  All we have is just over three seasons of work with Aurora, who had acquired him thinking he would be their frontline starter for years to come, is 2.7 WAR.

1. John Gaines – Connecticut Nutmeggers

John Gaines was drafted out of high school by Connecticut.  Gaines, a pitcher, only lasted one and a half seasons within Connecticut’s farm system as he was traded in 2009 to West Virginia.  He worked his way through the West Virginia farm system as a starter, all along posting above league average ERA+ numbers and very good strikeout numbers in particular.  Gaines’ biggest issue was his control though, twice in AAA he walked over 100 hitters.  He did debut for the West Virginia Coal Sox in 2014, going 12-9 with a 3.76 ERA over 30 starts, good enough for a 2 WAR that season as a rookie.  His sophomore season didn’t go as well though, as he struggled with an ERA over 5 and ended up in the bullpen, his problems with walks became too much to overlook and in part resulted in a 1.80 WHIP that season.  He was traded to the Fargo Dinosaurs before the 2016 season.  He has since been an important part of the Fargo bullpen for four seasons up to this day posting ERA+ numbers as high as 209 in 2017 and 153 last season.  He has been good for 3.8 WAR in his career.

1. Pedro Maldanoda – Yuma Bulldozers

Pedro Maldanoda, 2B, was also drafted out of high school.  He didn’t really breakout offensively until 2013 while in AA when he posted a 139 OPS+.  He followed that up with a 146 OPS+ in 2014 after being traded to Manchester.  Unfortunately for Maldanoda he hasn’t been able to translate much of that hitting over to the bigs, though he has managed to hold a nice career with Manchester since his arrival to the majors in 2014. He’s been a slightly above average defender at 2B for his career which has helped, and considering the positional adjustment he has earned a 4.8 WAR before his 30^th birthday.

1. Luis Torres – Florida Featherheads

Luis Torres was drafted as an outfielder out of high school by Florida.  Right up there in the second tier of stars to come out of the 2008 draft, Torres has had quite a career for himself as a left-fielder.  The man has hit, hit, and only hit since being drafted. Through the minors and through his 9 year career in the majors he has never had an OPS+ below league average.  But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at his early work in the minors.  Spending his first season in short-season A ball, he batted for a 138 OPS+.  Florida didn’t immediately promote him though and he ended up repeating the level the next season.  He left the Featherhead organization not choice though as he hit for a 152 OPS+ that season with a .476 OBP.  He then went on to terrorize high A for 27 games with a 150 OPS+.  He opened the 2010 season in AA and showed a consistent bat and great eye at the plate again with an OBP of .469, he was promoted that season to AAA and hit for a 1.006 OPS.  He repeated AAA in 2013 but demolished the competition with an OBP of .580 and SLG of .560 (that’s a 213 OPS+ folks).  Debuting in the majors at the tender age of 21, in 2011, he hit right out of the gate putting up the following OPS+ numbers over the next four seasons: 136, 168, 169, 162.  You could say that he has tailed off a bit the past couple of seasons with only a 124 and 131 OPS+ numbers the past two seasons respectively, but that would only point to the level of hitting Torres achieved at his peak.  He has given Florida 48.2 WAR in his time in the majors.

1. Joe Silver – Gloucester Fishermen

Joe Silver, 2B, drafted out of college by Gloucester is another example of poor performance by a top draft pick from this draft.  Silver spent almost all of his career struggling in the minors in the Gloucester farm system.  Silver was jumped up to high A ball following his drafting, skipping right over short-season A ball, and he struggled in his initial season, only hitting for a 61 OPS+.  He was only marginally able to improve the following season as he repeated the level.  Despite the lack of offensive punch in 2009, he was promoted in 2010 to AA and had an extremely promising season, hitting for a 142 OPS+ in a near full season’s worth of games.  He was not able to replicate that again at AAA though and stalled out as a below league average hitter with a below league average glove at 2B. A few spot call ups at the big league level in his mid to late 20s, but Silver ended up retiring from baseball in 2018 after not playing at all in 2017.  He ended up with a -0.9 WAR.

1. Dennis Carter – London Underground

Dennis Carter, OF, drafted 10^th by London out of the University of South Florida has proved somewhat worthwhile as he has now played in 9 major league seasons.  Carter advanced pretty quickly through the London minor league system, hitting for an above league average OPS+ from A ball through AAA over three seasons and debuting in London in 2011.  His first few seasons brought an above average bat.  Since 2015 though he hasn’t been able to hit for league average, but has generally hit above around a 90 OPS+ and now providing an above average glove in RF.  Now in his 30s, Carter has earned a 18.1 WAR through his career to this day.