Cooperstown Diamond Legends

2019 Draft

The first pick goes to the Giants and they select SS Marc-Antony Laporte, I bet Chuck wishes he had that one back as Laporte had 68 hits in his ML career.  Greg Moe's Tigers pick #6 and they select future Hall of Famer RF Jose Garcia who played over 2700 games in his 21 year career and retires as the single season (148) and the All Time stolen base leader with 1516.

 

2020 Draft

This draft turns out to be a very good one with 4 future Hall of Famers selected.  The Cubs have the 1st choice and Nick selects one of the games all time greats in 1B Mike Moustakas, 658 career HR's.  Chuck redeems himself this year with the #3 pick LF Wladamir Balentien, 19 years with SF and 3321 career hits.  Greg's Tigers come up big again snagging LF Brandon Moss at #15. Moss spends 14 years in Detroit and has a .330 career BA.  The 4th HOF'er winds up being one of the biggest steals in draft history.  1B Donald Robinson had over 600 HR's and over 3000 hits and he was Colorado's 9th pick in round 7! 

 

2021 Draft

The Giants again selected #1 and Chuck's selection of LF Michael Saunders won ROY in 2023 and was a 5-time All Star.  The next 3 picks by the Mets, A's and Reds never made it to the Bigs.  But, there were 2 future HOF'ers selected in round 1.  Ken Lonc selected 3B Aaro Bates #5 and he played 9 seasons in Chicago, won a Babe Ruth Award and was a 8-time All Star.  New Rockies GM Terry Ladislas made his first ever pick his best one selecting 1B Matt Tolbert with the 7th pick and all he did was hit 755 career HR's, 6th on the all time list.  Kansas City had the steal of the draft with the 192nd player chosen, 1B Dan Montgomery hit 407 HR's in his 12 year career. The #9 pick ij  round 1 Michael Bourn is one of only 11 players to have over 1000 career stolen bases (1038).

 

2022 Draft

Five of the first 6 players selected are pitchers, the Reds select MR Jared Burton at #3 and appears in over 1300 games with an ERA around 4.  The other 4 pitchers have a total of 22 Major League victories.  Three more HOF'ers go in the draft, Craig Eccles Marlins select C JP Arencibia at #7 and he becomes the only catcher in league history to hit over 600 HR's.  Walt's Phillies select RF Ben Waldron with the 15th pick and he gets 6 All Star appearances to go with his 558 career dingers.  GM Tracy Wittish pulls a rabbit out of a hat with the 11th pick in round 6 selecting 3B Phil Colvin.  Colvin snags a Babe Ruth Award, 8 All Star games, 2 Gold Gloves, 693 HR's and is the CDL's All Time Leader in at bats with 12,361, not bad!

 

2023 Draft

You have to go all the way to pick 18 in round 1 to get a HOF selection as Matt's Brew Crew picks up LF Juan Miranda.  Juan hits 602 HR's to go along with his 9 All Star selections.  Chuck's Giants pick up a gem in round 3 at #6, but trades him away for SP Pat Maholm who piches just 3 years in SF and goes 37-32.  Meanwhile the pick, 3B Matthew Lumby joins the 3000 hit club with 19 years in Oakland.  Not a bad deal for Bob Devoe's Oakland A's.  Wow, just noticed not much going on with pitchers in the last 5 years, we'll see what lies ahead.

 

2024 Draft

The Brewers make a nice pick at #1 with RF Ron Davis hitting over 400 long ones.  The only HOF selction was in round 2 with pick 24 the White Sox selcted LF Ben Sapp.  Sapp wins a Babe Ruth Award and 5 All Star appearances in 14 years in Chicago.  Steal of the draft goes to the Cardinals as Chris Daley rolls the dice on 1B Cisco Marquez and comes up with a lucky 7 and 444 career HR's, not bad for a 7th rounder!

 

2025 Draft

The #1 pick belongs to Boston and they blow it by selecting a relief pitcher who does very little in 6 years, but he did his time after he traded to the Yankees.  At #3 a solid SP is finally selcted by Oakland, not a HOF'er, but Jose Torres did win 256 games and a Cy Young Award.  The very next pick at #4 RF Bill Snell was a HOF'er as he hit .303 with all 16 of his years in Baltimore, playing for Steve Brisbois Orioles.  3B Julio Sandoval was the 24th pick in round 2 by the Pirates and 19 years in ML got him into the Cooperstown HOF.  The Padres got a very, very rare find in round #9 with pick #227 of the draft, LF Francisco Alomar had 960 stolen bases #15 all time in his 15 year career, all in San Diego.

 

2026 Draft

With the #1 pick in the draft the Dodgers got the pitcher they wanted and he gave them a 19-32 record in 3 ML seasons.  SP's went 2 and 3 also but again no prizes to be had.  You have to go all the way to pick 27 in round 1 to get the drafts 1st HOF player, 1B Pedro Granados, 3064 hits in 17 Major League seasons.  Round 6 produced the gem of the draft as Paul Groenig selects future HOF'er LF Francisco Iglesias.  515 HR's and just 16 hits shy of 3000 in his 18 years in Minnesota., plus 2 Babe Ruth Awards and an 8-time All Star.  Paul hit gold again, sort of.  After Detroit selected 3B Scott Brandt with the 20th pick in round #10, yes 10.  The Tigers released him 16 months later, the Twins signed him and he wound up hitting 375 big league homers.

 

2027 Draft

This draft did not produce a HOF player but the 1st 4 picks did have some success.  #1 pick SP Francisco Vargas snagged a Cy Young Award in his 2nd season with the Cardinals.  Florida picked #2 and RF Dave Barrett won a Babe Ruth Award in 2035.  SP Albert Wilkerson gave San Diego 13 good seasons and a Cy Young Award.  And finally Baltimore 3B Dave Padgett won a ROY Award in 2029.  Sleeper pick went to Jean-Thomas Thibodeau, the Reds 6th rounder hit 390 career homers including 65 of them in 2036.  The 9th pick in round 3 by the Mariners Rich Davis is one of only 6 players to have over 700 career doubles (703).

 

2028 Draft

Houston picks first and gets a nice closer, Johnny Herman, a 5-time All Star with 268 saves.  #2 is even better for Baltimore as they select catcher Willard McDaniel winds up with 3 homers short of 500 in his career.  The Reds pick up a HOF'er with pick 3, Bobby O'Quinn rack up 523 saves in his 16 year career at Cincinnati.  Pick 10 in round 2 is a 1B Nelson Hernandez, selected by Boston and he hits .307 in 14 Major League seasons to get inducted into the Hall.  The pick of the draft goes to San Diego with HOF 3B John Moore.  The 1st pick of round 5, Moore plays 22 years in the bigs, collecting 3267 hits 16th on the All Time List and 6 All Star appearances.

 

2029 Draft

With the #1 pick in the 2029 draft the Detroit Tigers select SP Ryan Harris.  All Harris did was appear in 8 All Star games, have 266 ML wins and in 17 ML seasons wins 6 Cy Young Awards and have a Hall of Fame induction.  The Giants then pull off a first as they draft not 1 but 2 future HOF'ers in the first round.  Picking 6th the select CF William Logan who hits .311 in 17 ML seasons.  Their 22nd picks LF David Snyder plays 21 seasons and collects 3173 hits and ranks #5 on the doubles list with 749.  You have to go all the down to round 6 to see the next future HOF selected, 3B Paco Pena.  He joins the 3000 hit club in 19 seasons.  LF Luis Ramos plays all 20 of his big league seasons for the Angels, hits 562 HR's and inducted in to the HOF, you will not see a better 10th round selection than that.  SS Bryce Jacobs didn't have a HOF career, but another player selected in the 10th round and he played 18 ML seasons.

 

2030 Draft

As good as the 2029 draft was producing 5 future HOF, the 2030 draft has no player make it to Cooperstown.  The best player to be found was relief pitcher Daniel O'Quinn selcted by Toronto with the #9 pick in round 2.  O'Quinn plays all 18 years with the Blue Jays with 389 saves.

 

2031 Draft

Montreal selects SP Chris Downey at #4 and this hard throwing lefty notches 2 Cy Young Awards to go with his 9 All Star appearances.  Downey had at least 200 K's in his first 16 seasons and 4614 for his HOF career #4 All Time.  At #10 in round 1 Houston selects RF Harry Taylor.  HOF Taylor is in a class by himself as he is the only player in CDL history to join the 600-600 club, hitting 629 HR's and stealing  695 bases. 

 

2032 Draft

With the 5th pick Atlanta selects HOF LF Gullermo Moreno.  G-Mo has a .314 lifetime BA and a 6-time All Star. Boston makes Closer Nick Childs their #11 pick in round one and becomes their main man in the pen at just 19 years of age.  Childs racks up 558 saves in his HOF 20 year career.  Stan Thompson was the #7th pick in round 1 he pitched in 1,110 and has the 2nd lowest career ERA in history at 2.31

 

2033 Draft

Colorado picks #9 and comes away with one of their best players in team history, HOF 2B Pedro Arvajo.  593 HR's, a .318 BA, 11 All Star appearances, 2 Babe Ruth Awards and in 1942 Pedro won the Triple Crown.  Selecting #11 Houston takes SS Barry Vaughn.  Vaughn makes it to the HOF with his .311 career average, but is more noted for his CDL single season record of 199 singles in the 2041 season.  Great pick for Seattle in round 11 as they pickup catcher Carlos Manuel as he plays all but 1 of his 15 seasons for the Mariners and hits 413 career home runs.

 

2034 Draft

Two players with over 500 HR's  a closer with over 5oo saves and a 2-time Cy Young winner were among the first 20 picks.  Montreal 1B Homer Gardner hit 528 in 13 seasons with the Expos.  The 19th pick by the Brewers Juan Cardenas hit 549 HR's in his 18 year career.  The Mets selected Gerald McLaughlin with the 5th pick and he won 2 back to back Cy Young Awards for  the Yankees.  The Cubs selected closer Jose Ortiz and in 16 seasons he had  532 saves. All 4 players were selected to the HOF.  Pitcher Colin Yoder was the 25th pick in Round #14 and all he did was get 399 saves and 6 All Star appearances, great pick for the Pads.

 

2035 Draft

A very quiet draft in that only one HOF was selected, P Francisco Morales was the #3 overall pick by Atlanta.  Morales ended his 19 year career with 239 victories., 1 Cy Young Award and 10 All-Star appearances.

 

2036 Draft

The 2036 draft was highlighted by a 3rd round selection of the Houston Astros that went on the become one of the best of All time.  1B Ron Cranstoun played all 16 years in Houston and  ranks 7th on the All Time list with 711 Home Runs. A 6 time Babe Ruth Award winner and 9 time All Star also ranks 4th All Time in OPS with 1.050.  Seattle selected OF Javier Gonzalez with the 10th pick and in 19 seasons he hit 646 HR's as well as ROY, Babe Ruth Award, 2 Gold Gloves and 5 All Star appaearances. 

 

2037 Draft

Seattle followed up the 36 draft with anither great pick selecting SP Jorge Perez #7 overall and he had 9 All star appearances and 4 Cy Young Awards along with his 212 wins and 2.78 ERA.  Michael Henderson was the 9th pick in the draft by the Mets and was involved in a 13 player deal that landed him in Houston where he made 8 of his 9 All Star appearances in his 16 seasons, not one of them in NY.  The 3rd HOF'er selected in round 1 was the #13 pick by Baltimore 1B Jose Salgado.  He hit 576 HR's, ROY, 2 Babe Ruth awards and a 5 time All Star.

 

2038 Draft

This draft did not produce any HOF'ers but did have some pretty good talent.  Rockies #5 pick Jose Reyes 463 HR's, #11 by KC Ricky Lightie hit 492 HR's and Texas at #15 Nick Russell hit 414 long ones. 

 

2039 Draft

1B Brad Rodgers was the 23rd overall pick by the Marlins and might be the best player not in the HOF as in 20 ML seasons he had a .305 career average, with 433 HR's, 6 All Star selections and fell just 9 hits short of 3000.  The very next pick in the draft at #24 was Corbin Fox of Texas the only HOF'er selected in the draft.  He hit .322 in his career which included 3 straight seasons hitting over .350.

 

2040 Draft

Two HOF pitchers went #2 and #3 in the draft, Boston selected Gary Robertson #2 and Atlanta took Ray Hinkle #3, they had 226 and 233 wins.  This my be the year of the bad choices by most teams as KC picked #1 and missed out on both HOF pitchers. The Reds #11 pick never made it to the bigs and 3 other teams had first round selections play less than 50 ML games.

 

2041 Draft

Another draft with no HOF'ers but lots of quality talent led by Ron Moustakas and his 499 career HR's , the #12 by the Dodgers.  #2 pick by SF was Jeff Smith he played in 2,540 games in 21 seasons with 482 HR's.  The #6 pick by the Yankees Ben Young had 455 saves and the Cubs Jim Ridler was the ROY and had 432 dingers in his 15 year career.

 

2042  Draft

Six of the first ten players selected in the 42 draft played in at least 1500 ML games, but the 9th pick by the Reds turned out to be one of the best as they selected pitcher Bill Kelley.  All he did was save 674 games good enough for 3rd on the All Time list.  The #2 pick by the Tigers Javier Gonzales was a HOF'er, in 7000 ML plate appearances he hit .309.

 

2043 Draft

The 8th overall pick Rob Pence played all 16 of his seasons for San Diego and had 427 saves and 7 All star appearances.  The 15th pick in round 2 by the Rockies was Mike Wyatt, all he did was very quietly in a powerful Rockies lineup hit .322 for his career with just 17 HR's in 15 seasons, but his .322  average gets him itno the HOF.

 

2044 Draft

One HOF'er the #11 pick by Boston hit .319 in his 14 year career and hit over .300 in 9 straight seasons.  The #14 pick by the Orioles Travis Berry played all 17 seasons in Baltimore hitting 432 HR's and 6 All Star games.

 

2045 Draft

Cleveland made the #1 overall pick Curt Colahan and Boston must have known he was going to be something special  because just after 2 years and a 24-28 record in 77 big leage starts the Red Sox sent 10 players for him in mid season and went on to win the World Series that season.  Colahan went on to win 303 games, had 10 All Star appearances and 7 Cy Yong Awards including 5 in a 6 year span.  The Mets Frank Robinson the #9 pick had 544 career HR's and the Cardinals 1B Robiie Grayu hit 515 in his 15 year career.

 

2046 Draft

The 2nd pick in the draft by Toronto turned out to be the best pick as OF Ray Meyers had 2517 hits, hit 535 HR's, had 7 straight All Star appearances, 8 Gold Gloves and 2 Babe Ruth Awards. for 5 different teams.  Amazingly 3 other players drafted in round on had over 2500  career hits, #9Texas  pick Gustavo Antonio (2653), Marlins #11 pick Roberto Rosales (2561) and Colorado's #25 pick Brent Hoffman (2585) just retired at the end of the 2067 season.

 

2047 Draft

The #13 pick by the Rockies is another one of the games all time great, 3B Jose Correa. He was ROY in 2051, has a Gold Glove and 10 All Star appearances to go along with his 5 Babe Ruth Awards.  He has over 3000 hits and is 6 HR's short of becoming the 9th member of the 700 HR club.  He is also one of only 8 players with a career OPS of over 1.000. 

 

2048 Draft

Pepe Quintanilla was the 11th pick in round 2 by the Cubs and the 2nd rounder is an 8 time All Star just 3 Home Runs short of 600 heading into the 2068 season. The Rockies took SP Denny Duncan at #3 and his claim to fame was a 29 win season and a Cy Young Award in 2054. 

 

2049 Draft

The #1 overall pick was Brian Becker and he sits with 239 career victories, but his most memorable season was with the Brewers in 2056.  Maybe one of the best seasons not to win a Cy Young Award as he went 23-3 with a 2.56 ERA and lost out to Toronto's Tony Rodriguez and his 27-8 record. 

 

As we head into 2050 we start getting into many players that are still active, so I will post some of the best potential HOF'ers drafted over the next 10-15 years.

 

2050  Draft

The #1 overall pick by SF only pitched 1 season there as Boston made Mike Lee one of the best big game pitchers of all time as he won 2 World Titles with Boston and 1 with Atlanta.  The #2 pick by San Diego wasn't to bad either as SP Bob Olson had 15 straight double digit win seasons.

 

2051 Draft

Pitcher Hubert Parks was the #9 pick for Seattle and at age 35 he seems like he is in his prime having the last 2 seasons with ERA's of 1.59 and 1.80. He as 455 career saves.  The #15 pik belonged to California and all 16 of his seasons have been there having 412 saves. 

 

2053 Draft

Luis Castaneda was the $6 pick for the Phillies and in his 15 seasons there he has 541 saves.  At just 34 he has a shot at being one of the elite closers of All Time.  The 24th pick by the Brewers was Jorge Archuleta his 480th save in 2067 might have been his last. 

 

2054 Draft

Minnesota picked Rob Robinson at #18 and was traded to Montreal in 2058, since then he has been one of the elite pitchers in the game winning187 games while losing just 82.  He has 3 Cy Young Awards and at just 31 has a great career to finish. 

 

2055 Draft

Joe Morris was the 11th pick in round 2 for the Rockies and has delivered mostly for other teams.  In Joe's last 8 seasons he has averaged 36 HR's and 120 RBI's a season. 

 

2057 Draft

Tony Harper was the 6th overall pick by the Reds and the teams that draft ahead of the Reds know the would like a do over on that draft.  Harper is not only one of todays most elite players but when it's all over he will be one of CDL's greatest as well.  As of the end of the 67 season he has played all of his 10 season with the Reds and has averaged over 50 HR's, 120 RBI's, 90 BB's, 110 runs scored and a .325 career average.  His career 1.090 OPS ranks a solid #3 on the All Time list. He has hit 68 HR's twice in a season only 1 of 2 players to do that.  Oh yeah, he still only 31 years of age, the record books will be changed some more by this man.  1B Victor Fernandez was the 26th pick by Toronto, since traded to Colorado, other than the stellar career numbers he has put up he has also never missed a game in his 1o year career, playing in 1,620 games.