Rosternomics

2008 MLB Draft

Every MLB amateur draft, 1985–2025. Real = career WAR so far. Expected = the model's full-career projection for this slot × position × age-at-draft (HS vs college), ± a predictive band. DVOS = Real minus what the same cohort has produced by the same number of years post-draft (apples-to-apples — so we don't punish a 2024 pick for not yet being a 10-yr veteran). Example: Bazzana (2024 #1, college IF) has Real 0.8; the typical #1 college IF has produced 1.6 WAR by year 2 post-draft, so his DVOS = −0.8 (0.8 behind cohort); long-run Expected ≈ 40 WAR. Model: empirical-Bayes hierarchical, fit on 41 years of realized outcomes. SD leaderboard →

Round:
Year Pick Rd Team Player Pos Age B/T Ht Wt Bonus Bonus% Scouting Dir GM / POBO Real DVOS Expected
2008 1 1.1 TBR Tim Beckham IF SS 18 HS R/R 6'0" 215 R J Harrison Andrew Friedman 2.9 -47.0 49.9±4.0
2008 2 1.2 PIT Pedro Álvarez IF 3B 21 COLL L/R 6'3" 250 Greg Smith Neal Huntington 7.6 -13.9 21.5±4.0
2008 3 1.3 KCR Eric Hosmer IF 1B 19 HS L/L 6'4" 226 Deric Ladnier Dayton Moore 11.0 -8.0 18.9±4.2
2008 4 1.4 BAL Brian Matusz P P 21 COLL L/L 6'5" 190 Joe Jordan Andy MacPhail 4.5 -5.3 9.8±3.8
2008 5 1.5 SFG Buster Posey C C 21 COLL R/R 6'1" 213 John Barr Brian Sabean 57.8 +33.4 24.4±4.2
2008 6 1.6 MIA Kyle Skipworth C C 18 HS L/R 6'4" 230 Michael Hill -0.1 -12.4 12.3±3.7
2008 7 1.7 CIN Yonder Alonso IF 1B 21 COLL L/R 6'1" 230 Chris Buckley Wayne Krivsky 4.7 -10.2 14.8±4.0
2008 8 1.8 CHW Gordon Beckham IF 2B 22 COLL R/R 6'0" 188 Kenny Williams 5.5 -9.3 14.8±3.8
2008 9 1.9 WSN Aaron Crow P P 22 COLL R/R 6'3" 195 Dana Brown Jim Bowden 0.0 -7.9 7.9±3.7
2008 10 1.10 HOU Jason Castro C C 21 COLL L/R 6'3" 215 Bobby Heck Ed Wade 15.6 -1.4 17.0±4.2
2008 11 1.11 TEX Justin Smoak IF 1B 22 COLL S/L 6'4" 220 Ron Hopkins Jon Daniels 5.9 -4.9 10.8±3.7
2008 12 1.12 TOR Jemile Weeks IF 2B 21 COLL S/R 5'9" 170 Jon Lalonde JP Ricciardi 1.6 -9.2 10.8±3.7
2008 13 1.13 STL Brett Wallace IF 1B 22 COLL L/R 6'2" 250 John Mozeliak -0.8 -11.6 10.8±3.7
2008 14 1.14 MIN Aaron Hicks OF CF 19 HS S/R 6'1" 205 Deron Johnson Bill Smith 11.9 +3.9 8.0±3.7
2008 15 1.15 LAD Ethan Martin P P 19 HS R/R 6'2" 225 Tim Hallgren Ned Colletti -0.5 -6.0 5.5±3.7
2008 16 1.16 MIL Brett Lawrie IF 3B 18 HS R/R 6'0" 210 Jack Zduriencik Douglas Melvin 9.5 +6.8 2.8±3.7
2008 17 1.17 TOR David Cooper IF 1B 21 COLL L/L 6'0" 200 Jon Lalonde JP Ricciardi -0.1 -10.9 10.8±3.7
2008 18 1.18 NYM Ike Davis IF 1B 21 COLL L/L 6'4" 220 Rudy Terrasas Omar Minaya 5.1 -5.8 10.8±3.7
2008 19 1.19 CHC Andrew Cashner P P 22 COLL R/R 6'6" 235 Tim Wilken Jim Hendry 11.4 +5.9 5.5±3.7
2008 20 1.20 SEA Josh Fields P P 23 COLL R/R 6'0" 191 Bob Fontaine Jr Lee Pelekoudas 3.3 -2.2 5.5±3.7
2008 21 1.21 DET Ryan Perry P P 21 COLL R/R 6'5" 215 David Chadd Dave Dombrowski 0.5 -5.0 5.5±3.7
2008 22 1.22 NYM Reese Havens IF 2B 22 COLL L/R 6'1" 195 Rudy Terrasas Omar Minaya 0.0 -10.8 10.8±3.7
2008 23 1.23 SDP Allan Dykstra IF 1B 21 COLL L/R 6'5" 215 Bill Gayton Kevin Towers -0.3 -11.1 10.8±3.7
2008 24 1.24 PHI Anthony Hewitt OF RF 19 HS R/R 6'1" 190 Marti Wolever Pat Gillick 0.0 -8.0 8.0±3.7
2008 25 1.25 COL Christian Friedrich P P 21 COLL R/L 6'4" 222 Bill Schmidt Daniel O'Dowd 2.7 -2.8 5.5±3.7
2008 26 1.26 ARI Daniel Schlereth P P 22 COLL L/L 6'0" 210 Tom Allison Josh Byrnes -0.7 -3.7 3.0±3.7
2008 27 1.27 MIN Carlos Gutierrez P P 22 COLL R/R 6'3" 230 Deron Johnson Bill Smith 0.0 -3.0 3.0±3.7
2008 28 1.28 NYY Gerrit Cole P P 18 HS R/R 6'4" 220 Damon Oppenheimer Brian Cashman 0.0 -2.7 2.7±3.7
2008 29 1.29 CLE Lonnie Chisenhall IF 3B 20 COLL L/R 6'2" 190 Brad Grant Mark Shapiro 8.0 +4.1 3.8±3.7
2008 30 1.30 BOS Casey Kelly P P 19 HS R/R 6'3" 215 Jason McLeod Theo Epstein 0.2 -2.5 2.7±3.7

Model: empirical-Bayes hierarchical — smooth monotone slot curve × position group (P/IF/OF/C/DH) × age bin (HS <20 vs COLL 20+) × maturity. The slot curve is forced monotone-decreasing within each position+age cell, so pick N can't have lower expected than pick N+1 by construction. Predictive ± band = √(σ²·(1 + 1/n_cell)) — pooled within-cell residual SD plus the cell-mean uncertainty for a new pick at that cell. Fallback chain when a (slot, pos, age) cell is too sparse: → (slot, pos) → (slot). Position × age effects: pitchers debut earlier (high realized at 2 yrs, lower career due to attrition); college catchers ~2× HS catchers career WAR at top slots; HS slot-1 IF/OF carry premium upside (Harper/Correa/A-Rod pattern). Coverage: position 100% (1985–2025), bio (born/ht/wt) ~97%, age 97%, signing bonus only ~11% (sparse pre-2008 — MLB Stats API hasn't backfilled). SD attribution follows SABR (single unambiguous name per team-year), GM uses our hire/POBO records. Team/GM development effects intentionally NOT in the model — that signal belongs on the DVOS-attribution side (per-SD on /sds, per-GM in this table), or it would collapse to zero by construction.