The MLB Draft is arguably the toughest to predict because of the nature of the sport. Players are drafted out of high school or college and spend years kicking around in the minor leagues before making it to the majors. That means that there is so much time for things to go wrong before a player even sees a major league field and that is where the question lies, who is the best at drafting players?

It isn't as simple as just counting the guys on a teams roster that came from their farm system. Players get traded all the time so it is curious to note who was actually first to the punch and added a player to their system, regardless of what team they end up potentially having success with.

Note: We decided to go with 40-man rosters as opposed to 25-man because longterm veterans and big name players get hurt and land on the injured list which effectually removes them from the active roster. Those guys need to be counted to get a real accurate number, so that means counting the full 40 is necessary. That also means that there's some big time prospects that are included that have never seen the majors but that's just how it ended up. This also naturally does not include international players as they were not drafted. Finally, this was compiled and is accurate as of 8/6/2022

Houston Astros

Putting aside the blatant and terrible cheating for a moment, the Astros are a great organization when it comes to talent evaluation. They do not deserve their World Series that they won in 2017 and a great number of their players should have been suspended longterm but that's a topic for another day.

There is a player drafted by the Astros on 18 different teams in MLB, many of which are star players like George Springer and Carlos Correa. The fact that they have 46 players on 40-man rosters across the league is truly incredible because they have also had continued success which means that they naturally draft lower every year. Houston has not drafted higher that 15th since 2016, did not have a first or second round pick in 2020 or 2021 due to their cheating, and yet they still sit top of the pile by a margin of five players over the Royals in second place.

The scouting department and everyone within the player development system should take a bow in Houston because they are clearly the star of the class when it comes to making the right pick on draft day.

Los Angeles Dodgers

If there is a team that is surprising to see high on this list, it is the Dodgers. Los Angeles has shelled out so. much. money. in the last decade to buy players from other teams it is odd to see that their draft room does so well. It doesn't do them much good because they still have yet to win a World Series this century (2020 will never count as legitimate because never in the history of baseball has so short a season been played and not be representative of the sport at all) but it still strikes as odd because in looking at the Dodgers roster, the most likely place you would find a Dodgers draftee, they are all high dollar transplants that someone else has grown, save a few.

Players like Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, and Cody Bellinger have had success and were drafted by the Dodgers but that's about it on their roster. If you look elsewhere, Dodgers blue can be found on 17 different teams around the league in the form of Corey Seager, Nathan Eovaldi, and Joc Pederson to name a few. Over half the league has a LAD player on their 40-man roster.

Generally speaking, when you are going out and buying every good player in sight, that nets you a higher finish in the league and diminishes your farm system. Just look at the Phillies, Yankees and Mets who keep paying high dollar amounts and trading away young talent. Arguably that could mean that they are getting the better end because those players won't make it to the bigs but it also means you'll never get a cheap player that is great because you can't draft.

Oakland Athletics

At the other end of the spectrum from the Dodgers, it was astonishing to see the A's in dead last in terms of players on 40-man rosters. Given the history and success of the franchise with so few resources, it goes against reason that they are so low on the pole.

However, it does seem that when they get it right, they get it right. Sonny Gray, Max Muncy, Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Blake Treinen, Sean Doolittle, Kurt Suzuki. All of those players are unbelievable talents that regularly contribute big to their teams, it's just unfortunate that none of those players are in Oakland anymore because the team can't afford to pay them.

There is also an important idea to note here, Billy Beane, the long time general manager of the A's, was an incredibly shrewd deal maker. That means that in essence, he got the better end of the deal a majority of the time for his team to have the success that it has had and yet have so few drafted players in the majors. It could mean that the A's do the best with what they have and then trade for who they really want but that may be some research for the future.

All in all, the list seems to reflect what the average MLB fan would expect, bar a few outliers. What seems to be the trend is that smaller market teams have more players, which makes sense because they have to do more with less and find more effective ways to get high-level cost controlled players wherever they can.

Surprised where your team ended up? Let us know.

Mound Visit

Saints Sports Network is a Christian group that brings you interesting sports coverage. Our name comes from Ephesians 2:18-21 where it notes that all Christians are saints in God's eyes. Therefore we are saints who write about sports but also want to make sure to share the Gospel. That's where Mound Visit comes into play because we all need a visit to the mound from God in good times and bad to recenter our lives and trust in him. We'll do that by highlighting a Bible verse for you to think and pray about in each newsletter that you receive from us.