Philadelphia Phillies: Dave Dombrowski’s history of nailing draft picks

Dombrowski ran the Marlins for nine seasons, including their inaugural 1993 season and the ’97 championship team.

In that first draft, the Marlins took University of Florida pitcher Marc Valdes. His career was fairly short, with only 250 career innings over parts of six years, so he’d be considered a bust by most standards. Nine players from that draft did reach the big leagues, including long-time reliever Bob Howry in the 45th round after coming up with the White Sox.

Josh Booty, Florida’s first-round pick in ’94, was another bust with only seven hits in 13 games. He retired from baseball and went to LSU to play quarterback. In 2001 he was drafted in the sixth round by Seattle and never played in the NFL.

Jamie Jones in 1995 was the Marlins’ third consecutive first-round bust, never making the big leagues despite being the sixth overall pick. They did draft, but were unable to sign, outfielder Randy Winn, who had over 200 stolen bases and 1,700 hits.

Dombrowski finally hit on Mark Kotsay with the ninth overall pick in 1996 but missed again on Aaron Aiken in 1997. They didn’t sign their eighth-round pick Cliff Lee, but he was certainly a hit when Montreal drafted him three years later.

The 1998 draft was another miss for Dombrowski’s Marlins with outfielder Chip Ambres, and 18th round pick Adam LaRoche wouldn’t sign with the team, but the Ambres pick would be the last in a line of unsuccessful first-round picks.

Josh Beckett headlined the Marlins’ 1999 draft with a 14-year career headlined by two World Series rings with Boston and a second-place finish in the 2007 Cy Young race. Dombrowski followed that pick up in 2000 with five-time All-Star Adrian Gonzalez, who would be traded to Texas after Dombrowski’s departure.

Coincidentally, both Beckett and Gonzalez would be traded by Boston in the Carl Crawford deal to the Dodgers.