While most of the top amateur talent available was selected on Day 1 of the Major League Baseball draft, history tells us that difference-makers can be found on Day 2 of the proceedings, which encompasses Rounds 3 through 10.
If we go back only 10 years, we find a handful of quality players that were selected in Day 2 of the 2005 draft:
- Michael Brantley (Seventh round)
- Doug Fister (Seventh round)
- Brett Gardner (Third round)
- Austin Jackson (Eighth round)
- Will Venable (Seventh round)
As we continue to travel back through history, the list of impact players selected on Day 2 of the draft only grows. Heck, even a future Hall of Fame inductee got his start on Day 2, as the late Gary Carter was a third-round selection in 1972.
There's no guarantee that any of the players taken over the course of the eight rounds that encompass Day 2 will go on to enjoy the same kind of success as those listed above, but the players included on the pages that follow have the best chance of doing just that.
Our rankings are based almost entirely on talent level—the higher the talent (and the later the pick), the bigger the steal. While I've tried to limit the pool of players to include only those selected in the fifth round or later, two players worthy of selection on Day 1 stand out as steals in the third round, so they're included here.
To help put things in proper perspective, we'll also look at where each player was ranked heading into the draft by Bleacher Report's Mike Rosenbaum, Baseball Prospectus' Christopher Crawford, ESPN's Keith Law, Baseball America and MLB.com.
Which Day 2 picks stand out as the biggest steals? Let's take a look.
- Login to post comments