Mariners criticized over pitcher-heavy early draft

The Mariners took pitchers in nine of their first 11 picks in this past weeks baseball player’s draft. Overall, out of their 41 picks they took 23 pitchers. That works out to 56% of all picks in this year’s draft. The average team takes about 54% pitchers to 46% position players. If you were listening to the local sports station you may have heard them criticize taking so many pitchers so early in the draft. With the Mariners pitching staff currently giving up over six runs per game, pitching is definitely a need.

Pitchers drafted, make the major league at a much lower rate than position players. Richard T. Karcher published an article in 2017 breaking down the chances a drafted player will make the major leagues based on what round they were drafted in. This was based on 16 year’s worth of draft results from 1996 to 2011. Here is a breakdown of the percentage chance a player drafted in a particular round will make the major leagues.

Draft Round Percentage made Majors

1st 66.7%

2nd 49.4%

3rd 39.7%

4th 35.0%

5th 33.3%

6th 24.4%

7th 20.4%

Now here are the percentages for just pitchers. As you can see, drafting pitchers is even more challenging. Pitchers tend to get injured at a higher rate and generally need to learn to refine either an extra pitch, like a change up, or improve their control to pitch in the majors. While nine of the first 11 picks may seem like a lot, chances are only one or two of these pitchers will ever see the major leagues. For this reason, I think the Mariners were smart to try to take a chance to improve in this way.

Draft Round Percentage made Majors

1st 35.8%

2nd 25.4%

3rd 19.6%

4th 18.4%

5th 16.7%