Q: Can you tell me (or tell me where I can find) every person drafted
in the MLB amateur draft, regardless of whether that person ever
played in the major leagues?

Clarification: I would like the data to go back as far as possible,
but at least 20 years.  Also, I need the data to be for all rounds of
each years' draft (typically, each year's draft will feature 50
rounds).

Clarification 2: For each draft pick, I need the year the individual's
name, he was drafted, the team that picked him, and the position he
plays.  Often, sources will show the draftee's hometown or high
school, but this is not necessary for my purposes.

What I've found so far:
1.  This book doesn't have it. 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786409606/qid=1075892237//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i9_xgl14/102-5037904-1208907?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

The problem with this book is that it is incomplete--in particular, it
only lists drafted players who actually eventually made it to the
major leagues.  Because my research is on the likelihood of a
draftee's making it to the major leagues, this is insufficient.

2.  This is the sort of data I need.  Unfortunately, it only goes back
a few years.  However, if you can find 20 years worth of this kind of
data I'm in great shape! 
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/2000/draft/

3.  It would be immensely preferrable to find the data in a easily
manipulated format (such as excel).  Having to click between hundreds
of websites will be frustrating.

4.  I know I'm asking an awful lot.  Sorry.

Thanks,

John

PS--Eric Schmidt is my professor at Stanford.  He's a good prof; how's he as a boss?

---

Request for Question Clarification by omnivorous-ga on 04 Feb 2004 07:21 PST

Jack --

You're aware of one of the best sources for draft information: Sports
Illustrated.  However, they don't have the range of information online
that you need.

I don't believe anyone does.  But the absolute best resource on
baseball prospects is Baseball America, which has about 5 years of
complete draft information online:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/index.html

Baseball America's a subscription site -- and well worth it if you're
following baseball prospects.  My first-hand experience is that the
editors are extremely helpful when readers are doing research.  (I
know because I'm a Cleveland Indians fan and Mark Shapiro's pursuing a
strategy of aggressively developing talent through the farm system.)

As for your comment on Eric Schmidt, Google Answers researchers are
independent people scattered throughout the world and are NOT
employees of Google.  However, I knew Eric Schmidt from Novell and he
turned that company from an ill-focused enterprise to one that had an
effective strategy.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

P.S. -- the Red Sox overpaid for Manny.  But I'm helping you make up
for it because this clarification request is free ;=)

I am ofering this because I bleieve as others have said, this
information may be difficult to find.  I found this quote from this
quote from a website:

"In an attempt to take a more complete look at the draft, next time
we'll attempt a comprehensive
look at each franchise's draft success (or lack thereof) from 1965-98.
 Unfortunately, the source to
be used for this endeavor is sufficiently difficult to work with that
it may be some time before I'm able
to put all the data together."

http://www.birdsinthebelfry.com/amateur_draft_part_four.htm

So this seems to indicate that this information is difficult to find
but does exist.  Perhaps an email to the people who run this website
as to where they get their information might be worth a try.  If you
go to:

http://www.birdsinthebelfry.com

and click "Contact us" you can send them a message.

Hope this helps.

Bowler-ga