Lucky Number 13
When I heard that Eric was planning to do a piece on Albert Pujols today, I thought it might be interesting to go back and review that fateful draft when St. Louis found the future Hall of Famer in the 13th round.
Pujols was drafted out of a small school in 1999 called Maple Woods Community College. He signed about two months after the draft on Aug. 17 and did not make his pro debut until the following season. The 20-year-old hit .324/.389/.565 with 17 homers in 395 A-ball at-bats. Pujols also had 81 at-bats in High-A and 14 at-bats in Triple-A where he hit a human-like (gasp) .214/.267/.286.
Despite only having 14 at-bats above High-A ball, Pujols impressed the Cardinals in the spring of 2001 and the rest, as they say, is history.
But let’s take a step back even further and look at the actual draft where Pujols was acquired. The Tampa Bay Rays had the first overall pick and selected Mr. Josh Hamilton, another interesting story in his own right. The Marlins then took right-hander Josh Beckett and the Detroit Tigers took top college hitter Eric Munson, who found pro ball much more difficult. Other interesting first-round selections included Barry Zito (Oakland), Ben Sheets (Milwaukee), Brett Myers (Philadelphia), Alex Rios (Toronto) and… well, that was about it.
Some of the first round bombs included Corey Myers (Arizona), Josh Girdley (Montreal), Ryan Christianson (Seattle), and the Cardinals’ first-round pick Chance Caple.
Other draft steals included John Lackey (Los Angeles AL) and Carl Crawford (Tampa Bay) in the second round, Justin Morneau (Minnesota) in the third round, as well as J.J Putz, Erik Bedard and Aaron Harang in the sixth round. The next true steal was Pujols in the 13th.
Other big leaguers who were drafted in the 13th round of the 1999 draft include Justin Leone (Seattle), Frank Brooks (Philadelphia), Alfredo Amezaga (Los Angeles AL) and Jason Jones (Texas). Amezaga has had 1,200 MLB at-bats as a utility player, but Leone and Jones have combined for 210 at-bats and nine homers. Brooks has appeared in 12 big league games.
Marc Hulet has been writing at FanGraphs since 2008. His work focuses on prospects and fantasy. Follow him on Twitter @marchulet.
Pujols isn’t the only major leaguer to ever come from Metropolitan CC in Missouri. Bob Dernier was drafted by the Reds in 1977 out of MCC Longview, a sister campus to Maple Woods. He didn’t sign with the Reds, but latched on with the Phillies as an FA that summer. He was traded to the Cubs in 1984 and won a gold glove in center that year while stealing 32 bases and batting leadoff (according to his B-R bullpen page, his nickname was “White Lightning”). He’s currently a roving instructor in the Cubs organization.