Randy -- Brown is a player who pretty much everyone here keeps telling me is the worst draft pick the Giants ever made.
Rog -- I don't believe there is even one person here who believes Brown is the worst draft pick the Giants have ever made. Which leads me to ask, which player WAS the worst pick?
I've got to go with Matt White, their #7 overall pick in 1996. It isn't that White wasn't good. Some thought he would be the first player taken overall in that draft, and he was good enough to be the Baseball America's #4, #6, #32 and #100 prospect the next four years.
So why was he the Giants' worst pick, you ask? Because they failed to offer him a timely contact, allowing him to become a free agent. Matt White is the #1 reason the Giants won't deal with agent Scott Boras. Boras was White's agent, which allowed Matt to fall in the draft. It was also Boras who caught the technicality that allowed White to become, at the age of 17, a free agent. He wound up receiving what was the highest contract in what was for I'm guessing 11 years the highest contract paid to a player in the amateur free agent draft.
And, of course, it wasn't the Giants who signed him. Al Rosen was the Giants' GM at the time, although I'm almost positive Brian Sabean was heavily involved in that draft, given that Brian had risen through the Yankees' organization as a scout and was about to have the Giants name him GM five months later.
So White's my choice, even though he pitched only 13 AAA games due to arm injuries along the way.
By the way, to put into context White's being Baseball America's #4 prospect at age 18, Clayton Kershaw was their #24 prospect 10 years later. A year after that, Rick Porcello was ranked #21. I don't know this for fact, but my guess is that White was the highest ranked 18-year-old pitcher ever.
In fact, he might be Baseball America's highest-ranked PLAYER ever. Baseball America didn't have a ranking when Ken Griffey, Jr. was drafted, and Alex Rodriguez was ranked #6.
So in a way one could say the Giants drafted the best prospect ever to be drafted, only to lose him on a technicality, only to be somewhat redeemed when injuries prevented White from even making the major leagues.
Incidentally, it was a similar technicality that caused the Warrior to lose Kobe's dad after they drafted Joe (Jellybean) Bryant in the first round in 1975. Despite that, the Warriors went on to post a franchise-high 59 wins in Jellybean's rookie season before bowing out of the playoffs at home to the Phoenix Suns in a Sunday afternoon Western Conference finals.
The Warriors did pick up outstanding guard Gus Williams in the second round of that draft, but had they properly signed Bryant, they might have gone on to extend their 1975-1975 World Championship into a dynasty.
Coincidentally, the Warriors (48-12) are challenging that franchise record for wins in a season in which Kobe Bryant missed half the season to injury. The Warriors could have drafted Jellybean's son 21 years later, but they instead chose ... Todd Fuller.
And there you have the seque between the Giants' worst draft pick (IMO) and the Warriors' possible franchise best season 19 years later.
As a remote trivia question, can anyone here name the 13 players on the Warriors' roster that 1974-75 season when they won the World Championship? (Answer way below)
Rick Barry
Keith Wilkes
Clifford Ray
Charles Johnson
Butch Beard
Derek Dickey
Bill Bridges
George Johnson
Charles Dudley
Phil Smith
Jeff Mullins
Steve Bracey
and the one not one in 100,000 knows
Frank Kendrick
That season Al Attles became the first NBA coach to use an 11-man rotation that was often 12 men.
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