If You are Related to Someone in the Phillies Organization, You Probably Got Drafted This Week

The MLB Draft currently goes 40 rounds, and a total 1,065 picks. That’s even a reduction from what it was a decade ago, or from the halcyon days of the 80’s and 90’s when drafts could go on interminably with a couple of teams continuing to make picks. Still, many more Americans are getting drafted than are necessary.

And often, rather than just drafting another random player, teams just use those picks on former player’s kids and relatives of people tied to the team.

And yes, yes, any such discussion must include Mike Piazza, the outlier of all outliers, who was drafted in the 62nd round in 1988 as a favor for Piazza’s father, who was a friend of Tommy Lasorda. That’s like citing Tom Brady as an example of a 6th round pick, but too an even further extreme. Here’s a summary of the best late round picks in MLB drafts, and it gets pretty thin quickly.

If we look at just the 40th round, there have been four players in the last 20 years (two middle relievers and two short-term position reserves) who reached the majors at all after signing with the team that drafted them that late. (That doesn’t include guys who were later drafted much higher and signed with a different organization, like Hunter Pence and Jonathan Papelbon).

So, you get late in the draft, and you aren’t missing out on a whole lot. So teams throw a pick at a relative. The Philadelphia Phillies, though, took it to an extreme in this draft, as noted by the Philly Voice.

It’s a strategy that fans who “just don’t understand the game” probably can’t appreciate. In the 35th round, the Phillies selected Andrew Amaro, GM Ruben Amaro, Jr.’s nephew. It’s the second time the Phillies have drafted him. After that, they took Triple-A manager Dave Brundage’s son in the 38th round, Mickey Morandini’s son in the 39th round, and Phillies play-by-play broadcaster Tom McCarthy’s son in the final round.

The Phillies aren’t the only team doing this, they just took it to the biggest extreme. The White Sox, for example, drafted team owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s grandson Joseph Reinsdorf with their final pick of the draft.

The Miami Marlins, meanwhile, are just drafting a character from comedy skits with their final pick.

[photos via USA Today Sports Images, philly.com]