C.J. Nitkowski is kinda hard on himself here — the dude did last ten years in the bigs — but sometimes that’s goes with self-awareness. He tweeted this on Sunday:
18th anniversary of me being taken 9th overall in the MLB draft. I often reminisce about how many people were fired over that decision.
— CJ Nitkowski (@CJNitkowski) June 3, 2012
In other “the draft is a crapshoot, so let’s all calm down” news, Rob Neyer makes a great point today: the vast majority of guys taken in this thing will flame out and we’ll never hear of them. Even the high-rounders. So why don’t we stop comparing everyone who is picked to established All-Stars.
It’s the footballification of the draft, I suppose. You put the thing on TV and you have to say something. And if you put it on TV you want to draw in as many people as you can, so you have to say something provocative or broad or widely relatable, even if it isn’t particularly reasonable.