Every Diamondbacks Top 100 Prospect Ever
Part 1: 1997-2003
Since 2004 MLB Pipeline (led by Jonathan Mayo) has listed top 50 prospects each season, growing the list to 100 in 2012. The OG’s at Baseball America have been doing it since 1981! With the thanks of MLB Pipeline archive articles and The Baseball Cube having a list of every Baseball America Prospect list, I’m going to start my next long-form Diamondbacks project…. EVERY DIAMONDBACKS TOP 100 PROSPECT EVER.
Side note- Here are my other Diamondbacks really long projects:
The entire Rule 5 Draft history of the Diamondbacks
MVP & Cy Young of every Diamondbacks Spring Training
Random Diamondbacks fun stats series
The Diamondbacks first MLB Draft was in 1996, with the expansion draft coming in 1997 (featuring this incredible logo, I need to find a shirt or hat with this logo) before the 1998 inaugural season. This timeline meant the Diamondbacks first appeared on the Baseball America Top 100 in 1997.
1997 Baseball America: Travis Lee (5th), John Patterson (41st), Vladimir Nunez (76th)
BA- ‘97 5th, ‘98 8th,
Travis Lee had an extremely unique beginning to his career as him and 3 other players took advantage of a MLB Draft rule that everyone ignored for years. Outlined in this great Athletic article, Travis Lee, John Patterson and 2 other players from the 1996 MLB Draft were declared free agents since the teams that drafted them never sent them an official written offer despite failing to agree to a contract. The expansion Diamondbacks took advantage of this (they were given the last pick of each round with the Rays in 1996) and signed 1996 Golden Spikes winner and 2nd overall pick Travis Lee to a $10M deal & 5th overall pick John Patterson to $5M deal. The Rays followed suit and signed the other 2 1st round picks in Matt White (7th pick, got $10.2M) and Bobby Seay (12th pick, got $3M).
Above via Perfect Game is the #1 overall pick signing bonus + the biggest signing bonus of each draft 1992-2004. Travis Lee and the 3 others getting signing bonuses that large obviously was a huge deal. Granted, Diamondbacks and Rays knew this was a one time event mixed with them being expansion teams desperate for talent, so their signing bonuses were surely inflated, but still Travis Lee & Matt White got 5x what 1-1 Kris Benson got in 1996. I cannot stress enough great of a read that Athletic article on the 1996 Draft is! Probably to the delight of the MLB owners, only Travis Lee in this group of 4 had a good MLB career.
While Jay Bell & Matt Williams were the face of the inaugural 1998 Arizona Diamondbacks, Travis Lee was the young elite prospect and first home grown talent which made him a fan favorite off the bat. A strong rookie season with 22 HR, 8 SB & .775 OPS was followed up with an injury shortened 1999, ending with being a part of a trade with with Omar Daal, Nelson Figueroa and Vicente Padilla to the Philadelphia Phillies for Curt Schilling in 2000.
BA- ‘97 41st, ‘98 45th, ‘99 15th, ‘00 10th, ‘03 79th
I talked about John Patterson above, but his MLB career was better know with Expos/Nationals. John Patterson’s high profile signing kept him on the map early in his career as he had an ERA 5.30 or higher every season 1999-01 in the minors and battled injuries. Patterson turned a corner in the minors and broke into the majors in 2002, got time in 2003 too, but was traded that next offseason to the Montreal Expos for LHP Randy Choate. Outside of a great 2005 where Patterson made 31 starts, 198.1 IP with a 3.13 ERA, Patterson struggled with injuries ending his career in 2007.
BA- ‘97 76th
Vladimir Nunez was signed in 1996 as a 21 year old out of Cuba. Nunez pitched well in his 31 games between 98/99 (3.89 ERA in 39.1 IP) before being traded with Brad Penny to the Florida Marlins for Matt Mantei. Nunez had a long career spanning 9 seasons., and Matt Mantei is maybe THE forgotten closer of Arizona Diamondbacks history, but losing Brad Penny in that deal was tough.
1998 Baseball America: Travis Lee (8th), John Patterson (45th), Karim Garcia (77th)
BA- ‘98 77th
Karim Garcia was routinely in the top 100 while with the Dodgers, but a 9-60 start to his career in LA made the Dodgers decide to leave him open in the expansion draft, and the Diamondbacks selected him 9th overall. Garcia got semi-regular AB’s on the 1998 Diamondbacks but hit just 9 HR in 333 AB’s with a .641 OPS. That offseason the Diamondbacks struck gold and traded Karim Garcia to the Detroit Tigers for Luis Gonzalez. For that, I will always love Karim Garcia.
1999 Baseball America: John Patterson (15th)
The Diamondbacks traded a lot of prospects in this time for vets as you can probably already guess. Also, outside the 1999 MLB Draft where the Diamondbacks took Arizona native (Desert Vista HS) Corey Myers 4th overall, the Diamondbacks didnt pick inside the top 15 again until Stephen Drew in 2004. So we have a some lean prospect pools in this era.
2000 Baseball America: John Patterson (10th), Jack Cust (31st), Byung-Hyun Kim (81st)
BA- ‘00 31st, ‘01 38th
Jack Cust was the 30th overall pick of the 1997 MLB Draft and crushed minor league pitching to the tune of 79 homers in his last 3 full seasons in the minors. Cust got just 3 plate appearances in 2001 (single & walk) with the Diamondbacks before being dealt with JD Closser to the Colorado Rockies for LHP Mike Myers. Cust bounced around the minors, Rockies, Orioles & Padres before landing with the A’s organization in 2006 and finding success in Oakland from 2007-2010 hitting plenty of dingers.
BA- ‘00 81st
Up until this point, the Diamondbacks top prospects outside of Jack Cust, were signed in creative ways. Lee & Patterson in the rare one year only loophole draft, Garcia expansion pick, Nunez from Cuba & now Byung-Hyun Kim from South Korea. Kim was signed in 1999 and quickly made his way to the majors mid season. Since he appeared in just 25 games out of the bullpen, he maintained his rookie status and got on this list despite never really being a prospect. While we all know Byung-Hyun Kim and 2001 World Series struggles, his 2001 & 2002 seasons were still incredible. For a side-armer, Kim struck out over 100 hitters 3 years in a row. The 2003 Diamondbacks traded Kim to the Boston Red Sox for Shea Hillenbrand, who hit 17 homers in 85 games for the 2003 Diamondbacks, then put up a great but forgotten 2004 season with .810 OPS.
2001 Baseball America: Jack Cust (38th), Alex Cintron (62nd)
BA- ‘01 62nd
Alex Cintron was a 36th round pick in 1997 who worked his way up to majors appearing in games in ‘01 & ‘02, but 2003 with Jay Bell gone Cintron put up a strong rookie season hitting .317 with .848 OPS in 117 games. Unfortunately Cintron was never able to reach his rookie year production again with 2 fine seasons in ‘04 & ‘05 before being traded to the Chicago White Sox for some guy named Jeff Bajenaru who appeared in just 1 game for the Diamondbacks and allowed 4 runs in 1 IP.
2002 Baseball America: None
2003 Baseball America: Scott Hairston (26th), Mike Gosling (59th), Lyle Overbay (65th), John Patterson (79th, he’s back!)
BA- ‘03 26th, ‘04 34th
The Tucson native did not sign as 18th round pick of the White Sox in 1999, deciding to go to Central Arizona CC instead and eventually being a 3rd round pick by the Diamondbacks in 2001. Hairston crushed minor league pitching eventually getting these BA ranks & making his Diamondbacks debut in 2004. Scott Hairston never found his footing in Arizona as he would be sent up and down 2004-06, played a lot on the 2007 team before being traded at the deadline to the San Diego Padres for Leo Rosales. Hairston was a great role play in 4 seasons with the Padres hitting 45 homers with a solid .781 OPS. Hairston’s career .805 OPS vs LHP got him 11 seasons in the MLB.
BA- ‘03 59th
Mike Gosling was a 2nd round pick in 2001, eventually making it to the majors and throwing 59.2 innings with a 4.53 ERA between ‘04 & ‘05, but was then DFA and claimed by the Reds. Incredibly, this is the first Diamondbacks top 100 BA player to NOT be traded away.
BA- ‘03 65th
Lyle Overbay was an 18th round pick by the Diamondbacks in 1999, but after 3 minor league seasons hitting .342, .343, .352 over 1345 AB’s, Overbay got a couple AB’s on the 2001 & 2002 Diamondbacks.In 2003 Overbay played in 86 games and hit just 4 HR in 254 AB’s, while he did hit .276 with .364 OBP. The lack of power was likely a cause to trade him with Chris Capuano, Craig Counsell, Chad Moeller, Jorge De La Rosa and Junior Spivey to the Milwaukee Brewers for Richie Sexson. (Richie Sexson was awesome and it’s a shame Sexson blew out his shoulder).
2004 Brewers Lyle Overbay lead the MLB in doubles (53) right away making the Sexson short season & injury hurt a lot. From 2004-10 Overbay averaged 17 HR a year, which is good enough even from a 1B when you post high and consistent AVG/OBP numbers. Overbay did return in 2011 to Arizona after being released by the Pirates in August and had a solid .840 OPS down the stretch coming off the bench for the 2011 playoff Diamondbacks. Overbay came back in 2012 as a reserve behind Paul Goldschmidt again and slashed a solid .292/.367/.448 before going to Atlanta in August after being released. Lyle Overbay had a really nice and long career.
This a clean cut off for part 1, as the 2004 Diamondbacks prospect pool starts the beginning of the Baby Backs era! Also, 2004 is the first MLB Pipeline year, so stayed tuned for part 2 coming soon!
-Goldy Happens