Miami Marlins 2003 draft retrospective
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – OCTOBER 18: Former Boston Red Sox closing pitcher Jonathan Papelbon throws out the ceremonial first pitch prior to Game Three of the American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros at Fenway Park on October 18, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
A signing to build the Cuban fanbase?
The championship year. How did the Miami Marlins do during the draft? Here are other draft retrospectives in this series. Let’s take a look at the 2003 draft. It was an interesting draft but not necessarily a good one for the Miami Marlins.
The Miami Marlins didn’t do a good job in the 2003 draft.
The Miami Marlins didn’t miss too much as the draft began prior to our sixteenth pick. Our Florida rivals the Tampa Bay Devil Rays had the first pick and took OF Delmon Young, who proved to be a bust as he compiled a 3.2 WAR for his career. The Milwaukee Brewers picked second and drafted 2B Rickie Weeks, who accumulated 11.5 WAR for his career. As you can see it wasn’t the greatest draft to say the least.
The Miami Marlins disappointed quite a bit with our sixteenth pick as we drafted RHP Jeffrey Allison, who never even got to the Majors. The best player in the first round actually went thirty seventh to the Seattle Mariners. Yes thirty seventh. That means that 36 worse players were taken ahead of him. Who is that player? CF Adam Jones, who compiled 32.6 WAR for his career, mostly with the Baltimore Orioles. That was the player that The Fish should’ve taken.
The Miami Marlins could’ve also taken another player… CF Matt Kemp, who went in the sixth round to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kemp was worth 21.4 throughout his career. We could’ve even taken RP Jonathan Papelbon, who went in the fourth round to the Boston Red Sox, and was worth 23.3 WAR throughout his career. We clearly had options and didn’t take any of the better ones.
The Miami Marlins didn’t have a good draft in 2003. It wasn’t a star-studded draft but there were good options, better ones than what we ultimately ended up with. I think that this is one draft that we wouldn’t have minded redoing if we had a time machine.
