Apr/19/12 08:22 AM Filed in:
Pat BurrellIt’s a debate that rages across all of the major league sports and there is never a right (or wrong answer). In fact, it’s one of the few sports arguments that rarely gets old and the passage of time only adds more interesting elements.
So who is the biggest bust of a No. 1 draft pick ever? What about the biggest success story?
Strangely, the Philadelphia teams have not had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft very often. What makes this odd is the decades of mediocrity a lot of the franchises have suffered through over the years. For instance, the Eagles have had the No. 1 overall pick just three times and not once since 1949 when they grabbed Chuck Bednarik out of Penn.
That one turned out pretty well for the Eagles.
In the NBA, the Sixers had the No. 1 overall pick just twice, taking Olympic hero Doug Collins out of Illinois State in 1973, and undersized guard Allen Iverson from Georgetown in 1996. Again, both of those picks worked out pretty well for the Sixers.
Meanwhile, the Flyers and the Phillies had the No. 1 overall draft pick just once. In 1975 the Flyers took Mel Bridgeman, who went on to play 14 seasons in the NHL including parts of six seasons in Philly. Bridgeman’s teams made it to the Stanley Cup Finals three times, including twice with the Flyers. He also led the league in games played twice and finished second in shorthanded goals once.
Again, Bridgeman worked out well for a top pick. Not a Hall of Famer, but a solid career.
Where the debate gets interesting is with the Phillies’ lone top pick… just how good was Pat Burrell?
By all accounts, Pat Burrell had a solid 12 years in the big leagues. He won the World Series twice, finished in the top 10 in the MVP voting once and cracked the 100-RBI plateau twice. In seven postseason series, Burrell’s teams are 6-1 and take away his rookie year and the 2002 season, Burrell never played for a losing team.
Not bad.
However, Burrell always seemed like an underachiever. He was never an All-Star and never could leave that slider away alone. Meanwhile, by age 35, the 1999 top draft pick was washed up and is now working in the scouting department for the Giants.
So how good (or bad) was Burrell as a No. 1 pick? The good folks over at The Good Phight rated all of the top picks using the advanced metric WAR and based on those numbers Burrell is 18th out of 46 No. 1 picks. Of course players like Stephen Strasburg, David Price, Bryce Harper and Gerrit Cole are just beginning their careers while others like Ben McDonald, Tim Belcher, Mike Moore and Darin Erstad have seemingly been helped by a handful of strong seasons and longevity.
Burrell … was he a boom or a bust or somewhere in the middle?
(csnphilly.com)