Cubs 2000 draft: First 10 rounds review

After posting the last article I was looking at the 2000 draft and noticed that Freddie Bynum was taken in the 2nd round of that same draft and decided to write a brief review of first 10 rounds of the 2000 draft and what could have been.

2000 Draft:

In the first round Luis Montanez was picked and has just finally been promoted to Iowa (as an OF, started as a SS) and has been showing a little promise the last season or so, but before that was useless. He still has some ways to go and won't ever be more than a 4th/5th OF it looks like. The players picked after him Rocco Baldelli, Chase Utley, and Aaron Heilman. The 2nd round pick that year was Bobby Hill, who has been hoping around as a utility guy after failing to win the starting 2b job for the Cubs back in 2003. In the 3rd round the Cubs drafted Aaron Krawiec and 2 picks later Grady Sizemore was chosen. In the 4th round the Cubs picked Todd Wellemeyer the next player selected was David Dejesus and the player after that was Cliff Lee. The fifth round had the Cubs picking Gary Banks when 7 picks later Bobby Jenks was available. The 6th round has had no one in particular make MLB so it is being skipped. In the 7th round Ryan Jorgensen was drafted while 7 picks later Aaron Hill was drafted. The one pick the Cubs did get right was in the 8th round that year, the problem is they traded him before they ever got to see him in uniform, Dontrelle Willis. In the 9th round they drafted Mark Freed when they could have drafted Edwin Encarnacion (with the way Aramis playing we could use him). The 10th round the Cubs took Blake Blasi when 4 picks later Clint Barmes was drafted.

It would sure be nice to have that draft back and take Sizemore, Lee, Dejesus, Encarnacion and Willis. I could have listed each player we missed, but that just would be being too greedy, so I took the best 5. With them on the Cubs the rotation problems would be solved and their hitting problem might not have been a problem. Also Hendry this off season wouldn’t have had to acquire the anemic hitting Juan Pierre or sign Jacque Jones for RF as Sizemore could have easily played there. Another thing that is so pathetic is that out of the first 10 rounds the Cubs have 0 guys on the roster from that draft. Instead the team is struggling with more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese.