Miami Marlins draft retrospective: 1995

This is the beginning of a new series where we will take a look at different drafts in Miami Marlins history. Today we’ll look at the 1995 draft. I’ll focus mainly on the first round, but also cover notable picks from other rounds. This is the beginning of our in-depth look at the upcoming draft and some drafts that came before. You can see what I already wrote about the upcoming draft here. With all of that said, let’s take a look at the 1995 MLB amateur draft.

The Miami Marlins didn’t do that good in the 1995 draft.

The California Angels had the first pick and drafted Darin Erstad, who ended up being worth the pick. He gave the California Angels  32 WAR and was a part of their 2002 World Series winning team. The San Diego Padres went next and took Ben Davis, but the catching prospect only gave them 1.6 WAR. The Chicago Cubs went fourth and got pitching prospect Kerry Wood… Let’s skip ahead.

The Miami Marlins picked sixth and went with OF Jaime Jones… who never played in the Major Leagues. This was a bust of epic proportions for The Fish. Jones ended up spending ELEVEN seasons in the Minor Leagues, but never got the call-up. By the end of his career he switched to pitching, it waa too little too late and he wasn’t good at that either.

The Miami Marlins were burned by that pick, but even more so by who The Fish passed up on taking instead. 1B Todd Helton was picked eighth by the Colorado Rockies. Helton accumulated 61.8 WAR throughout his career and is arguably a Hall of Famer.

SP Roy Halladay was another great player that the Miami Marlins missed out on. The Hall of Famer went 17’th to the Toronto Blue Jays, and throughout his illustrious career that also included time on the Philadelphia Phillies, accumulated 64.2 WAR.

The 1995 draft wasn’t good for the Miami Marlins. The Fish missed out on two great players, who were already known talents and ended up picking a player who never even cracked the Majors. Let’s hope we never have a draft like that again.