As the month of April enters its final week and the June amateur draft keeps rumbling towards us like Pete Rose barreling towards home, I couldn’t help but wonder how all of the top two picks in the history of the draft stand up against each other when it comes to careers. Not many number one and number two overall picks have had successful Major League careers but one cannot help but wonder what could have been for some teams if they could pick again.

The draft’s first year was in 1965, with a total of 20 number one overall picks in history named to at least one All-Star team during their careers. Only two number one overall picks retired from the game of baseball without ever playing a Major League game while only two players taken number one overall were named Rookies of the Year. Since 1965, 23 number one overall picks were taken right out of high school.

Even though the draft has only been around since 1965, this will have to be an ongoing series of articles examining the top two picks in each year’s draft because there is so much to delve into when you compare two players.

The first installment in this series begins with the inaugural draft, featuring Rick Monday, drafted number one overall by the Kansas City Athletics and Les Rohr, drafted number two overall by the New York Mets. [Read more…]