It’s no guarantee, of course, that the Red Sox will make out like bandits with the No. 7 pick. But when they do make their selection on June 6, they’ll do so knowing that the No. 7 pick often develops into a valuable big leaguer, or even an All-Star.
Grading a baseball draft right away is extremely difficult. Unlike in other sports, where the return on a pick is sometimes immediate, players typically work their way through a team’s minor league system before arriving in the majors. That doesn’t make owning a high draft pick any less important. It just means that we often have to wait before gaining a better understanding of a player’s true potential, and we often forget where exactly a player was drafted by the time he enters the league.
Admittedly, the seventh overall pick has yielded some no-namers in the past. But let’s focus on the 10 best seventh overall picks of all time, which include Clayton Kershaw, Prince Fielder and the red-hot Matt Harvey.
After reading those names, how can Boston fans not be excited about the upcoming draft?
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