Before we revisit the top 10 picks of the 2012 Major League Baseball amateur draft, let’s begin with a reminder of a few notable players who fell just outside of it. Right-hander Lucas Giolito (No. 16), shortstop Corey Seager (18) and Marcus Stroman (22) weren’t deemed worthy of the top 10 at the time, but all three now look like above-average major leaguers. That’s more than can be said for some of those who were among the first 10 selections that year…
1.) Carlos Correa, SS, Astros:
- Health has been the main issue so far for Correa, who has performed extremely well when he has been able to take the field. Since debuting in 2015, Correa has only appeared in more than 110 games in a season once (he missed 87 last year), but he has slashed .277/.356/.489 with 102 home runs and 18.5 fWAR. Correa also helped the Astros to a World Series championship in 2017, though that title has been sullied by a sign-stealing scandal.
2.) Byron Buxton, OF, Twins:
- Buxton’s another player whom injuries have troubled to this point, and he also hasn’t been consistently productive. When Buxton’s right, though, he’s electrifying to watch. Buxton’s an elite defender in center field, where he has posted 42 DRS and a 25.8 UZR in his career, but his offense hasn’t come close to that level. He’s just a .237/.292/.414 hitter with 38 homers and 60 steals to date, but he may have turned the corner last year with a .262/.314/.513 line during a 295-PA campaign.
3.) Mike Zunino, C, Mariners:
- Like Buxton, Zunino also hasn’t been able to put it together on a regular basis. Owing to a combination of defense and power, he was roughly a 4.0-fWAR player in two seasons (2014 and ’17) and a 2.0-fWAR contributor in another (’18), but he wasn’t very productive in his other campaigns. The 29-year-old is now a member of the Rays, who acquired him in November 2018 as part of a trade that brought outfielder Mallex Smith to Seattle, but his first season in Tampa Bay didn’t go well. Zunino ventured to the Rays as a .207/.276/.406 hitter. That’s not especially impressive, yet it trumps the .165/.232/312 line he put up a season ago.
4.) Kevin Gausman, RHP, Orioles:
- Gausman has not evolved into a major league ace, but he has recorded a handful of respectable seasons. He managed a 4.22 ERA/4.16 FIP with 8.21 K/9 and 2.71 BB/9 in 763 2/3 innings with Baltimore from 2013-18 before the team traded him to Atlanta. Gausman was effective with the Braves then, but things went south last year, which led the club to cut ties with him in August. He finished the season on a solid run as a Reds reliever and then inked a one-year, $9MM deal with the Giants this past offseason. Not long ago, MLBTR’s Anthony Franco looked into Gausman’s chances of a full-blown bounce-back effort in San Francisco.
5.) Kyle Zimmer, RHP, Royals:
- Injuries have played a significant role in torpedoing the once-promising Zimmer’s career. He finally made his MLB debut last season at the age of 27, but across 18 1/3 innings, he yielded 22 earned runs on 18 hits and totaled more walks (19) than strikeouts (18).
6.) Albert Almora, OF, Cubs:
- Almora is coming off his third straight season of regular playing time, but he hasn’t made much of an impact in the majors yet. The 26-year-old has amassed 1,282 PA as a Cub and hit .274/.311/.403 with 2.1 fWAR dating back to his 2016 debut.
7.) Max Fried, LHP, Padres:
- Fried didn’t pitch in the majors for the Padres, who sent him to Atlanta in 2014 as part of a blockbuster to acquire Justin Upton. But Fried now looks like a keeper for the Braves, as he gave the team 165 2/3 innings of 4.02 ERA/3.72 FIP ball with 9.4 K/9, 2.55 BB/9 and a 53.6 percent groundball rate in his first full season last year. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently explained, the 26-year-old Fried may have even more to offer going forward.
8.) Mark Appel, RHP, Pirates:
- The Pirates didn’t sign Appel, which entitled them a compensatory pick (No. 9) in the 2013 draft. They used that selection on outfielder Austin Meadows, who broke out last season with a .291/.364/.558 line, 33 homers, 12 steals and 4.0 fWAR. The problem for Pittsburgh is that Meadows’ success came in a Tampa Bay uniform. In what looks like one of the most regrettable trades in franchise history, the Pirates sent Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz to the Rays for Chris Archer in July 2018.
9.) Andrew Heaney, LHP, Marlins:
- Heaney only pitched 29 1/3 innings for the Marlins, who traded him to the Dodgers in a huge deal in 2014. And Heaney didn’t pitch at all for the Dodgers, as the club quickly flipped him to the Angels for Howie Kendrick. Since that chaotic sequence, Heaney has gone on to an up-and-down, injury-limited tenure as a member of the Angels, with whom he has totaled 408 2/3 innings of 4.34 ERA/4.36 FIP ball with 9.03 K/9 and 2.47 BB/9.
10.) David Dahl, OF, Rockies:
- Yet another player whom injuries have haunted over the years, Dahl hasn’t yet appeared in more than 100 games in a single season. That said, at least the 26-year-old has been an above-average hitter when healthy. Even taking into account that he calls hitter-friendly Coors Field his home, he has logged a wRC+ of 111 thus far, having slashed .297/.346/.521 with 38 HRs in 921 trips to the plate.
Is this a ranking, or just a listing of the good picks of 2012?
Its the order in which they were drafted.
It’s listing the top ten in the order they were taken in 2012
It’s a recap of the first 10 picks. The title of the article is a bit misleading.
Yeah
Really???
Corey Seager not being #1 should have told you it was a draft order recap.
Correa is a better player than seager
This was a recovery year for Seager and he lead the NL in doubles. He is going to have a monster season.
“A monster season?” When will that be?
Yeah giolito should be number 1 goin off of your recovery season logic or lack thereof, the only way you say Seager should’ve went one is if you absolutely worship the dodgers and don’t care about results, which I suppose most dodgers fans are that way cause all they do is lose when it counts haha what a terrible franchise
Both are probably currently over- rated a tad in the whole realm of things, doesnt mean either sucks
Both have had some pretty serious inj so far. Both have elevated inj concerns going forward
Both have been around great supporting casts
Its tough to even judge them to date imo, I guess the Dollars in 22′ will (sort) of give us a clue how Gms think
2012 draft was a little weak so far
Cue the a bunch of bozos saying we don’t really know how good Carol Correa is because sigh stealing, blah, blah, blah.
“Cue the a bunch of bozos saying we don’t really know how good Carol Correa is because sigh stealing, blah, blah, blah.”
I heard Carol makes a helluva pot roast.
And she stole my sigh
Whoa, whoa, whoa. There’s still plenty of meat on that bone. Now you take this home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato. Baby, you’ve got a stew going.
-Carol Weathers
Zunino´s WAR was 0.4 in 2014, not 4.0
Tom, Conner stated he was worth *roughly 4 fWAR in 2014.
That is correct. He had 3.8 fWAR, to be exact.
You’re looking at his bWAR.
Ahh, youre right. I stand corrected
So is this supposed to be a poll or something. Nothing written here shouts this is the best top 10 pick from 2012
Fried is going to top this list when all is said and done.
Nobody can mention the Pirates without smashing the Chris Archer trade
2nd time today lol. I think Pitt fans are ready to move on.
So hard not too, when we all think of Pirates we all think of that trade. Lol!
No clue why, but Ive always rooted for Byron Buxton
same
poll?
They should have let the pitchers hit and used the DH on Zunino. He would be awesome if they just kept him behind the plate and not beside it.
Yikes these are ghastly
Anyone else think Gausman was around 5 years before all these other guys?
Real comment, hoping for a real reply: Correa, as I recall, was a shocking pick at the time. A total project, money ball for a franchise that was not close to winning. So, if the Astros don’t take Correa 1-1, where does he go? Is he even drafted?
Over a thousand guys are drafted per year. I’d say the chances are very strong that Correa would have been drafted.
Correa regularly appeared in the top-half of 1st rds in most mock drafts leading up to it. For ex: you can still find a mock draft from Sports Illustrated (Dave Perkin) tabbing Appel to HOU #1 and Correa to PIT #8. He had advanced skills being one of the youngest in the draft and comparison’s to A-Rod, so a higher ceiling than most, but also more of a wild-card. Many have written that they went underslot for Lance McCullers Jr., whom they were able to get at an overslot value. (Interestingly, my Braves were supposed to get McCullers Jr at #21 in that same mock draft — they took Lucas Sims…..smh).
I’m amazed they avoided Mark Appel, let alone getting 2 franchise impact players.
I just looked back at a few mock drafts for 2012 and all of them had Correa going in the top ten picks.
Bleacher Report and Baseball Prospectus both had him going 3rd to the Mariners.
Baseball Prospectus even mentioned him as a possibility to go at #2 to the Twins.
It was a surprise that he went 1st overall, but not as big a stretch as you are remembering.
Correa and Fied are the only two who have lived up to the hype of being a top 10 pick
That’s actually a pretty good top 10. Most years have a couple major busts.