Josh Hamilton (#33 in the picture above) has seemingly outrun his personal demons. The former #1 (overall) draft pick by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays is making a name for himself in Cincinatti and is considered to be in the running for both Rookie of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year honors.
After enduring several years of drug addiction and the suspensions by both the Rays and Major League Baseball that came with failing drug tests, Josh seems to have recaptured his dream and escaped the clutches of the drug-demons. However the team that stood by him and paid him that first pick bonus money is now left watching Hamilton play ball in Cincinatti, having gotten nothing but the $50,000 Rule 5 draft money out of their investment.
For those who do not know about Rule 5 drafts: If a player has been in a teams farm system for five years and is still not on the major league 40 man roster, an other team can take him in the draft and pay the losing team $50,000. However that player must remain on the purchasing teams 25 man major league roster all season or be offered back to the original team for half price or $25,000.
Now because of the many suspensions and time listed as inelligible by Major League baseball it took a little extra time for Hamilton to make the bigs. He no doubt would have been drafted last year had he not been listed as inelligible to play.
Hamilton is having a decent rookie season. A .271 batting average with 13 home runs as of today. Of course the Cincinatti Reds (who picked him up from the Chicago Cubs who made the actual draft choice) have assigned the brother of former manager Jerry Narron to shadow Hamilton. To hang out with him when he's on the road and away from the ballpark in an effort to help keep Josh from relapsing once more into his drug-dependant ways.
Which is all well and good. It's nice that the kid has a good enough job and enough talent to make it worth his teams while to baby-sit him around the clock. I have no problem with that. Doc Gooden and Steve Howe probably would have benefitted from baby sitters during their careers as well.
I guess my biggest problem is the way Tampa Bay loses this guy and virtually all the money they invested for next to nothing. In my opinion when you have a player who is beset by injuries or suspensions/inelligible times that five year rule (which was designed to protect players from being buried in the minors when they were ready to play in the bigs) should be nullified. At the very least the Reds (or the Cubs who made the draft choice) should have to trade an equal value player to the D-Rays.
OK, as you might guess, I am a Devil Rays fan. I'm from Florida originally and have seen more games at Tropicana Field than any other major league park. But I'm also a fan of the game. I want the things that are the best for the game of baseball more than the things that are the best for Tampa Bay baseball.
The reason Josh Hamilton was the first overall pick in the 1999 draft was because Tampa Bay had the worst record in baseball for the 1998 season. The draft is set up so that the bad teams can draft and get the best young players to help build a team. I'm not a fan of whiney-assed players who refuse to sign with the team that drafted them. I'm not a fan of whiney-assed players who tell teams not to draft them because they won't sign. Be it baseball, football, or any other sport. I watch the New York Giants every week during football season hoping Eli Manning will break his arm, leg, or neck because of the cocky and arrogant attitude he had toward the San Diego Chargers when they held the rights to the first player drafted. As it happened the player they got instead of Manning is a far superior player to Manning. Sometimes God smiles on the team.
Like 1990, when the most clamored after player was a young pitcher named Todd Van Poppel. The Atlanta Braves had the right to the first pick in that draft due to their dismal 1989, and Poppel told them that should they draft him he would opt for college; which would mean that the Braves would have wasted their draft pick.
Fortunately the Braves listened to Poppel and drafted one Larry "Chipper" Jones, who has gone on to have a "Hall-of-Fame" caliber career and is on the verge of becoming the all time Atlanta Braves home run leader.
Todd Van Poppel? Oakland took a flier on him with the 14th overall pick and suddenly, because Oakland was a better team, Poppel signed and played for them. However he never lived up to the hype, endured arm problems (dare I say "Serves him right?") and at last look was buried in the New York Mets farm system. He currently sports a lifetime (MLB) Earned Run Average of a lofty 5.58!
Of course that is something of a tangent. My contention with this blog entry is that the Rays were allowed to be robbed by Major League Baseball. They were the ones who kept him from playing and then reinstated him. I contend that his time suspended or inelligible should be detracted from his service time toward the Rule 5 draft! Just as when a player is sent to the minor leagues his major league service time is frozen until he is called back up.
Do I wish Josh Hamilton ill? Of course not, none of this (aside from the drug useage) is his doing. He went to play ball where he was told to go. I hope the young man (and his handlers) are able to avoid drugs, alcohol, tobacco, bad cholesterol... you name it... But I think MLB owes something to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for the mishandling of this first round draft choices career with the AL East's perennial underdogs.
Do you agree?
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