What was the Astros thinking in 92 when they had the 1st pick in the draft and they passed on him for Phil Nevin? Can you image a line up with Bags, Biggio, and Jeter with all the great pitching we had with Hampton, Lima, Reynolds. It would of been us to win all those championships that the Yankees won in the mid to late 90's. Here's a piece of how it went down on wiki. "Jeter was scouted heavily by Hal Newhouser, an employee of the Houston Astros. Newhouser advocated his selection with the first pick of the 1992 Major League Baseball Draft to Astros' management, convinced that Jeter would anchor a winning team. Jeter received a baseball scholarship to attend the University of Michigan, and the speculation was that he would insist on a salary bonus of $1 million or more to sign. The Astros passed on Jeter in the draft, choosing Cal-State Fullerton outfielder Phil Nevin, who signed for $700,000. Newhouser felt so strongly about Jeter's potential that he quit his job after the Astros passed on him. Jeter was drafted by the New York Yankees with the sixth overall pick, and he chose to turn professional."
Would have been nice, but hard to second guess. 5 teams passed on him. And those Yankees teams were stacked, would have been tough to beat.
The scout who told the Yankees to draft Jeter has a famous quote. When the Yankees management pressed him on whether Jeter might refuse to sign and instead go play for Michigan, the scout said "The only place he's going is Cooperstown."
Buster Olney came to my school a few years back and talked about this situation. He talked about this draft and how the Astros passed on Derek Jeter. If I remember correctly on what Olney told us, he said that Jeter would not sign with any team but the Yankees which led the the five teams passing on him.
If the Stros had picked him, odds are he would of left us after 5 years to sign with the Yankees. Besides, if we hadn't picked Nevin, we would have never gotten Mike Henneman.
Every city with any real history of professional sports is plagued by "what-ifs". I mean, look at the unbelievable success that Boston is experiencing as a city right now. The Patriots are still good and won 3 Superbowls. Red Sox finally broke their curse and won two World Series. Celtics won an NBA championship recently. That city is experiencing unbelievable good fortune with their sports franchises right now. But I bet you some people there still kick themselves over trading Jeff Bagwell.
That one really hurts when you consider that the Astros haven't had a really good shortstop in a really long time. This one isn't like missing out on Jordan, but getting Hakeem instead.
Dickie Thon says, "Hi". As an aside, lots of "would of" references in this thread. It's "would have", or "would've". "Of" is a preposition. "Have" is a verb. English. It's what's up.
Well before my time, but Thon did have a couple of amazing years, especially for is era. I had originally commented that Tejada was probably the best, and changed it to might be because of Thon. I guess it would be: Career: Tejada > Thon Astros career: Thon > Tejada
Yeah, we don't have an illustrious history of offensive shortstops. However, we *do* have a history of guys who could absolutely pick it. Roger Metzger, Craig Reynolds, and Adam Everett. Beauty.
