Written by Amit Lal | 27 September 2010

In the last article, we looked at the excellent trade record of the Diamondbacks' new GM Kevin Towers while he was with the Padres. Unfortunately, the excellent record is negated by Towers' poor performance in the June amateur draft, and ultimately was a big factor is his dismissal from the Padres. Let's take a look at the 1st Round Picks by the Padres during the Kevin Towers' regime. The table lists each pick from the 1st Round and Supplemental 1st Round Picks, the overall Pick number, and then their career major league Wins Above Replacement (WAR), their career Games Played in the Majors, and their career OPS or ERA.

Year	Rnd	Pick	Player	Pos	WAR	G	OPS	ERA
2009	1	3	Donavan Tate	CF
2008	1	23	Allan Dykstra	1B
2008	1	42	Jaff Decker	OF
2008	1s	46	*Logan Forsythe	3B
2007	1	23	Nick Schmidt	LHP
2007	1s	40	*Kellen Kulbacki	OF
2007	1s	46	*Drew Cumberland	SS
2007	1s	57	*Mitch Canham	C
2007	1s	63	*Cory Luebke	LHP	0.0	3		4.60
2007	1s	64	*Danny Payne	OF
2006	1	17	Matt Antonelli	3B	-0.4	21	0.573
2006	1s	35	*Kyler Burke	OF
2005	1	18	Cesar Carrillo	RHP	-1.2	3		13.06
2005	1s	35	*Cesar Ramos	LHP	0.2	17		6.35
2004	1	1	Matthew Bush	SS
2003	1	4	Tim Stauffer	RHP	1.2	60		4.22
2002	1	13	Khalil Greene	SS	8.1	736	0.723
2001	1	14	Jake Gautreau	3B
2000	1	9	Mark Phillips	LHP
1999	1	20	*Vince Faison	OF
1999	1	28	Gerik Baxter	RHP
1999	1	29	*Omar Ortiz	RHP
1999	1s	41	*Casey Burns	RHP
1999	1s	49	*Mike Bynum	LHP	-2.0	29		7.73
1999	1s	51	*Nick Trzesniak	C
1998	1	9	Sean Burroughs	3B	1.7	440	0.698
1997	1	27	Kevin Nicholson	SS	-0.1	37	0.585
1996	1	15	Matt Halloran	SS

The most remarkable thing about this list is that so few of these players even made the Major Leagues at all. The most successful of this group of 28 players was probably SS Khalil Greene, who leads the group with 736 Major League games, and a total of 8.1 WAR. Next is 3B Sean Burroughs at 1.7 WAR, and then SP Tim Stauffer at 1.2 WAR. At least Stauffer and SP Cory Luebke have a chance to provide positive value for the Padres, but very few others on this list are ever expected to contribute at the Major League level.  One factor in the Padres' poor drafting has been the team's budget limitations - for example, the selection of Matt Bush with the #1 Overall pick in 2004 was clearly driven by cost concerns, as players like Stephen Drew and Justin Verlander were clearly regarded higher than Bush, but were expected to be more expensive to sign. But that was just one case - many of the other selections were just picks that didn't work out for the Padres. Towers and the Padres did manage a few notable picks in the later rounds of the drafts, in particular SP Jake Peavy (15th Rd, 1999), SP Mat Latos (11th, 2006), OF Will Venable (7th, 2005), and recent 2nd round picks SP Wade LeBlanc (2006), 3B Chase Headley (2005), C Nick Hundley (2005), and Xavier Nady (2000). Still, the overall record is remarkable poor, is something that Kevin Towers must improve as GM of the Diamondbacks.

Year	Rnd	Pick	Player	Pos	WAR	G	OPS	ERA
2006	2	61	Wade LeBlanc	LHP	0.4	40		4.51
2005	2	66	Chase Headley	3B	4.2	408	.722
2005	2	76	*Nick Hundley	C	1.9	221	.697
2000	2	49	Xavier Nady	3B	2.3	790	.779
2005	7	218	Will Venable	OF	3.7	248	.755
2006	9	273	David Freese	3B	1.8	87	.773
2006	11	333	Mat Latos	SP	3.2	39		3.30
2001	13	390	Jason Bartlett	SS	13.4	715	.732
1999	15	472	Jake Peavy	SP	26.4	232		3.36
1998	17	502	Brian Lawrence	SP	6.4	160		4.19