High School to the Majors: Pitchers

About 3 weeks ago, I wrote an article detailing rapid-ascension high school draftees who arrive in the big leagues quickly.  That article focused on positional players.  In the article, I promised a follow-up article on pitchers.  Better late than never I guess.  The primer on that article is after the jump.

"Recently, I ran across a criticism of the Pittsburgh Pirates, specifically how they handle prospects.  The criticism alluded to the fact that the Pirates generally are conservative with pushing prospects, especially high school draftees.  The general statement bemoaned the fact that expecting a player to make the major leagues within four full years of being drafted is nothing more than a foolish wish.  Under Neal Huntington, college players drafted have beat that four year limit.  Pedro Alvarez made it to the big leagues by his second full year as a professional.  Chase D'Arnaud made the show last year in his third full year.  On the high school level, the criticism is fairly accurate.  In 2008, Huntington's first draft class, the Pirates paid two high school players - Quinton Miller and Robbie Grossman - either seven figures or nearly seven figures.  Miller has been a bust and while Grossman has turned himself into a top prospect (on Keith Law's top 100 list for example) but will start next year in AA and is unlikely to arrive in Pittsburgh by the end of the year.  That will give him one more year to make the show by his fourth full year in the big leagues.  This reality can be particularly disheartening as Pirates fans watch high school phenoms such as Jason Heyward and Mike Trout fly to the major leagues, with the former taking his first at-bat for the Braves at age 20 and the latter taking his first at-bat for the Angels still as a teenager.

I decided to take a more in-depth look at how quickly prospects, specifically those drafted out of high school, move through the minors.  To do so, I used the following criteria.  First, I used fangraphs to identify each batter (I will do pitchers later)that had his rookie season.  My time period was the last five years, from 2007-2011.  From there, I determined which of those batters were high school draftees that made it to their rookie season within five years of being drafted.  That means every player on my list played a maximum of four full seasons in the minor leagues."

Here are the pitchers tables

2007

Player Name	Draft Bonus	Draft Position	Draft Year	Current Team
John Danks	2.10	1 (9)	2003	CHI
Phil Hughes	1.40	1 (23)	2004	NYY
Kyle Kendrick	135K	7 (205)	2003	PHI

2008

Player Name	Draft Bonus	Draft Position	Draft Year	Current Team
Clayton Kershaw	2.30	1 (7)	2006	LAD
Chris Volstad	1.60	1 (16)	2005	CHC
Matt Harrison	395K	3 (97)	2003	TEX
Aaron Laffey	363K	16 (468)	2003	TOR
Collin Balester	290K	4 (114)	2004	DET
Sean Gallagher	Unknown	12 (366)	2004	CIN

2009

Player Name	Draft Bonus	Draft Position	Draft Year	Current Team
Rick Porcello	3.58	1 (27)	2007	DET
Brett Anderson	950K	2 (55)	2006	OAK
Gio Gonzalez	850K	1s (38)	2004	WSH
Trevor Cahill	560K	2 (66)	2006	ARI
Vin Mazzaro	380K	3 (101)	2005	KC
Brad Bergesen	310K	4 (109)	2004	BAL

2010

Player Name	Draft Bonus	Draft Position	Draft Year	Current Team
Madison Bumgarner	2.00	1 (10)	2007	SF
Travis Wood	600K	2 (60)	2005	CHC
Jon Niese	175K	7 (2009)	2005	NYM
Jaime Garcia	Unknown	22 (680)	2005	STL
Alex Sanabia	Unknown	32 (965)	2006	MIA

2011 

Player Name	Draft Bonus	Draft Position	Draft Year	Current Team
Kyle Drabek	1.55	1 (18)	2006	TOR
Blake Beavan	~1.50	1 (17)	2007	SEA
Jordan Lyles	930K	1s (38)	2008	HOU
Zach Britton	435K	3 (85)	2006	BAL
Danny Duffy	365K	3 (96)	2007	KC