More on the rookies who graduated in 2015

More interesting little notes on this year’s end-of-season roster purge:

 

1. EFL teams lost 112 players altogether when their contracts expired at the end of the season, for an average of 12.45 per team.

 

2. Pittsburgh lost the most (22) while Cottage lost the fewest (5).

 

3. We lost 49 veterans whose contracts expired, 48 debutants, and only 15 whose 5 year terms as rookies expired. We drafted 48 rookies in 2011. Only 14 of those retained their rookie status straight through to the end. Here is how the 15 expired rookies were acquired:

RD 1, EFL pick #1: Justin Heyward (CC)
#2: Carlos Santana (OD)
#4: Giancarlo Stanton (KD)
#5: Logan Morrison (OD) *
#6: Stephen Strasburg (CK)
#9: Freddy Freeman (PA)

RD 2, EFL pick #1: Desmond Jennings (PP)
#2c: Aroldis Chapman (CK)
#5: Jonathan Lucroy (PP)
#6: Chris Carter (PA)
#8: Chris Sale (PP)
#9: Jake McGee (NB)

RD 3, EFL pick #4: Craig Kimbrel (KD)
#5: Mike Minor (OD)

The Rosebuds picked up Tyson Ross in their expansion draft, acquiring him as a rookie whose status expired this year.

* Some people have loudly complained that Logan Morrison was a bust — after trading for him, even! But look at this — 48 players were drafted in 2011, and Morrison is one of only 29% of those players who went 5 years without being cut from an EFL roster (or going down with a dying franchise, unrescued in the Rule 5 draft).  One third of those drafted in the first round didn’t last, but Logan did.

Here’s a list of the draftees from 2011 that didn’t stick in the EFL for their first five years:

Rd 1, # 3:  Starlin Castro (NB)

# 7:  Jeremy Hellickson (PP)

# 8:  Dominic Brown (HD)

Rd 2, #2a:  Danny Espinosa (ME)

#2b:  Andrew Cashner (NB)

#3:  Mitch Moreland (KD) – (came back as a veteran)

#4:  J.P. Arencibia (KD)

#7:  Brent Morel (CC)

Rd 3, #1a:  Peter Bourjos (ME)

#1b:  Kyle Drabek (HD)

#2:    Somebody Jeffress (HD)

#3:    Somebody Wallace (NB)

#5b:  Jenrry Mejia (HD)

Plus every single draftee after Mejia.

Logan Morrison did just fine.  There’s a lesson here: everyone should always trade for Wolverine cast-offs.

 

4. Last spring we drafted 47 rookies. It was the first year a team drafted no one in the rookie draft. That team was the Alleghenys.

5.  On the other hand, the Alleghenys have seeded the 2016 rookie draft with 10 of their own debutants, giving them matching rights against all human owners (except in the case of a first round pre-emptive bid).  Here’s the entire list:

PA	10
FH	9
HD	6
CK	5
OD	5
PR	5
PP	4
CC	3
KD	1

 

5. Oops. I just realized the rosters don’t reflect DFA’s since the season ended. I’ll get to those in a bit here.