Starting Fresh: The Expansion of 1998

In the final part of my six part series on major league expansion drafts, I examine the seventh expansion draft in major league history, the 1998 expansion draft for the newest members of Major League Baseball, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

RULES
The same rules applied as those that were in place for the 1993 draft. The draft had three rounds, each club protecting 15 players initially and three more for the second and third rounds. All unprotected players were eligible except players selected in the 1991 or 1992 amateur drafts or players that were younger then the age of 18 when they signed a contract in one of the previous three seasons.

THE FIRST PICKS
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays owned the first pick in the expansion draft and general manager Chuck LaMar picked young and promising pitcher Tony Saunders from the world champion Florida Marlins with the first overall pick. After a mediocre-at-times first season with the club (6-15, finished 9^th in the AL in strikeouts but led in walks allowed), his second season will be remembered for ‘The Pitch’. Against the Texas Rangers, Saunders broke a bone in his arm while delivering a pitch and wouldn’t be seen in the majors again, despite an unsuccessful comeback attempt in 2005. In his book Juiced, ex-teammate Jose Canseco says that Saunders’ broken bone can be attributed to his excessive steroid use. Arizona followed suit and picked the second southpaw starter in the draft, Brian Anderson from Cleveland. Anderson would spend five solid years in the D-Backs rotation, before moving on to Kansas City.

Arizona, who also owned the third selection (the draft went snake order for the first four picks), took another starter to compliment Anderson, right-hander Jeff Suppan. Suppan didn’t last long in the desert, going 1-7 in 1998 before being placed on waivers in September. Centerfielder Quinton McCracken was picked fourth by the D-Rays, where he became the first batter in franchise history.

IMMEDIATE CONTRIBUTORS (1998 SEASON)
McCracken was one of the only consistent offensive players with Tampa Bay, hitting .292 and scoring a team high 77 runs. The only other threats in the Devil Rays line-up came from aging free agent signings Fred McGriff, Paul Sorrento and Wade Boggs. Saunders and another free agent pick-up, Rolando Arrojo, anchored Tampa’s staff that posted respectable numbers.

Arizona had four 20-home run hitters though none of them came by way of the expansion draft. The best power hitter Arizona acquired through the draft was infielder Tony Batista, Arizona’s 14^th pick, who hit 18 home runs. Anderson posted a 12-13 record to lead the staff along with ex-Cardinal Andy Benes.

NOTABLE SELECTIONS
The best player selected in the draft was probably all-star outfielder Bobby Abreu. Abreu, who was left unprotected by Houston in favor of veteran Richard Hidalgo, was the third player taken by the Devil Rays. However, within minutes, Abreu was on his way to Philadelphia in exchange for shortstop Kevin Stocker. It was in the City of Brotherly Love that Abreu proved the Astros and Devil Rays wrong, and he had become a very reliable player with Philly and with his current club, the Yankees, since being traded.

Who is Karim Garcia? That was the question Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez posed to a reporter after Garcia took offense to Pedro hitting him with a pitch during the 2003 ALCS. Before all of that happened, Garcia was the 9^th overall pick by Arizona in the expansion draft but his relevance in the Diamondbacks’ history is much more then that. Garcia was involved in a one-for-one trade with Garcia going to Detroit and Luis Gonzalez, one of the best Diamondback players of all-time, heading to Phoenix.

Two of Tampa Bay’s selections, catcher Mike Difelice (10th pick of the 1st round) and pitcher Albie Lopez (10th pick of the 2nd round), were members of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks squad that won the World Series, defeating the New York Yankees in seven games.

INAUGURAL SEASONS
Arizona went 9-31 in their first 40 games of 1998 but finished 65-97, a respectable record after their poor start. 35-year-old Devon White, the club’s everyday centerfielder, was the team’s only all-star selection. However, the next season, the Diamondbacks had a 35- game turnaround, winning the NL West with a 100-62 record, 14 games ahead of second place San Francisco.

Tampa Bay finished with a 63-99 record in their first season with Rolando Arrojo being the club’s only player in the all-star game. Though solid when their opponents were at bat, (4^th in the league in runs against), the Devil Rays scored a major league worst 3.83 runs a game. The team has struggled over their first 10 years, finishing last in their division nine times. However, the now-renamed Rays are leading the AL East in 2008 with a record of 52-32 as of July 2^nd. The devil has officially been exorcised.