Baseball Prospectus - Playing the 'What If' Game with Lincecum

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Baseball Prospectus | Future Shock: Playing the 'What If' Game with Tim Lincecum

7. Los Angeles Dodgers

Whom They Took: Clayton Kershaw (Career WARP: 7.3). Under the guidance of Logan White, the Dodgers often identified high-ceiling pitchers with early picks, and they found the best one in the draft with Kershaw.

And if They Took Lincecum: Lincecum in the rotation makes the Dodgers more dangerous in the 2008 and 2009 League Championship Series, both of which they lost in five games, but what about the future? Kershaw was arguably the better pitcher this year, and which pitcher would you rather have over the next five years? I don't think either answer is a slam dunk.

The problem is it doesn't matter to me who I would rather have for the next five years. What they really needed in 2008 and 2009 was the Cy Young winner in those two years.

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I know, I know, I shouldn't ***** because at least it's not Greg Reynolds or Brad Lincoln.

[Kingdom]

Or Luke Hoe-chaver (again)

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On one hand it's frustrating the MLB draft is such a crapshoot, more so than the drafts in other sports, but on the other hand it's fun to look back on the teams that can least afford to screw up their picks do so anyway.