On this day in 2003 the Brewers capitalized on one of the greatest opportunities in franchise history. A bad season in 2002 gave them the #2 overall pick in the draft, and they used it to select second baseman Rickie Weeks from Southern University.
It's worth noting that top picks in the MLB draft are historically no sure thing. This year the Brewers clearly got the best of the first six picks:
Pick | Team | Player | Position | Career Games | Career WAR (rWAR) |
1 | Rays | Delmon Young | OF | 774 | 1.7 |
2 | Brewers | Rickie Weeks | 2B | 808 | 10.9 |
3 | Tigers | Kyle Sleeth | P | 0 | 0 |
4 | Padres | Tim Stauffer | P | 97 | 2.8 |
5 | Royals | Chris Lubanski | OF | 0 | 0 |
6 | Cubs | Ryan Harvey | OF | 0 | 0 |
Weeks signed his first pro contract on August 7 and received his first cup of coffee in the big leagues later that same year. He was one of Baseball America's top ten prospects in all of baseball in 2004 (#5) and 2005 (#8), hitting .289/.404/.493 in 209 minor league games before becoming a big league fixture at age 22.
Weeks' career has had some ups and downs since them (and 2012 is a down), but he's still a .250/.351/.427 hitter over 808 career games as a second baseman, and he's still only 29 years old. Even if Weeks never hits a baseball again, the Brewers got everything they could've hoped for from their top pick in 2003.
Weeks, however, was arguably the only player the Brewers selected in 2003 to make a major impact in Milwaukee. The next three best players they drafted that season were Tony Gwynn Jr., Mitch Stetter and Carlos Corporan.
With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to 2002 Brewer Robert Machado. He turns 39.
Today is also the second anniversary of Chris Capuano's first start as a Brewer in 2010, nearly three full years after his last major league appearance. We covered that event in this space last year.