The Orioles got 21 seasons out of Cal Ripken.  But did the Red Sox do better with Reggie Smith?

Everyone is fascinated by a player like Cal Ripken Jr. who has a long career and plays for one team.  Ripken, Tony Gwynn and others like them certainly deserve respect and admiration for sticking with one team throughout their careers.

And while I appreciate the player who stays with one team for his whole career, I am intrigued by a slightly different concept.  I like to see how much value a franchise gets from a single draft pick or signing.

While the Orioles got 21 seasons out of Ripken, when he retired that was the sum value of what they got from that draft pick.  But what if we have a player who was drafted and then traded elsewhere.  The value of the original pick would then contain the first player and then pick up with the newly-acquired player.  And the franchise could keep getting value on the original pick as long as it traded a player before he retired.

Let’s use a simple example.

In 1963, the Red Sox drafted Reggie Smith from the Twins organization.  Smith made his debut for Boston in 1966 and played with the Red Sox through the 1973 season.  The Red Sox then traded Smith to the Cardinals for Rick Wise in October of 1973.  Wise pitched for Boston for four years.  Right before the beginning of the 1978 season, Boston traded Wise for Dennis Eckersley.  The Eck spent 6 ½ years in Fenway before the Red Sox dealt him for Bill Buckner.  Boston got parts of four seasons from Buckner before they released him in 1987.

The Red Sox got 21 seasons of value from drafting Reggie Smith.  But unlike the Orioles and Cal Ripken, Boston got its value from four different players.  Ripken gave the Orioles 431 home runs, 1,635 RBIs and Gold Glove defense at shortstop.  The Red Sox got 196 home runs, 857 RBIs, 131 wins and 1,093 strikeouts from their four players.

You could probably make a case either way for which team got more “value” from their 21 seasons.  In my opinion, Ripken is still more valuable but it’s no longer a stretch to say that the Red Sox got nearly equal value out of the draft pick that netted the club Reggie Smith as the Orioles did from Cal Ripken.

Now, you have to make some assumptions with this game because almost no deals are straight up 1-for-1 transactions.  When the Red Sox traded Smith, it was part of a four-player deal in which each team got two players.  In this game, I’ve decided a team can claim one player from each deal.  So, the Red Sox can claim Rick Wise (and his subsequent transactions) or Bernie Carbo (and his transactions) but not both for Reggie Smith.

This is not perfect; this is not rigorous analysis but rather a fun tool to see how long a franchise can keep alive production from a single draft pick or signing.  My rules also state that if a player leaves as a free agent, the club can count the production of a compensation draft pick.

Another short series of transactions I like is the Dodgers and Frank Howard.  They signed Hondo as a free agent in 1958 and he had cups of coffee with Los Angeles in ‘58 and ‘59 and then five years of full time play.  The Dodgers traded him to the Senators for Claude Osteen, who gave them nine good-to-great seasons.  Osteen was flipped for Jimmy Wynn, who had two All-Star seasons in L.A. before being shipped to Atlanta for Dusty Baker, who turned in eight more good years, including two campaigns in which he garnered MVP votes.

Currently, the longest stretch I have spans from 1957 through 1995.  With the signing of Milt Pappas, the Baltimore Orioles also got production from Frank Robinson, Doyle Alexander, Rudy May, Don Stanhouse, Ken Dixon, Mike Morgan and Mike Devereaux.

The Cardinals have another good one with a stretch going from 1959-1995 with some memorable names.  It started with Tim McCarver and then went to Dick Allen, Ted Sizemore, Willie Crawford, Dave Rader, Jerry Morales, Bob Sykes, Willie McGee, Felix Jose and Gregg Jefferies.

Another fun one is the Giants starting with Bobby Bonds.  He got traded for Bobby Murcer and the chain continued with Bill Madlock, Al Holland, Mark Davis, Kevin Mitchell, Dave Burba and Deion Sanders.

I was hoping to link one from 2008 to the start of one of the 1960s expansion teams but have been so far unable to do it.  One that I like is the expansion Angels which starts with Ed Kirkpatrick and goes to Hoyt Wilhelm, Mickey Rivers, Bobby Bonds and Claudell Washington.

As a Mets fan, I have to see which is the best chain I can get going with one of their picks.  Jerry Koosman to Jesse Orosco to Wally Whitehurst to Tony Fernandez to Darrin Jackson (or Orosco to Kevin Tapani to Frank Viola) is pretty good.  But I think the best one is still ongoing.

In the fifth round of the 1982 draft, the Mets picked Gerald Young.  He went to Houston in the Ray Knight trade.  After Knight left as a free agent, the Mets turned the compensation pick into Todd Hundley.  Next came Roger Cedeno who in turn became Mike Hampton.  Despite the Mets’ best efforts to keep Hampton, he left as a free agent but a compensation pick turned into David Wright.

So, in the comments box leave me your favorite chain of four or more players from one draft pick.  Extra points go to those that include Hall of Famers or if you can keep one going for 25-plus years without having a single All-Star.