Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

There are a lot of cool new pages at Baseball-Reference.com and one of them is an easy-to-read summary of all Major Leaguers drafted by each club each year. This is a depressing list to read as a Royals fan, since the last few drafts are populated by names like Mike Tonis, Dan Reichert, and Jeff Austin. And those are the guys that reached the big leagues!

Anyway, its an interesting list because of the guys drafted by the Royals who didn't sign with the ballclub. They may have not signed for various reasons - the Royals didn't offer enough money, the player wanted to go to college, or the player wanted to play football (1985, 6th round). Here is my "could have been" list. The All-Time List of Players Drafted But Unsigned by the Royals.

C Ron Hassey (1975, 22nd round)
914 hits as a backup
1B Will Clark (1982, 4th round)
2176 career hits and six-time All-Star
2B Rob Piccolo (1973, 4th round)
Light hitter in nine MLB seasons
SS Chuck Baker - (1973, 26th round)
Only played in 93 games
3B Todd Zeile (1983, 30th round)
Played with 11 teams, somehow never in Kansas City
LF Jacque Jones (1993, 31st round)
159 home runs in nine year career thus far
CF Shane Mack (1981, 4th round)
Lifetime .299 hitter; ended career in KC
RF Hubie Brooks (1976, 1st round)
1608 career hits; ended his career as a Royal
SP Frank Viola (1978, 16th round)
176 career wins and the 1988 Cy Young
SP Scott Sanderson (1974, 11th round)
163 wins in 19 seasons, although he only had three seasons with more than 15 wins
SP Mike Bielecki (1979, 6th round)
Just 70 wins, but an 18 game winner in 1989
RP Craig Lefferts - (1979, 7th round)
696 appearances with a 3.43 career ERA
RP Sammy Stewart - (1974, 28th round)
359 appearances with a 3.59 career ERA

Other active Major Leaguers who were drafted by the Royals but did not sign include Twins reliever Matt Guerrier (1996, 33rd round), Astros starter Chris Sampson (1997, 41st round), Diamondbacks reliever Brandon Medders (1999, 18th round), and Marlins reliever Taylor Tankersley (2001, 39th round).

The Royals also selected Dan Marino (1979, 4th round) and John Elway (1979, 18th round). If only the Chiefs were as smart.