BravesBeat.com–1995 Draft Picks
The Braves took Chad Hutchinson with their first pick in the 1995 draft. They were evidently hoping to entice him from his commitment to play football for Stanford, but were unable to. In the end, it worked out okay. Hutchinson eventually wound up with the Cardinals but never did anything for them, and is now back in football, where he was one of the several pathetic reserve quarterbacks for the Bears last year. And in 1996, with a compensation pick for their inability to sign Hutchinson, the Braves took Jason Marquis. Also, Hutchinson looks like this:
In the second round, the Braves took high school first baseman Jim Scharrer. Scharrer was another football guy but they signed him. He meandered around the minors (for the Braves and Angels) for awhile, never doing anything, and like Hutchinson went back to football, playing linebacker and defensive end for Duke. He also has this remarkably well-thought-out web page.
In the third round, the Braves took Rob Bell. I don’t know if Bell played football, though it seems likely. Bell established himself as a prospect and was eventually traded in the deal with the Reds for Bret Boone and Mike Remlinger. That move was pounded at the time but then Bell’s career stagnated. He drifted to the Rangers and then — naturally — the Devil Rays, and is currently on the DL with “personal and psychological issues”, which may simply mean that he realized that he was with the Devil Rays.
In the fourth round, the pick was Jimmy Osting, yet another high school pitcher. Osting was injured in 1998 (I think he had Tommy John surgery) but emerged as a prospect after that. Then he was shipped to the Phillies in the Ashby-Chen deal. He then joined the rest of this draft in traveling around the majors and minors, getting brief callups for the Padres and Brewers and also spending time with the Rockie and Royal organizations. I believe he’s out of baseball after spending the 2004 season with… Well, you can guess whose organization.
In the fifth round, the Braves finally got someone who spent time with the big club, Kevin McGlinchy. I honestly don’t know what went wrong there. Well, he got hurt, but even before then it seemed like the Braves had lost confidence in him. At any event, they lost him in the 2001 Rule 5 draft to you-know-who. Kevin drifted to the Atlantic League after that, but there’s a possible happy ending for once. He’s hooked up with the Cubs now, and has pitched well enough to get a promotion from AA to AAA. Unfortunately, that’s not going so well, so a further promotion is in doubt.
The rest of the draft is pretty faceless. Jason Shiell, drafted in the 48th round, was sent to the Padres in the disastrous Klesko trade and made it to the majors with them in 2002, briefly, and for the Red Sox in 2003. I don’t know where he is now. 11th round pitcher Antone Brooks made it to AAA and got at least one spring training look. 14th round first baseman Steve Hacker was something of a prospect. He was traded to the Twins for Greg Myers in 1997. In the 20th round, they took Jason Hart. Hart didn’t sign, went to Southwest Missouri State, and then was a fifth-round pick of the A’s in 1998. He’s made it to the majors with the Rangers, briefly, but his prospect status may have lapsed. Craig House also didn’t sign. He should have; after college, he wound up with the Rockies.
For the record, Jason Hart missed almost two years due to a brain tumor, but is now playing again at AA Frisco in the Rangers organization.
Wasn’t Craig House the guy who threw 100mph with an absurd delivery?
Hilarious picture of hutchinson. Hilarious.
So, what’s up with the D-rays?
Chuck LaMar is still the GM down there, right? I guess he thinks he was right on all these players so he keeps collecting them. When he trades Huff he’ll probably replace him with AJ Zapp or Randall Simon.
Thanks for the heads-up, Andy.
Where did this picture come from? Did he just get hit between the eyes with a rock?
It’s a posed photograph, the one they use for his profile on ESPN.com. Actually, I guess it’s his official team photo — Yahoo, Fox, and NFL.com also use it.
That’s awful. He should sue.
Jason Shiell (Savannah native) had Tommy John surgery in May of last year and, as far as I can tell, is still with the Red Sox organization. Probably down in extended spring training.
Thanks. It’s hard to tell with those guys. I usually rely upon a Google News search, which will come up with the name if he’s playing anywhere in the US. But if a guy misses the whole season he drops out of that unless you get lucky and someone talks about him showing up in the clubhouse.