MLB Draft: The KC Royals have mixed 9th pick luck

Sometime early Sunday evening, probably not long after the day’s West Coast games wrap, the KC Royals will go on the clock for the ninth overall selection of the 2022 MLB Draft. It’s not a bad position—only eight of 30 big league clubs pick before them, so the Royals will have plenty of talent to choose from.

This version of baseball’s premier prospect hunt starts Sunday at 6 p.m. CDT and continues through Tuesday. It will be, like all drafts, a crapshoot with no guarantees that any picks will live up to expectations. Proof of this immutable fact lies, for example, in Kansas City’s much-ballyhooed first-round pick of Bubba Starling in 2011; despite overflowing potential, he never made it big.

Although the selection of Kevin Appier in 1987 turned out well, the four ninth-overall picks the Royals have made through the years also demonstrate how uncertain the draft can be.

Who was the KC Royals’ first ninth overall pick, and how did he perform?

Kansas City chose ninth for the first time in 1973, the season the club also inaugurated Royals (now Kauffman) Stadium.

The pick didn’t work out.

After others selected better-known players like prep phenom David Clyde and future Hall of Famers Robin Yount and Dave Winfield, the Royals selected Lew Olsen, a righthanded California high schooler who signed that summer, reported to Rookie ball, and gave up only a run in 10 innings.

Olsen stuck with the organization for five more seasons and, in 106 games—92 of them starts—went 33-35 with a respectable 3.26 ERA while advancing twice to Triple-A Omaha. But a shoulder injury cut short his career and he last pitched during the 1978 season.

This hard throwing KC Royals first-rounder never made it to the majors.

As a ballplayer, he was the stuff of legend, a fireballing righthander who threw 100 mph-plus pitches before he graduated from high school and became a first-round big league draft pick when Kansas City grabbed him with the ninth overall selection in 1973.

He had promise and potential. But two things prevented Colt Griffin from reaching the majors.

The first was his control, a serious problem that surfaced as soon as he signed and reported to Kansas City Class A affiliate Spokane, where he walked seven (and gave up an equal number of runs) in only 2.1 innings.

He pitched much far more in 2002 but couldn’t shake that pesky control problem—he walked 87 batters in 95.1 innings. And although he went 10-11 across A and High-A the next year, he still fought the strike zone. His BB9 for the year was 5.6, a too-high number that increased to 6.2 in 2004 and 6.9 in 2005.

Injuries posed the other problem for Griffin, who reportedly had rotator cuff surgery after the 2005 campaign and retired without throwing a regular season pitch in 2006. He finished his five-year minor league career with a 19-25 record and 4.79 ERA.

The KC Royals picked up one of their best-ever pitchers in the 1987 draft.

The player everyone wanted going into the 1987 draft was Ken Griffey Jr. He didn’t last long—the Mariners took him with the first overall selection—but Kansas City did just fine. Choosing eight slots later, the Royals picked pitcher Kevin Appier and never looked back.

The righthander made it to Kansas City for six games two years later, then established himself in the Royal rotation by going 12-8 with a 2.76 ERA in 1990—he tied Tom Gordon for the most wins on the staff (Steve Farr led with 13), but had the best ERA among regular starters.

Appier and Bret Saberhagen paced the club with 13 wins apiece in ’91, and Appier’s 15 victories in ’92 and 18 in ’93 were also the club’s best. He led KC in wins (15) again in 1995, his only All-Star season.

The next was his last full good year in Kansas City (14-11, 3.62) before the club traded him to Oakland in 1999 when he was 9-9 in July.

Appier spent 2000 with the A’s, 2001 with the Mets and 2002 with the Angels and went 40-33. He returned to the Royals in 2003 and 2004, but injury issues limited him to six games and a 1-3 record. He didn’t pitch in the majors again and finished 169-137 with a 3.74 ERA.

The Royals inducted Appier into their Hall of Fame in 2011, an honor truly deserved considering his place among the club’s all-time pitching leaders. He ranks first in WAR (47.1) and strikeouts (1,458), and fourth in wins (115), innings pitched (1,843.2), starts (275), batters faced (7,688) and ERA+ (130).

The Royals will add to their list of ninth overall draft selections Sunday evening.