The draft is a crapshoot, and it’s worth getting that point across here first. The Cincinnati Reds have hit homers with several of their highest-profile draftees, of course, with Barry Larkin in the Hall of Fame alongside Johnny Bench and Joey Votto set to join them down the road. Even the non-HOF worthy picks can still turn into extremely valuable big leaguers, with All Stars like Todd Frazier and Yasmani Grandal having been identified by the scouts of the Reds at the time.
For each of those diamonds, though, there is ample rough, and the tough parts about missing on high draft picks is a two-part problem.