If you've ever wondered why the Washington Nationals have blown past the Phillies to become the best team in the National League East, you need look no further than the draft.
It is proof that tanking can work even in a sport with as many moving parts as baseball.
From 2005, the year that baseball returned to the nation's capital, through 2011, the last year the Phillies won their division, the Nationals made so many top picks that it would have been difficult for them not to become a contending team.
Washington had a total of eight picks in the top 15, seven in the top 10 and three in the top four during that seven-year stretch.