Kansas City Royals: 1971 considered best draft in team history
The Kansas City Royals landed four talented players in the 1971 MLB Draft and that is why it’s considered their best draft class according to MLB.com.
MLB.com published an article about the best draft class for every team in Major League Baseball and for the Kansas City Royals, they picked the 1971 draft class. Here was the first part of the blurb they wrote on why they went with this draft class.
"Kansas City’s 1971 Draft netted the organization a future Hall of Famer in George Brett (second round, 88.6 career WAR) — a 13-time All-Star who won the 1980 AL MVP and compiled a .305/.369/.487 line with 3,154 hits while spending his entire 21-year career with the Royals."
The fact that George Brett was in this draft class pretty much guaranteed that it’d be the choice for the best Royals draft class. Brett is still the best player in Royals history to this day and is the only true Hall of Famer to have played for the Royals (sure they have others, but he’s the only one who people know for his time as a Royal).
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Brett wasn’t the only good player from this draft though, as the guys from MLB.com continue,
"Reliever Mark Littell (12th round) had an excellent four-year run (1976-79) with the Royals and Cardinals, tallying 52 saves with a 2.70 ERA across 243 appearances. The organization added right-hander Steve Busby (16.1 career WAR) — a future two-time All-Star and 22-game winner."
These were all solid players for the Kansas City Royals with Steve Busby especially standing out. He spent eight years with the Royals and in three of those seasons he threw for over 200 innings.
MLB Drafts were much differently than other sports drafts because (other than this year’s) there are a lot more rounds to work with and to find talent. As a result, it’s typically more difficult to really point to one draft class that stood out from the rest, but because the 1971 class had George Brett in it, of course that’s going to stand out.
As good of players as the Royals drafted in the mid to late 2000s, typically the rest of those classes weren’t anything to write home about. Also none of the highlights of those classes have been able to do what George Brett did.
If the pitchers drafted in 2018 (Brady Singer, Jackson Kowar, Daniel Lynch, Kris Bubic, Jonathan Bowlan) can end up being the dominant flamethrowers the Royals are hoping for, then maybe that class can become the unquestioned best in franchise history.
dark. Next. MLB Mock Draft Part 2
Is there another draft class that should have been considered for the best in Kansas City Royals history?