Kansas City Royals: Best fourth overall picks in MLB history
Kansas City Royals: Best Fourth Overall Picks
Pitcher. Chicago White Sox. Alex Fernandez. 10. player. 128.
Even though Alex Fernandez didn’t spend his entire career with the Chicago White Sox, the header for each player will be with the team who drafted each player. Fernandez was the fourth overall pick by the White Sox in the 1990 MLB Draft, a draft that saw Chipper Jones, Tony Clark, and Mike Lieberthal all go ahead of Fernandez.
Despite the lengthy career, Fernandez wasn’t quite as good as those guys were, but he was still good. He pitched ten seasons for three different teams and won a World Series in 1997 with the Florida Marlins. Fernandez finished his career with an average ERA of 3.74.
96. . Pitcher. Oakland Athletics. Mike Morgan. 9. player
Mike Morgan was the fourth overall pick of the 1978 draft class and went on to spend a whopping 22 seasons in Major League Baseball, split between 12 different teams. He made his MLB debut at the ripe age of 18 and was sent back to the minors in 1980 to fine tune what was ailing him. He was called up again in 1982, only this time as a member of the Yankees.
Morgan made it to one All-Star Game, which came in 1991 – a season in which he threw 236.1 innings for an ERA of 2.78 while notching 14 wins. It took Morgan until 2001 to win his first World Series title, which he did with the Diamondbacks at age 42. Morgan played one more year after winning his first World Series and then retired after an impressive career that spanned over four decades.
Mike Morgan might not have been the flashiest player, but he spent 1978-2002 in Major League Baseball and that’s impressive no matter how you want to spin it.