Milwaukee Brewers Draft History: The Worst Drafts

The Milwaukee Brewers have the 17^th pick in the first round, along with the 34^th pick in the competitive balance round ‘A,’ acquired from Baltimore in the Corbin Burnes trade. In the second round, they have the 57^th overall pick. The Brewers also have the 67^th overall in the Competitive balance round ‘B.’ They have the 93^rd overall pick in the third round and the 123^rd in the fourth round. In the fifth round, Milwaukee has the 156^th overall pick. For the remaining 15 rounds, Milwaukee will have the 17^th pick in each round.

Some of the top prospects this year are 3B/OF Charlie Condon (Georgia), 2B Travis Bazzana (Oregon State), RHP Chase Burns (Wake Forest), 1B Nick Kurtz (Wake Forest), and 1B/LHP Jac Caglianone (Florida). Brewer Fanatic writer Jamie Cameron has compiled a 2024 MLB Mock Draft Consensus Board, including rankings from MLB Pipeline, ESPN, The Athletic, and others. 

This is the first of a three-part series discussing past Brewers drafts. Today, we look at five of the ‘worst’ drafts in Milwaukee’s draft history. 

1975
The 1975 draft leads the list. The Brewers chose 22 players, 13 high schoolers, and nine college players.

This was the only draft from 1970-2010 that did not have a single player who reached the major leagues in a Brewers uniform, although an asterisk comes attached to this draft. The Brewers chose pitcher Bob Stoddard in the 19^th round but did not sign with Milwaukee. In 1976, he was picked in the January secondary draft by Atlanta and in the June secondary draft by Oakland, but he did not sign with either club. Finally, he signed with Seattle as a 10^th-round pick in the 1978 June draft. He pitched for seven years in the bigs with four different clubs from 1981-87.

Here are the Brewers top five picks from 1975:

#1 LHP Rick O’Keeffe, Yorktown HS (Yorktown Heights, NY)
Scouted by roughly 20 big league teams, the 6-foot-6, 225-pounder was the fifth selection overall in the draft, picked ahead of Rick Cerone, Clint Hurdle, and Dale Berra. In his senior year, he pitched three no-hitters, had an ERA of 0.83, and struck out 114 batters in 59 innings. O’Keeffe also batted .426 with five home runs.

He spent two seasons at Single-A and was traded to the Cincinnati organization for Mike Caldwell and another player in June 1977. O’Keeffe spent five years in the Reds chain before being released in early 1982. He missed all of 1983 with a bum elbow, which required surgery. He tried to make a comeback in 1984 in the Mets chain and pitched in seven games before calling it quits. 

#2 C Chuck Ross, Tates Creek HS (Lexington, KY)
The left-handed batting Ross hit .438 in his senior year and turned down a scholarship at the University of Kentucky to sign a five-figure bonus with the Brewers. He played well in his first season at low-A Newark, slashing .271/.416/.338, earning a promotion the next year to Single-A Burlington in the Midwest League. 

Ross spent the next two years at that level before being promoted to Double-A Holyoke in 1978. After batting only .177/.283/.237 in a backup role at Holyoke, Ross was traded to the Baltimore organization in January 1979. He played the entire season at Single-A Miami and was a teammate of Cal Ripken, Jr. Ross slashed .237/.317/.309 with only two home runs. 

He was released after the season and called it a career after five pro seasons, never reaching higher than Double-A.

#3 RHP Alvin Edge, Crawford HS (San Diego, CA)
Not to be confused with Butch Edge, a Brewer pick from the previous year, Alvin Edge threw a no-hitter in his senior year. He spent four seasons at the lower levels of the Brewer organization, spending parts of three years at Single-A Burlington and even advancing as high as Double-A Holyoke in 1978.

The Brewers released Edge after 1979 spring training. He was picked up by the Seattle organization and pitched six games at Single-A San Jose in the California League before being released. 

#4 OF Gregory Anderson, John W. North HS (Riverside, CA)
Anderson was a 5-foot-10, 185-pound fly chaser who had a nice first pro season in 1975, slashing .293/.368/.462 at Low-A Newark. He hit nine homers and stole 26 bases in 50 games. That earned him a promotion to Single-A Burlington the following season. 

Anderson slashed .249/.333/.365 and stole 26 bases again. That wasn’t enough to earn a promotion, as he played at Burlington once again in 1977.  Anderson played in only nine games, slashing .189/.318/.243 before getting released. 

#5 SS-2B Robert Hely, Fort Lauderdale HS (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Bob Hely did not sign with the Brewers, instead electing to attend Wake Forest University. He played mostly at second base from 1976-1979 and was named to the All-ACC first team in 1978 and the second team in 1979. Hely hit a home run in the Demon Deacons’ 16-2 win over Virginia in the first game of the 1978 ACC tournament. He did not play professional ball.

Dishonorable Mentions

1978
The Brewers made 32 picks in this draft, and only one of them (Rickey Keeton) played for Milwaukee. Picked in the third round, ‘Buster’ played parts of two years in the majors, pitching in 22 games in 1980-81. First-round pick catcher Nick Hernandez signed for $50,000, spent four years in the minors, and never made it out of ‘A’ ball. 

Three players who did not sign and were drafted in future years made it to the majors with other clubs. Infielder Tim Teufel, OF Kevin McReynolds, and LHP Rob Murphy played a combined 34 years in the majors.

1996
Of the 57 picks made by the Brewers, only a pair of them performed for the Brewers in the bigs. Third-round pick 1B Kevin Barker played in 78 games over the 1999-2000 seasons, and RHP Allen Levrault (13^th round) appeared in 37 contests in 2000-01. Barker played parts of three seasons for other teams (2002, 2006, 2009), while Levrault pitched for Miami in 2003. First-round pick OF Chad Green was the Brewers' first million-dollar signee but sadly never made it past Triple-A and was traded to San Diego after the 2000 season.

RHP Josh Hancock and Brandon Backe did not sign with Milwaukee but were drafted in 1998 and played in the majors for other teams. Hancock died in a car crash in 2007 at the age of 29.

1990
Only OF Duane Singleton (5^th round) and RHP Marshall Boze (12^th round) made it to the bigs of the 43 Milwaukee draftees. Singleton played in 15 games for Milwaukee in 1994-95 and then appeared in 18 contests for Detroit in 1996. Boze had one save in his 25 relief appearances in 1996 for the Brewers. 

Top pick OF Larue Baber never made it past Single-A in his three years in the Brewers organization. He was released by Milwaukee before the 1993 season and picked up by San Diego. Baber topped out at High-A and was released by the Padres after the 1994 season. 

1997
The Brewers made 53 picks and once again had limited success. Only first-rounder RHP Kyle Peterson—who signed for $1.4 million—and RHPs Matt Childers (9^th round) and Brian Mallette (27^th round) appeared in a Milwaukee Brewers uniform. Peterson pitched in 1999 and 2001, appearing in 20 games. Childers threw in eight contests for Milwaukee in 2002 and three times for Atlanta in 2005. Mallette made five appearances for Milwaukee in 2002.

Bucky Jacobsen played six years in the minors for Milwaukee, making it as high as Triple-A before getting released in mid-2002. He signed with the Cardinals and a year later with the Mariners before reaching the bigs. He played in 42 games for Seattle in 2004, hitting nine HRs.  After calling it quits in 2007 in the Mexican League, Jacobsen had launched 186 homers in 11 minor league seasons. 

RHP Geoff Geary did not sign, instead signing with Philadelphia in 1998. Geary pitched for the Phillies and Astros between 2003 and 2009, appearing in 287 games.

It just goes to show that the MLB Draft is often a crapshoot. How does the 1974 draft happen? Number one pick Robin Yount becomes a Hall of Famer, while none of the other 20 players selected even get a ‘Cup of Coffee.’ What about 1984 when only #14 pick John Jaha plays in the majors, hitting 141 career homers? 

Part two will discuss a few players who got away when they did not sign after being drafted by Milwaukee but were drafted in the following years by other teams and went on to have big careers. It is a case of ‘what could have been.’

Are you interested in Brewers history? Then check out the Milwaukee Brewers Players Project, a community-driven project to discover and collect great information on every player to wear a Brewers uniform!