Giants helped change fortunes with '08 Draft
In 2008, John Barr pulled the lever in the First-Year Player Draft, and the Giants hit the jackpot.
There have been more lucrative Draft day hauls in terms of volume of talent corralled by Major League franchises. But you'd have a hard time finding one with higher quality impact than what scouting director Barr and the Giants produced five years ago.
It helped set the foundation for two World Series championships in three years, delivering in Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford a pair of players who would become among the game's best.
"Buster and I signed a day apart and went to Arizona the same time, then played [in the Minors] together," said Crawford, a fourth-round pick after Posey was taken No. 5 overall in the first round. "He's one of my better friends on the team. It worked out well for all of us -- including John Barr."
In his 29th season in the game, having started as a scout with the Mets in 1984, Barr now answers to the extended title of vice president and assistant general manager in charge of scouting and international operations.
While he has been studying amateur talent with the eye of a diamond appraiser for three decades, Barr understands it's rare that everything falls into place the way it did in 2008.
No player from that Draft has produced on Posey's level. If they held it all over again, Posey would go first and Crawford would be a high first-rounder.
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