For my latest post in SI.com’s The Strike Zone blog I created a new statistic designed to identify the best late-round picks in the history of Major League Baseball’s annual amateur player draft. That statistic, DROP (Draft Round Opportunity Points) simply multiplies a player’s career wins above repacement (Baseball-Reference version) by the round in which they were drafted. It’s a blunt tool, but an effective one. You can read more about it and the all-time top 10 in DROP in my Strike Zone post. Meanwhile, here is a more extensive leader list that didn’t fit over there:
| Player | Team | Pos | Year | Rd | Pick# | bWAR | DROP |
| Mike Piazza | LAD | 1B | 1988 | 62 | 1,380 | 59.4 | 3,683 |
| Keith Hernandez | STL | 1B | 1971 | 42 | 785 | 60.0 | 2,520 |
| Mark Buehrle | CWS | P | 1998 | 38 | 1,139 | 56.8 | 2,158 |
| Kenny Rogers | TEX | P | 1982 | 39 | 816 | 51.4 | 2,005 |
| John Smoltz | DET | P | 1985 | 22 | 574 | 69.5 | 1,529 |
| Ryne Sandberg | PHI | 2B | 1978 | 20 | 511 | 67.5 | 1,350 |
| Andy Pettitte | NYY | P | 1990 | 22 | 594 | 60.8 | 1,338 |
| Orlando Hudson | TOR | SS | 1997 | 43 | 1,280 | 30.9 | 1,329 |
| Albert Pujols | STL | 3B | 1999 | 13 | 402 | 94.5 | 1,229 |
| Kenny Lofton | HOU | OF | 1988 | 17 | 428 | 68.2 | 1,159 |
| Roy Oswalt | HOU | P | 1996 | 23 | 684 | 50.2 | 1,155 |
| Al Cowens | KCR | SS | 1969 | 75 | 1,028 | 15.2 | 1,140 |
| Brett Butler | ATL | OF | 1979 | 23 | 573 | 49.4 | 1,136 |
| Jeff Conine | KCR | 3B | 1987 | 58 | 1,226 | 19.4 | 1,125 |
| Bret Saberhagen | KCR | P | 1982 | 19 | 580 | 59.2 | 1,125 |
| Mark Grace | CHC | 1B | 1985 | 24 | 622 | 46.1 | 1,106 |
| Jeff Kent | TOR | SS | 1989 | 20 | 523 | 55.2 | 1,104 |
| Buddy Bell | CLE | 2B | 1969 | 16 | 375 | 66.1 | 1,058 |
| Jorge Posada | NYY | SS | 1990 | 24 | 646 | 42.7 | 1,025 |
| Ken Griffey Sr. | CIN | OF | 1969 | 29 | 682 | 34.4 | 998 |
| Nolan Ryan | CIN | P | 1965 | 12 | 295 | 81.8 | 982 |
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