the almost daily dodger - adrian gonzalez

with the draft being held this week - the first round was on sunday - i am reminded that the dodgers have never had the first overall pick. the closest they came was in 1993 when they should have picked first but for some reason the leagues alternated years, so the mariners (whose record in 1992 was one game better than the dodgers') picked first and took some guy named alex rodriguez. the dodgers took darren dreifort.

even though they have not had the number 1 pick, there are a number of former number 1 picks that have played for the dodgers, including adrian gonzalez

i am a big fan of these blue foil parallels from opening day sets - this one is from 2015 - but i haven't really prioritized them. i think the gonzalez was a sportlots order filler from several months ago.

gonzalez was taken first overall by the marlins in 2000. the dodgers, choosing 17th that year, took ben diggins. prior to gonzalez wearing the dodger uniform, number one overall picks darryl strawberry (1980 - mets), tim belcher (1983 - twins), and rick monday (1965 - a's) sported dodger blue at one time or another during their careers. monday was the first ever first overall pick, of course. after gonzalez, the dodgers picked up david price, who was the first overall pick in 2007 by the devil rays.

belcher and strawberry were the only two who were featured in the 1985 topps #1 draft pick subset, and belcher's 1985 topps card has a sort of o-pee-chee quality to it given the fact that he did not sign with the twins. i recall being surprised that monday wasn't included in that set, but he was no longer active following the 1984 season so that could have been the reason.

one more note - the dodgers twice drafted luke hochevar, and even signed him in 2005 until he backed out of the deal and re-entered the draft the following year where he became the number one overall pick, taken by the royals.