Phillies' Top 5 homegrown Draft picks

PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies’ two most successful eras in franchise history started because they drafted and developed well.

From 1976-83, the Phils won one World Series, two National League pennants and five NL East titles. They won 101 games in both ‘76 and ‘77. From 2007-11, Philadelphia won one World Series, two NL pennants and five consecutive NL East titles. They won a franchise-record 102 games in ‘11.

Each group found several core players in the MLB Draft.

Here are the top five Draft picks in Phillies history:

1) Mike Schmidt (second-round pick, 1971)
Every great Phillies list starts with Schmidt.

He is not only the greatest player in franchise history, but he is arguably the greatest third baseman in baseball history. Schmidt, whose 106.9 bWAR ranks 25th all-time, ranks first among third basemen in home runs (548); fourth in RBIs (1,595) and walks (1,507); sixth in runs (1,506); 13th in doubles (408) and 14th in hits (2,234). Among third basemen with 7,500 or more plate appearances, he ranks second in slugging percentage (.527) and OPS (.908) and fifth in on-base percentage (.380). He won the NL Most Valuable Player Award in 1980, ’81 and ’86. He made 12 NL All-Star teams. He won 10 Gold Gloves and six Silver Slugger Awards. He won 1980 World Series MVP honors, helping the Phillies win their first title in franchise history.

Will anybody ever pass Schmidt on this list?

2) Jimmy Rollins (second-round pick, 1996)
Rollins finished his career with 2,455 hits, 231 home runs and 470 stolen bases. He is one of only nine players to have at least 2,400 hits, 200 home runs and 400 stolen bases in his career. Rickey Henderson, Craig Biggio, Joe Morgan, Paul Molitor and Roberto Alomar are already in the Hall of Fame. The other three are Barry Bonds, Bobby Abreu and Johnny Damon.

Rollins played fantastic defense, too. He won four Gold Gloves at shortstop. Omar Vizquel won 11. Bill James places Rollins’ Hall of Fame value at 493.4. His standard for Hall of Fame players is 500. In other words, J-Roll is right there.

3) Chase Utley (15th overall pick, 2000)
Utley’s 64.4 bWAR is nearly 17 points better than Rollins.

From 2004-14, almost nobody in baseball played better. Utley’s 62.0 bWAR in that span ranked third behind Albert Pujols (76.2) and Adrián Beltré (63.3). Miguel Cabrera (59.3) and Alex Rodriguez (52.2) rounded out the top five.

4) Cole Hamels (17th overall pick, 2002)
Hamels almost single-handedly carried the Phillies to the 2008 World Series championship, winning NLCS and World Series MVP honors.

5) Aaron Nola (first-round pick, 2014)
Nola will go down as one of the greatest pitchers in Phillies history, much less one of the greatest Draft picks in Phillies history.