In 1990, the Atlanta Braves drafted Chipper Jones with the No. 1 overall pick, and he accomplished something no other player has done after being selected first.
Not Ken Griffey Jr., not Alex Rodriguez, not Joe Mauer.
Jones was both an MVP and a World Series champion with the team that drafted him. Plenty of other No. 1 overall picks have accomplished one or the other — but not both.
Darryl Strawberry, Darin Erstad, Pat Burrell, Luke Hochevar and Carlos Correa won the World Series with the team that drafted them, but they didn’t win an MVP as well. Jeff Burroughs, Griffey, Mauer and Bryce Harper were MVPs for the teams that picked them, but they couldn’t bring those franchises a World Series title.
On the pitching side, David Price was picked No. 1 by Tampa Bay and won a Cy Young Award, but his World Series championship didn’t come until after he was with Boston.
Jones was part of Atlanta’s title team in 1995, and he earned MVP honors four years later. He also went into the Hall of Fame last year.
The Braves enter tonight's MLB draft with three first-night picks.
Baltimore picks first. The only other time the Orioles have had the No. 1 pick was in 1989, a year after Baltimore began the season 0-21 and ultimately lost 107 games. The Orioles picked pitcher Ben McDonald of LSU, and he actually made his major league debut almost immediately, in September of that year.
Baltimore nearly went from worst to first in the AL East in 1989, which was exciting for Orioles fans but took the team well out of contention for the top pick in the draft in 1990 — the one Atlanta used on Jones.
