Evan Grant today re-tells the 2006 draft day story that Jon Daniels has relayed before, how close the Rangers came to having the opportunity to draft Tim Lincecum, something that they were fully prepared to do at #12. For those who haven't heard the story, MLB teams tend to have a very good idea of who other teams are after. The Rangers were almost convinced that they would see Lincecum fall to them. Brian Sabean and the Giants disappointed them.
↵↵↵He was the player the Rangers targeted during the 2006 draft, Jon Daniels' first as the Rangers' GM.
↵The Rangers had the 12th overall pick in the draft and scouting director Ron Hopkins, who was based in Seattle, Wash., and knew Lincecum well had identified the diminutive hard-throwing right-hander from Washington State as the club's No. 1 target.
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↵↵"We had done pretty good research and our folks had a pretty good handle on how the picks in front of us would fall," Daniels said. "There was only one question. San Francisco at 10. The Giants did a really good job of keeping of not playing their hand.
↵"On draft day, we had already pulled Lincecum's name and were ready to call it. When the Giants drafted, his draft number started with an 'R' for 'Redraft' and then there was zero and three more digits. When the Giants started to call the number and there was no zero and I thought we got him. Then they called the name. I remember asking our guys if we could have the pick nullified for not calling the zero. Apparently, you didn't need to call the zero in the draft number."
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Alas, the Rangers had to settle for Kasey Kiker and will have to face Lincecum today.
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