Texas Rangers: The 7 Worst First Round Picks since 2000.

2011 Texas Rangers First Round Picks- Kevin Matthews and Zach Cone

In 2011 that the Rangers were coming off their first World Series appearance in team history. They lost their own first-round pick because of the Adrian Beltre signing. They did have two compensation picks at the end of the first round. They had picks 33 and 37. They went with high school pitcher Kevin Matthews out of Georgia at 33. Then they picked University of Georgia outfielder Zach Cone with pick 37. They missed on both players.

The 2011 draft was deeper than experts initially thought. Trevor Story a local kid out of Irving was still on the board. Blake Snell was still available, Michael Fulmer. Joe Musgrove, Jackie Bradley Jr, Josh Bell, and Tyler Glasnow were all still on the board.

The Rangers went with Matthews and Cone. Matthews had good stretches, but never made it out of A-ball in his time in the Rangers' organization. After missing the 2013 season due to injuries he came back in 2014 and pitched in rookie ball, Low-A, and High-A and did not have an ERA below 6 at any of those stops. He pitched for Hickory in 2015 and had a 6.48 ERA and that was it. He was released .

Zach Cone was the other compensation pick and he is a little bit of different story, but the same result. Cone lasted in the organization until 2016. He did make it all the way to Double-A. He played two seasons for Frisco in 2015-2016. In 40 games in 2015 he hit. 257 with 3 home runs, and 20 RBIs. He came back in 2016 and hit. 208, with five home runs, and 26 RBIs in 36 games. After that he was released.

The Texas Rangers did make some good selections in this draft. The Dallas Morning News back in 2018 did a retrospective piece on the 2011 draft and looked at how many players did not play for the Rangers that the team drafted because they were not signed or were later traded.

"They failed to sign their third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks, pitcher Brandon Woodruff, outfielder Derek Fisher and catcher Max Pentecost.They traded their eighth-round pick, Kyle Hendricks, their 15th-rounder Jerad Eickhoff and 48th-rounder C.J. Edwards.They rushed 18th-round selection Nick Martinez to the majors after a rash of injuries in spring training in 2014. The club chose not to tender him a contract in salary arbitration this winter. He opted to go to Japan."

- Evan Grant

It was a big miss as that draft did have talent still on the board and the Rangers ended up with two players that did not get close to the major leagues. These misses did end up hurting the team in the post-Adrian Beltre era. The minor leagues did not have that infusion of young talent that the Rangers would need to sustain the level of winning that the organization had come to expect from 2010-2016.