2008: Year of the No. 1's

The MLB draft receives substantially less attention than any of the four major sports. It's understandable why since baseball draftees have a much longer road to the big stage and less publicity coming out of high school and college. However, the crop of #1 picks in baseball are undoubtedly more successful than the NFL and NBA.

Here's baseball's top resume:

• 2001 #1 pick Joe Mauer leads the AL in batting average .335.
• 2000 #1 pick Adrian Gonzalez leads the NL in RBI and stands tied for third in the NL with 20 home runs.
• 1999 #1 pick Josh Hamilton leads the AL in HR and RBIs while ranking 5th in OPS and 7th in batting average
• 1998 #1 pick Pat Burrell is second in the NL in walks, fifth in OPS and seventh in home runs.
• 1993 #1 pick Alex Rodriguez is runner-up for the AL batting title and third in OPS.
  
• 1990 #1 pick Chipper Jones leads the NL in hitting and OBP and second in OPS.
  
• 1987 #1 pick Ken Griffey Jr hit his 600th home run earlier this year and leads all active players in career home runs.

Oh, and 2005 #1 pick Justin Upton is third in the NL in strikeouts. The NBA has Allen Iverson and Lebron, the NFL has Peyton and Eli but these #1's are out of their league. Are top picks in baseball simply more likely to be sure-fire stars than football and basketball?