Compensation picks

John Tomase of the Boston Herald wrote an interesting article in this week's edition, highlighting  how the Red Sox have made out well with compensatory picks for letting their players go. I thought we should look at some of the Blue Jays Highlights as a comparison:

2010
Aaron Sanchez - Marco Scutaro
Noah Syndergaard- James Paxton (Who was compensation for AJ Burnett)
Asher Wojciechowski- Rod Barajas

2009
James Paxton- AJ Burnett. James did not sign, which led to another compensatory pick in the 2010 draft
Jake Marisnick- AJ Burnett

2008
None

2007
Kevin Ahrens- Frank Catalanotto!
Brett Cecil- Justin Speier
Justin Jackson- Frank Catalanotto
Trystan Magnuson- Ted Lilly

2006
The Jays didn't gain any compensation picks, but Kyle Drabek was taken by the Phillies as compensation for Billy Wagner

2004
Zach Jackson - Kelvim Escobar (Who cost us Michael Young) EDIT: Kelvim Escobar was signed by the Jays as an international free agent. Esteban Loiza cost us Michael Young. That actually hurts even more...

2000
Dustin McGowan- Graeme Lloyd

So, in the last decade, The Jays actually did pretty poorly in terms of compensating for losing Free Agents. The last 2 drafts are too soon to pass judgement on, but looking at the years before that net out only 2 Major League caliber pitchers (Cecil, McGowan) and Adam Lind

Hopefully Anthopoulos' new philosophy on drafting upside over signability will yield some better compensation talent in future years. He's going to get more picks next year, so he'll have ample opportunity.

After reading what Theo Epstein has returned from his choices, and understanding that the Red Sox use the upside philosophy on their drafts, I am at least optimistic.

EDIT: Master Kembo from BlueBirdBanter points out that I missed Adam Lind, who was taken in the third round of the 2004 draft. He  was the second part of the Jays compensation for losing Kelvim Escobar. Turns out that 3rd round picks can be valuable. Also gives reason to be excited about Jake Marisnick.