Not that this needs re-hashing, but a
BP article that went up today specifically addresses the decline in drafted shortstops in recent years:
The lesson to take from that fact is that if you can mash, they'll find a position for you, but for some inside the game who are responsible for finding new talent, there is a bigger issue here: some believe that true -side infielders are more hard to find than ever. The problem is even more profound at shortstop, as fewer seem to be available with each passing year, as baseball has seen a steady decline in merely the number of shortstops selected in the draft:
Shortstops Taken In Picks
Years 1-100 1-50 1-10
1965-69 16.2 9.2 1.8
1970-79 14.0 8.2 1.8
1980-89 13.6 6.7 2.1
1990-99 11.8 6.0 1.2
2000-09 10.6 5.3 1.1
Beyond the numbers of shortstops themselves is the fact that the position itself is often a misnomer. The best athlete at most high schools is usually the shortstop, but that rarely means it's a legitimate reflection of those players' eventual position; it's easy to forget that even Gorman Thomas was drafted as a shortstop. In draft history, 581 shortstops have been drafted among the first 100 selections; of those, 116 had major league careers spanning 500 or more games, but just 46 spent the majority of their career actually at shortstop.
Put more simply, only about two out of every 25 players drafted as shortstops in the first 100 picks had anything resembling a career there.