Kearly, I hear what you are saying, but I think one of the mistakes we fans often make, and I am as guilty of it as anyone, is comparing prospects in THIS draft to prospects in previous drafts. I understand why we do it, and its helpful to get rough approximations of relative talent, but its not really helpful for determining where a prospects should be drafted.
Just because Bullard (or any other prospect) may be equivalent to THIS year's 4th round prospects, doesn't mean its a reach to draft him with THIS year's first. All that matters is how a prospect ranks in the current draft pool. How he ranks relative to the players immediately around him in the current class.
This is a really weak draft class. Really, across the board it's pretty bad, even at positions of strength within the class. But its the group we have to pick from. You really do draft in a vacuum.
The only other recourse, and its probably a pretty decent plan, is to draft this year's picks for future picks in the reasonable expectation that next year will be better. Because this year is pretty bad.