Say Hello to the MLB Amateur Draft

[McKain]

Five minutes per pick, thirty first round picks, thirty sandwich picks, and only another forty nine rounds to go.

The MLB Draft is the least popular amateur draft of the four major sports. Now, it is finally getting television coverage. ESPN2 on June 7th will air coverage of the draft from 2 PM EST to 6 PM EST. Each first round pick will be televised, and likely some of the sandwich picks.

In light of this television deal, and considering the lack of knowledge about the rapidly-approaching draft, I feel that most fans should at least be clued in a little as to some of the nuances of the draft itself, and its history. After all, many of us have probably never looked into the draft before due to the fact that so few players make it from each draft, it takes several years for a player to develop, and so many other reasons.

The Early Years
The draft was first held in 1965. The picks went in reverse order of the previous season's standings, and the leagues alternating for each pick. There were three drafts: one for high school graduates and college seniors who finished by June, one in August for summer league players, and one for high school and college graduates in the winter. By 1986, the only draft that remained was the June (and largest) draft. No trading of draft picks is permitted.

High School and "Signability"
High school players would make up the majority of early selections, and would soon develop into the draftees with power. The most notable cases of this were pitchers Todd Van Poppel and Brien Taylor, who demanded large contracts out of high school while threatening to attend college if the teams (Oakland and the New York Yankees, respectively) would not comply. This was a strong contributor to the recent belief that a player has "signability," or a value that represents how much money he is likely to command. The Montreal Expos, when under control of Major League Baseball, would only draft players they could sign cheaply. In this year's draft, North Carolina State University's Andrew Brackman could suffer a fall due to his signability issues.

Eligibility
The current draft eligibility rules state that a player must be:
a) From the United States, Canada, or a U.S. territory
b) Never been signed to a major league or minor league contract
c) Collegiate players are eligible after turning 21, or after their junior year
d) High school players are only eligible after graduation, and can not have attended college

Compensation
While the NFL practices something similar to compensatory picks, they are not done on nearly as high a level as Major League Baseball. As demonstrated by cases such as Alfonso Soriano, Julio Lugo, and Roberto Hernandez in this past off-season, teams are awarded compensatory picks for losing players deemed to be of a certain type (based on performance) to free agency. Additionally, a team who drafts a player in the first or second round but fails to sign him will receive a sandwich pick in the next draft.

The MLB Draft will end when the final selection of the 50th round has been made, or when each team has passed at least once. Passing on a pick - who would ever think that would be a mainstay of a major sport's draft? Due to the short times involved in making a draft selection, which before this year's draft was two minutes, teams are given the option to defer and not select a player that round.

The only mid-season draft, the only draft to have not been televised, and a draft that utilizes video conferencing to make picks. This year, the MLB draft finally gets high publicity and attempts to legitimize itself. I have never paid attention to the draft before, and I probably never will, but finally all of the prospect-junkies gain access to the inner workings of the draft.

[Providence A's]

interesting that it'll be televised for the 1st time...I wish they'd allow us to watch it on MLB.tv. It's cheaper for me to get that than pay for cable or satellite for the year. I'll be curious to find out what the ratings are. Of course, I'd be at work until 4 or so and miss more than half of the draft anyway...

This would interest me a lot in all honesty and hope they continue to try and reach more people with it. It certainly can't be any worse than the 2nd day of the NFL draft where a majority of those players most likely won't even make the team. There have been numerous examples of players picked very late that turn into blue chip prospects. One of the benefits of having 6 levels of minor leagues (rookie league, 3 A, AA, and AAA). The NBA and NFL pretty much draft players that will make an impact in the immediate future. Good read for the uninformed reader. I'm not a minor league geek, but I like to follow A's prospects. That's why we have our own minor league forum.

[McKain]

I unfortunately don't see it catching on very well just because there's so little coverage devoted to players, and no major sports news station is going to cover high school players unless they're absolute phenoms like LeBron was. But it's so quickly paced, and there won't be much time for over-analysis like you commonly see with the NFL Draft (specifically the second day, where the analysts spend 90% of the time talking about the top 15 picks of the first day), so it'll probably be the purest draft presentation there can be.

EDIT: But at the same time, I fully believe that if it catches on at all, ESPN will butcher it and make it a 3 day event with 20 analysts on the spot and interviews with the players and their families and all that crap they always do.

[Providence A's]

all the more reason they should have it on MLB.tv and have some of their own guys do it (they have some weekly shows on there I believe...they do have some guys doing previews of the games that aren't part of the broadcast team for that particular game). Make it low budget. They'd probably hit more of their target audience that way anyway I would think. I think it would do better than on TV at least.

[redsrbetter]

Sweet, I remember hearing that it was going to be on TV. Now I know for sure. Thanks McKain.

Nice article bro.

This is huge for MLB in my opinion. Finally we are getting a chance to see what kind of hype can come from young studs being signed to your team. This gives people an open mind to enjoy minor league ball in anticipation of hearing or seeing the newly signed player and understanding what he can bring to your team in the future.

Hopefully there are not any excuses for ESPN to make this a raw process. Yes, it is the first time it has been aired, but hopefully it is entertaining.

DIGG, delicious, YB +rep

[Providence A's]

Players don't necessarily sign though in the MLB draft. Unlike other sports (I think) players don't have to sign and can go back into the draft next year. For example: Andre Either (traded from Oak to Lad) was drafted by the A's two years in a row because he didn't sign the 1st time. I think that adds to some of the lack of interest on the part of the average fan...that and the fact that players drafted don't make an immediate impact like they do in other leagues.

[redsrbetter]

I can see your points. I completely agree with you as well. I love the MLB draft, but it does lose its stature due to most having no clue who a lot of the players are. Even college baseball gets little coverage until we get to the CWS. Unless you study the players a bit before draft time, you are going to be lost.

[missionhockey21]

Players don't necessarily sign though in the MLB draft. Unlike other sports (I think) players don't have to sign and can go back into the draft next year. For example: Andre Either (traded from Oak to Lad) was drafted by the A's two years in a row because he didn't sign the 1st time. I think that adds to some of the lack of interest on the part of the average fan...that and the fact that players drafted don't make an immediate impact like they do in other leagues.

Do you think the average fan is really aware of that though? It doesn't happen with 1st round picks all that often as kids who are Boras clients often will fall to later rounds to teams with bigger pocketbooks willing to take the risk or other question marks fall for other reasons (ie Adam Dunn to round two due to his football commitments). The biggest factor that hurts the MLB draft is a lack of knowledge given to the fans through media outlets like ESPN. Sure fans can research players scouting reports through means like Baseball America, but if a program like Baseball Tonight featured 10 or 15 minutes a week, everyweek, leading up to the draft with video and analysis of likely first round choices the interest would at least begin to breathe a bit. I do admit that the various stages a player is in at his development could hurt fan interest in some ways, but for the diehard fan it adds to it also. I love having the opportunity to research into players, the leagues they were playing at (if it was hitting or pitching, how did their ballpark play, etc) and determining peak picks based on sacrificing talent for development or vice versa (depending on that team's current depth situation of course.) I really doubt for the draft ever to catch on like it has for the NFL or for the NBA, but with increased exposure hopefully more will begin to appreciate it because it is a lot more meatier and interesting than other drafts in my opinion due to all of the variables.

[Providence A's]

IIRC our top pick from 2 years ago didn't sign. I just meant there isn't that instant gratification with the MLB draft like there is in the NBA and NFL. The average doesn't research specs and potential picks like some of us do here. I think it would do better if they would broadcast it over the internet because ESPN would never take the time to give it the coverage it would require beforehand...they're too busy talking about the Yankees and Red Sox for 3/4 of the show and then Bonds the other 1/4. I think ESPN could kill any chance the draft might have of being successful as far as being shown to a larger (potentially) audience.

[missionhockey21]

IIRC our top pick from 2 years ago didn't sign. I just meant there isn't that instant gratification with the MLB draft like there is in the NBA and NFL. The average doesn't research specs and potential picks like some of us do here. I think it would do better if they would broadcast it over the internet because ESPN would never take the time to give it the coverage it would require beforehand...they're too busy talking about the Yankees and Red Sox for 3/4 of the show and then Bonds the other 1/4. I think ESPN could kill any chance the draft might have of being successful as far as being shown to a larger (potentially) audience.

I agree for the most part. I think many who will watch it won't research and will be left with a feeling of why did they watch it. This is a poorer draft talent wise from what I perceive and whatever little one hour of analysis of the pool won't leave fans with the kind of knowledge they put out day after day for the NFL draft. I am hoping they'll do something to try to inform the common fan over the next few weeks, but I doubt it.