2007 MLB Draft - New kids in the Adopt-A-Prospect Orphanage

[A Boy Named Seo]

The draft starts a week from today and for the first time, will be televised kinda, on MLB.tv.

Also different this year will be the absence of a team's ability to "draft-and-follow". According to an MLB.com article, basically this means "teams will no longer be able to select a player late in the Draft, send them off to junior college and then sign them the following season after watching their development closely." Using the entire year and going down to the wire before signing your #1 guy (Humber and Pelfrey for example) is no longer an option either as clubs now have until 11:59 PM (EDT) August 15 to sign their dude or he's back in the draft for next year.

If I'm getting that right, teams now have just over 2 months to sign their guy, which is pretty huge.

The Mets have no first round pick this year, but have 2 sandwich picks (#42 and 47 overall) and also pick at 77, 93, and 99 giving them 5 of the first 100 picks which ain't so bad.

The Mets had just 2 picks in the first 100 last year and grabbed RHP Kevin Mulvey out of Villanova at #62 (currently pitching pretty well at Binghamton) and one Joseph Smith out of Wright State at #94.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Amazin'. That really puts a management team to work, trying to sign 50 picks during two months over the summer while making crucial stand-or-draw decisions about their major league roster also.

[MFS62]

Another key date will be July 2. That is when teams will be able to sign International free agents. Four outfielders of interest from the Dominican Republic are:
Jose Jose - Outfielder - NO! Not a misprint. But his song is already taken.
Ricardo Garcia - Outfielder
Itaniel Guzman - Outfielder
Anderson Pujols - Outfielder

Later

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Anderson Pujols.

Runs like Hernandez, hits like Albert.

[Benjamin Grimm]

OlerudOwned wrote: Anderson Pujols. Runs like Hernandez, hits like Albert.

Or maybe the other way around.

[seawolf17]

No, it's "runs like Sparky, hits like Luis."

[Guest OlerudOwned]

Willie Mays Hayes. I hit like Mays and I run like Hayes.

You may run like Hayes but you hit like shit.

[A Boy Named Seo]

BA has their top 30 dudes which may mean nothing to us drafting in the 40's, though somebody's bound to drop.

I've heard of both the high school kids from Chatsworth. The LA Times had a write-up about Mike Moustakas a couple weeks ago as he set the state high school record for career homers with 50-something and he has over 20 this year. Not bad. I'm guessing neither one of those dudes is around by the supplemental round.

Omar in the in-game interview right now just said "best player available" is the team's draft policy. No surprises there.

[seawolf17]

We might have at least one guy get some draft love this year. RHP Gary Novakowski was named the America East Pitcher of the Year.

[A Boy Named Seo]

"...lists Roger Clemens as his favorite sports figure."

What are they teaching at that college of his?

[Frayed Knot]

Baseball Prospectus ran a little pre-analysis on the 'tendancies' of the teams in anticipation of next weeks draft.
A bit speculative in our case since the current director has run only one draft to date.


New York Mets -- Scouting Director: Rudy Terrasas (Drafts Run: 2006)

- Best Player Produced: Joe Smith (3rd round)
- Best Prospect in Minors: Kevin Mulvey (2nd round)
- Notable Steals: None yet identified.
- Five-Round Strategy: 4 total picks. 75% college, 25% junior college.

- Strategy in a Nutshell: Omar Minaya has a background in international scouting, and in selecting Terrasas as his scouting director, he hired a colleague with a background in Latin America. As a result, Terrasas has already been aggressive in the Dominican Republic, but his tendencies running a draft remain to be seen. His first four picks last season were all pitchers, and given Joe Smith's success this season, Terrasas already has one bullet point on his resume. Finding players like Smith will be essential, as Omar Minaya has little reservations about forfeiting first-round picks for free agents.

- 2007 Draft Crystal Ball: The Mets don't pick until the supplemental first round this June, choosing 42nd and 47th. If the pitching trend continues, pitchers Barry Enright, Tony Watson, and Aaron Poreda are all good college names that could be on the board at that point. However, seriously associating names with the 42nd pick is a fool's game.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Looks like the draft is on ESPN2, in addition to MLB.tv. Here's a thing from a San Diego paper. Wonder if there will be a bunch of players sitting around and MLB will do the hat/#1 jersey thing the other sports do?

]Must-see TV? MLB hoping to see its draft evolve By: JEFF SANDERS - Staff Writer Thirty years ago, when the New York Mets selected Wally Backman with their first-round pick, he was notified by the school intercom with the rest of his Aloha High classmates in Beaverton, Ore. Naturally, at first, Backman figured he was headed to the principal's office. Dustin Moseley and Joe Saunders, more than 20 years later, invited their closest friends to join their family to huddle around their computer to follow the draft live via the Internet. Matt Antonelli's father, likewise, re-rigged the speakers hooked up to his computer to accommodate the 100-plus party that showed up to celebrate the Wake Forest product's induction as the Padres' 2006 first-round pick. Now enter the next phase of the evolution of baseball's amateur draft: Live TV. For what so many people call the national pastime, it's about time. "I think it's great; there's no reason in the world Major League Baseball shouldn't have the same notoriety and marketing and publicity that the NFL and the NBA do with their drafts," said Grady Fuson, the Padres' scouting and player development director. "We're at a point now where ESPN has found a market for it. I only expect it to get bigger and bigger." The Tampa Bay Devil Rays will kick off the 2007 draft Thursday at 11 a.m. on ESPN2, marking baseball's first attempt to give a broad audience an inside look at the ground-up development of organizations. Only don't expect the same kind of spectacle that comes with the NFL or NBA's draft. You probably won't see projected No. 1 overall pick David Price squirming in his seat at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.; his Vanderbilt team is a No. 1 seed in its regional and in the College World Series hunt. You probably will see plenty of game film on Price and Georgia Tech catcher Matt Wieters. But top the quality of tape available on top prepsters, like Cypress High third baseman Josh Vitters and Norwell (Ind.) High right-hander Jarrod Parker, remains to be seen. A Mel Kiper-like best available list? Maybe ---- Baseball America has scouting reports on the country's top 200 prospects. An in-depth look at a Major League war room? Most likely not. Teams will have only five minutes to pick. Nobody will make any trades. Clubs' representatives headed to Florida ---- the Padres are sending senior advisor Dave Winfield and Randy Smith, the director of professional and international scouting; the Dodgers are sending, among others, Tommy Lasorda ---- will have little, if any, inside info on the players selected. But even if next week's dog-and-pony show is only a dressed-down look at the draft, it beats the 48-hour window in the 90s that used to elapse before the draft was publicized. "I think there's a big baseball world out there, and I think it'll be followed pretty well," said Saunders, the Angels' first-round pick out of Virginia Tech in 2002. "It's baby steps. I think they have to start at the collegiate levels and the high school levels just to get the word out there to the public, which probably doesn't know who these guys are. ... "Hopefully, it grows and becomes a really great thing." Will it ever become Must-See-TV like the first day of the NFL draft? The odds are stacked against baseball. Trading picks in a 50-round draft doesn't seem feasible, at least not any time soon. College baseball doesn't yet have the popularity that college football and basketball do. The stars selected in the first round of the baseball draft often take at least a year to reach the big leagues. The Padres' Xavier Nady, in 2000, was the last drafted player to head straight to the bigs and only 20 players have done that since 1967. Every year, top-round NFL and NBA selections become prominent players in their leagues. Minor League Baseball's popularity, though, has never been better. The draft can cash in on that now. And perhaps a lot more down the road. "I always watch the NFL Draft," Antonelli said. "I'm sure it won't be as big as those sports; those guys are going right in. We're not going right into the bigs; we're going into the minors. But I'm sure there's tons of college baseball fans that will like to see where their guys go and I'm sure there's tons of people interested in Minor League Baseball, with all the fans that come out and watch us. "I'm sure it'll be pretty big."

[Guest cleonjones11]

How about Todd Frazier from Rutgers if he slips???

[Frayed Knot]

Gets underway at 2PM EDT.

- 5 minutes are being allowed for each of the 1st round picks, something that'll be a change for teams used to doing this thing in an almost rapid-fire fashion. Since there are no back-room deals to be made teams almost certainly won't need 5 minutes per pick although it wouldn't surprise me if there's some sort of unofficial minimum in order to give the BB2N crowd - who'll be manning the desks as ESPN2 televises this one - a chance to dazzle you with their knowledge of the player just selected (IOW: read what Baseball America has to say about him).
And WOW, it's being held at a Disney facility too ... What a coincidence!

After Round 1 things should go pretty quickly.
No first round pick for us (#29 overall was given up for Moises) so, again, our picks are 42, 47, 77, 93 & 99 as we picked up a few for losing Robo Hernandez & Bradford.
Then, it's #123 and every 30 picks after that: 153, 183, 213, ...

[A Boy Named Seo]

Darryl Strawberry will be announcing the picks for the Mets. Tommy Lasorda, no doubt, will do the same again for LA this year. I love the draft.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

]Darryl Strawberry will be announcing the picks for the Mets.

awesome.

[Guest Edgy DC]

We should use a late-round pick to make a courtesy draft of DJ.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Looks just like an NBA or NFL draft with the big stage, chairs full of baseball players I've never seen before in suits, a giant board behind the podium with team names and slots for players, and the expert panel of Ravech, Steve Phillips, and Gammo building drama.

"Who will the #1 pick be?"

It's that dude from Vanderbilt. We all know that.

ESPN2's got the "On the Clock" graphic on the screen, Tampa with 5:00, but it hasn't started ticking until after the first commercial break.

Gammons just confirmed the draft-and-follow for me. If they're not signed by this August 15th, the player goes back into next year's draft.

Party time.

[A Boy Named Seo]

David Price, 6'5" lefty pitcher from Vanderbilt picked first.

He's in the room and the camera panned to him, but no stage photo op and #1 jersey.

Topps is bummed.


Edit: I spoke too soon. He's now wearing a green "TB" hat and matching green "TB" jersey.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

If you're a schlub goofing off in a cubie like me, try this:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2007/draftcaster.jsp

[A Boy Named Seo]

Royals take that high school homerun machine from Chatsworth, Mike Moustakas with the 2nd overall pick and the Cubs take Cypress, CA third baseman Mike Vitters 3rd.

Vitters is the first player to stand up, put a Cubs uni and hat on, go to the stage, and shake hands with the Commish while posing for pictures. Price was in the building it looked like. Wonder why he didn't do the same.

BA's #2 and 3 guys are still there, a catcher from GA Tech and a RHP from Orange, NJ.

[metirish]

Are there drunken fans hooting and hollering?...

[Frayed Knot]

metirish wrote: Are there drunken fans hooting and hollering?...

Please ... baseball fans have more sense than that.

Sounds like each team is using their entire 5 minute allotment (and for no reason whatsoever) so they'll get to the NYM picks around midnight or so.

[metirish]

Frayed Knot wrote: ="metirish"]Are there drunken fans hooting and hollering?... Please ... baseball fans have more sense than that. Sounds like each team is using their entire 5 minute allotment (and for no reason whatsoever) so they'll get to the NYM picks around midnight or so.

Brilliant,I imagine Phillips and company are talking a pile of shit to fill time.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Looks like the O's took the catcher (switch-hitter and also a closer!) Weiters No. 5 after the Pirates slummed it for a lefthanded college reliever, Moskos, No. 4.

[A Boy Named Seo]

metirish wrote: Are there drunken fans hooting and hollering?...

"Let's go Brewers!" clap, clap, clap, clap-clap.

Guess baseball has those guys, too.

LaPorta listed #21 on BA's top guys list. He's 22 already, so it's kinda weird they took him with the Prince already holding down 1st.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Phillips' word-o-the-day: "Fast-track".

[bmfc1]

In an odd development, Jets fans are booing each pick.

[Guest Rotblatt]

BP baffled as to the Brewer's pick of LaPorta. Most scouts project him as a 1B, and the Brewers already have Fielder there. If he stays at LF, BP thinks he could be disasterous defensively--on the order of Jack Cust.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Cleveland's guy hit 38 HR in NAIA this year. That's no small shakes.