Time For A Draft

You may not have heard about it, but today is the Major League Baseball Draft. Over the past couple of years, there have been improvements made to this draft (Although it's on MLB Network this year. Good luck finding that.) First of all, it's now on television. In past years, teams could spend as much as they wanted on one player, which gave the bigger teams an advantage. Now each pick has a salary cap on it, something the NFL could use right now. However, the MLB draft is an absolute crapshoot. For example, let's take a look at the top ten 1999 draft...

1. TB - Josh Hamilton*

2. FLA - Josh Beckett*

3. DET - Eric Munson

4. ARI - Corey Meyers

5. MIN - B.J. Garbe (YEEEEEEEEAH!!!)

6. MON - Josh Girdley

7. KC - Kyle Snider

8. PIT - Bobby Bradley

9. OAK - Barry Zito*

10. MIL - Ben Sheets*

* Denotes All-Star

As you can see drafting high schoolers is incredibly difficult. It's the same system they use in the NHL. Hell, could you imagine if the NFL did this? Wow. Regardless, there is one player that is the buzz of this draft.

San Diego State pitcher Steven Strasburg is going to be the number one pick to the Washington Nationals. Strasburg is a beast. He can hit 103 MPH out of the bullpen and can touch the high 90's late into a ballgame. Another thing about Strasburg is that he has a career high of 23 strikeouts. There's 27 outs in a ballgame. That's pretty dominant. A lot of "experts" can predict that Strasburg can join a major league rotation without spending a day in the minor leagues. Still, there's just one problem.

Signability. This has effected the NFL draft a little bit when it comes to the number one pick, but the entire MLB draft has this issue. Teams will pass up on big time talents, just because they don't want to waste a pick. The issue has been solved in some sort by the addition of the rule that if a team can't sign their first round draft pick, they receieve a pick the following year. (The Nationals have had this experience after failing to sign their first round pick last season, Aaron Crow. They have the 10th pick this year and could receieve the 2nd pick next year if they fail to sign their first pick this season.) This effects small market teams because they will pass on a talent because they're afraid it will be a wasted pick. 

In some cases this works out for the better. In 2000, the Twins held the first overall pick. That year there was a very similar draft prospect to Strasburg. Mark Prior was assumed to be the number one pick, but the Twins passed on him in favor of a HS catcher from Minnesota named Joe Mauer. Thank God. However, in other cases, it hasn't been as favorable. Rick Porcello, a right hander for the Detroit Tigers, was considered a top 5 talent, but wound up falling to 27th in the 2007 MLB Draft because teams were afraid they weren't able to sign him.

This clearly needs to be fixed. Could you imagine the Cleveland Cavaliers passing up on LeBron James because he cost too much money? Or how about the Vikings passing up on Adrian Peterson for the same reason rather than his injury history? This hurts the fans more than anything and in baseball hungry Washington where they are running out of patience, it's sad that they have to worry about this when a guy who could change their fortunes is sitting on their doorstep.

To preview the MLB Draft, here are the Twins first round picks the last 5 seasons...

2004 - SS Trevor Plouffe (20th Overall; Currently at AAA Rochester)

2005 - P Matt Garza (25th Overall; Currently at Tampa Bay; 2008 ALCS MVP)

2006 - OF Chris Parmalee (20th Overall; Currently at A Fort Myers)

2007 - OF Ben Revere (28th Overall; Currently at A Fort Myers)

2008 - OF Aaron Hicks (14th Overall; Currently....well he's listed as being in the GCL but isn't actuve anywhere yet...sooooo???)

              P Carlos Guttierrez (27th Overall; Currently at AA New Britain)