Baseball Finishes Their Draft

For the first time ever, the MLB First-Year Player Draft was televised. ESPN2 covered the first round and while they gave it the same treatment that the NFL and NBA drafts get, it is hard to get excited about a bunch of players from high school and college that you have never seen in your life. When all was said and done, 1,453 players were picked and can now all say they were drafted.

The Yankees followed their recent plan of using their financial clout to take players many teams would shy away from over affordability. Andrew Brackman, a 6’11’ pitcher from NC State was their first pick and since he is represented by Scott Boras, he will probably command an enormous sum to sign. One of their more interesting picks was Pat Venditte, the ambidextrous pitcher from Creighton. Venditte is only a junior, so the Yankees will have to show him the money to get him to sign.

The Mets didn’t have a first round pick and spent their first six picks on pitchers. Scouts are divided on whether or not their first pick, Edward Kunz, can close in the majors, but the Mets hope he can follow the fast track like last year’s third round pick, Joe Smith and get to their bullpen soon. Interestingly, when the Mets finally got around to taking position players, they drafted two third basemen in a row. Could this mean that David Wright may be moving to first in a couple of years?

While the big money will go to the guys selected in the first few rounds, keep in mind that Mike Piazza was picked in the 62nd round by the Dodgers and only as a favor to his Godfather, Tommy Lasorda.