Storylines: It's hard to know the people involved in the draft. After all, it's almost impossible to gamble on college baseball. Therefore, here are a few teams and players of note; please feel free to drop this knowledge on your roommate while they cluck at you disapprovingly for watching the MLB Draft.
- Scott Boras: Evil, evil sports agent that doesn't want you to draft his client and why does he want such ill for your team and so evil! Evil, of course, unless you're one of his clients and he can secure a contract 2-3 times larger than anyone else and will bend the rules or find loopholes to do so. Some of you may have noticed this in the job description for 'sports agent'. Some teams will not be able to afford his demands; others will simply refuse to work with him. His clients will not mind dropping in the draft terribly; salaries are not strictly slotted like in other sports, allowing a team lower in the draft order to pay more to entice a player to skip college or the like. (More on salary slotting later.)
- Tampa Bay Devil Rays & David Price: Tampa has yet again earned the #1 pick by being the most miserable during the 2006 season. Tampa's last #1 pick was Delmon Young, who has worked out insofar as he is not in prison quite yet. They will definitely draft David Price, the latest sinister wunderkind. Price is completely different from that young man and will likely be an early fan favorite. He throws hard with his left hand; he works well with the press; he heals puppies with a casual touch. Feel free to point out to your friends in Tampa that he'll look great in rehab with all the other pitchers abused in college. (Also, you have friends in Tampa? Have you considered the path your life has taken?)
- Devin Mesoraco: His recent workouts with teams and lack of serious catching prospects anywhere have caused this gentleman to be the traditional late-rising draftee; he could go as early as #4 to the perpetual cheapskate Pittsburgh Pirates. As a proud recent graduate of Punxsutawney High School, he also provides proof that the town does not appear from a haze every year like some kind of groundhog-laden Brigadoon.
Article comments
1 - Tuffy
I forgot to mention that draft picks can't be traded, so don't expect any last-minute intrigue.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Last minute, you say?
3 - Tuffy
The Detroit Lions did try to trade in to draft a wide receiver, but that's about it.
4 - Jerkwheat
No 45 round mock draft?
5 - Tuffy
Yes. I mock you for watching all 45 rounds of the draft.
6 - Matthew T. Sussman
The Cubs actual draft is a mock draft.