2008 MLB Draft

The MLB's 2008 1st Year Players Draft begins at 2PM today.  Here is a primer from Baseball America about the basics of the draft .  The 1st round will go very quickly as teams have just five minutes to pick.  I think this gives it the potential to be more exciting, and television-friendly, than either the NFL draft or the NBA Draft because it can be completely more quickly and allow for a post-1st round analysis segment within the same three-four hour time frame.

Fantasy players need to pay attention as several of the players drafted today will be on the minds of baseball and fantasy pundits this coming off-season.  A couple of players taken last year are already amongst the Top 5-10 prospects in all of baseball - Tampa Bay Rays' LHP David Price and Baltimore Orioles' C Matt Wieters. 

My guess for next year's version of Price or Wieters is Vanderbilt 3B Pedro Alvarez, who has the bat to move quickly and should be taken by a team that is bad enough to need it.  I could also see SS Gordon Beckham moving quickly along with South Carolina 1B Justin Smoak.  Florida State catcher Buster Posey could move quickly, but I'm not so sure adjusting to wood bats and catching will allow it.

Here are a slew of different links from live coverage and analysis to some mock drafts.

Baseball  America Draft page

MLB.com Draft tracker

Baseball Prospectus Live Draft Coverage

Major League Report Live Draft coverage

Jim Callis of Baseball America Mock Draft

MLB.com Mock Draft

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus Mock Draft

John Sickels Mock Draft

A Keith Law recent-rumors partial 1st-round mock draft:

One rough first-round projection, based on some opinions gathered today from people in the industry: 1. Buster Posey, 2. Pedro Alvarez, 3. Eric Hosmer, 4. Brian Matusz, 5. Justin Smoak, 6. Kyle Skipworth, 7. Tim Beckham, 8. Alonso, 9. Aaron Crow, 10. Ethan Martin or Gordon Beckham, 11. Christian Friedrich, 12. Gordon Beckham or Jemile Weeks. The Twins would probably end up with Aaron Hicks at 14, Jason Castro would fall to Milwaukee at 16, and the Blue Jays could be staring at Brett Wallace and Brett Lawrie at 17. The Mets and Cubs didn't think Wallace could reach them, but in this scenario, it's feasible.