MLB amateur draft starts today

ESPN devotes an entire day to live coverage of the NFL draft of college football players. TNT carries the NBA draft live. The Major League Baseball draft is not a spectator sport. Whereas there are millions of college sports fans around the country who have seen all of the players who will be drafted in the early rounds for those other sports, the baseball draft will be filled with names that no one outside of their immediate families knows. College baseball gets nowhere near the national coverage that basketball and football get, and probably half of the players selected will be high school kids anyway.

But it's a very important day for Major League teams. This is where championship teams are started. Not that any of these players will necessarily win a championship for the team that drafts them, but you cannot win only through free agency. There isn't enough money for anyone to win without getting production from their farm system.

Let's look at last year's Red Sox team, for example. A lot of people will look and think "no home-grown talent there." And it's true that there wasn't a lot of it. They did have a lot of success with free agents, much more than most, as Ramirez, Damon, Ortiz, Mueller and Bellhorn were all free agent signings, costing the team only money. But they weren't all free agents. Trot Nixon came from the Red Sox farm system. Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz and Dave Roberts were acquired in trades for players from the Red Sox farm system. Pedro Martinez came in a trade for players from the Red Sox farm system. Curt Schilling came in a trade for players from the Red Sox farm system. Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek came in a trade for Heathcliff Slocumb, who came in a trade for players from the Red Sox farm system. A good minor league system not only provides good players for the Major League team, it provides trade material to acquire what the Major League team needs.

Well the Red Sox have a spectacular opportunity this year when the MLB amateur draft commences this afternoon. Despite the fact that they are the defending World Series champions, they select 23rd overall, and have 6 of the first 57 picks. After the first 22, they have 6 of the next 35. This is because Lowe, Martinez and Cabrera signed elsewhere as free agents.

First Round

23. Red Sox (from Angels for Type A Orlando Cabrera)

26. Red Sox (from Dodgers for Type A Derek Lowe)

Supplemental First Round

42. Red Sox (for Type A Pedro Martinez)

45. Red Sox (for Cabrera)

47. Red Sox (for Lowe)

Second Round

57. Red Sox (from Mets for Martinez)

There are indications that they've had productive drafts for the last two years under the current administration - they've got an opportunity, with a good day today, to lay the foundation for another 10 to 15 years of great success at the Major League level.