2008 First-Year Player Draft | The Baseball Zealot

BECKHAM COMING TO THE SOUTHSIDE

With the 8th pick in the 2008 first year player draft the Chicago White Sox got Beckham. No they didn’t get SS Tim Beckham, whom the Rays took with the 1st pick in the draft, but they did take Georgia SS Gordon Beckham. ESPN’s talking heads are saying, he doesn’t have the greatest tools, might need to be shifted to secondbase, but he is a BALLPLAYER! Translation, he knows how to play the game.

The Atlanta six foot 181 pounder was born 9/16/86 who played at the University of Georgia. There he hit 12 homers batting .280 in 2006, 13 homers batting .307 in 2007, and busted out in 2008 ripping 24 long balls, while hitting .397.

Hudson awaiting Draft Day

Speed is one of Hudson’s assets.

University of Illinois CF Kyle Hudson will be watching draft day intently tomorrow. No doubt, he’ll be snatched up by the time everything’s done. Where he goes is anyone’s guess but some say he may go as high as the 3rd round.

Hudson ended the 2008 campaign with 40 steals and a.398 batting average. It may be his .498 OBP that looks good to scouts though.

The local college rag, The Daily Illini, had a nice feature article on Hud. One thing I didn’t know about him… he’s a Cubs fan. Awesome!

U. Illinois’ Hudson awaits pro chance at MLB draft– The Daily Illini via Big Ten Network

First-Year Player Draft is tomorrow!

June 5: 2-9 p.m. ET
June 6: 11:30 a.m. ET-end

Some more handy links you might find useful.

For those unfamiliar to the First-Year Player Draft, Baseball America has a useful tutorial on how exactly the draft works. Who’s eligible, when and where it’s held, how the picks are made, everything. Definitely, a must read for anyone who’s new to the draft and maybe those aren’t too.

While you’re on Baseball America’s website, Jim Callis goes out on a limb and does a mock draft of the first round.

Brian Foley of The College Baseball Blog was interviewed by the Yankees blog, River City Blues on the subject of the upcoming draft. Brian writes all year about college baseball so at least from that angle, he pretty qualified to speak about the topic.

Today, Baseball Prospectus Radio is in Day 1 of their draft coverage. Among others, Kevin Goldstein interviews Cutter Dykstra, son of Lenny. Their show is in mp3 format.

Tune in tomorrow at 2pm Eastern when the draft starts. For my money, ESPN’s MLB.com’s Draft Tracker is the best way to follow the draft if you’re not watching it on TV (and even if you are).

Happy Draft Day!

First-Year Player Draft is coming… are you ready?

How high will Illinois’ CF Kyle Hudson go?

The 2008 First-Year Player draft is almost upon us once again. On Thursday, the Tampa Bay Rays will begin the draft by making their first pick.

I thought I’d start off our coverage of the amateur draft by throwing out some handy links that might be useful to anyone that is interested in the draft.

MLB’s Draft Central: This is MLB entry point for all things having to do with the First-Year Player draft.

2008 First-Year Player Draft Order by Team

MLB’s Jonathan Mayo’s Draft Reports: Run down the players who are most likely to go high in the draft.

Baseball Reference’s Past Drafts Search Feature: Search by year, team, or by pick.

If anybody has some more good references or articles on the draft, please pass them on.