It won’t be long before the 2009 First-Year Player Draft will be upon us. The Washington Nationals will be on the clock for their first pick in the first round on the evening of June 9th, broadcasted on The MLB Network. Draft time is 5pm Central time. The draft is scheduled to last till June 11th.
If anyone wants to brush up on the exact rules of the First-Year Player Draft, here are the official public rules from MLB. The gist of it is.. the eligible players are:
- High school players, if they have graduated from high school and have not yet attended college or junior college;
- College players, from four-year colleges who have either completed their junior or senior years or are at least 21 years old; and
- Junior college players, regardless of how many years of school they have completed
While I’m on the topic of MLB.com, they are providing their usually good coverage of the draft. Which is good since it is their baby. Their Draft Central is a go-to site for anyone interested in the rookie draft. Read their Draft FAQ which probably answers any question you might have regarding the Draft. Draft Central has plenty of reports from different team’s perspectives Also, check out their Draft Tracker for a partial list of potential draftees and of course, the team order of the draft.
MLB.com has historical look at the draft which is worth a look but if it’s pure stats and data you want, you should go to Baseball Reference’s Draft section. Interactive, clickable and very complete, BR has all the info you want on past drafts going all the way back to Rick Monday in 1965. I’ll admit it, I got most of my info for my article about the history of the draft’s top picks from Baseball Reference.
While MLB.com does provide pretty great and complete coverage, sometimes it’s nice to get some independent analysis (y’know, something that doesn’t read like a company communiqué). The Baseball Analysts really fits the bill. Like they have for years, Rich Lederer from TBA is providing some good anticipatory coverage of the upcoming Draft. Just go there and you’ll find plenty of articles on the subject but his Q&A with Baseball America’s Jim Callis is a good place to start.
And I’ll be chiming in with my opinions here on The Baseball Zealot too so stay tuned for my witty insight. If anyone has a favorite comprehensive resource for Draft Day coverage, feel free to leave a comment.