MLB Draft to be televised

[Dispatch]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

yezzur and I can't wait to watch it.

However, if the MLB wants to make this a big deal, then they need to start capping player signing bonuses. I hate to see when teams don't draft a player they want because they don't want to hand over a ridiculously large check.

Yea I know what you mean about the players sliding. I know the Red Sox ended up with a pretty good draft because they were willing to sign some of the players that were asking for bigger bonuses that other teams wouldn't take. They were able to pick Lars Anderson in the 18th round because he was asking for a big signing bonus, he probably had second round talent. I expect the Red Sox to have a pretty good draft again if they use this same tactic.

[rsox]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

Perhaps the MLB draft would get more attention if ESPN started hyping it 6 months before it happens like they do the NFL draft.

THE RAIDERS ARE ON THE CLOCK!!.

They could do mock drafts every day like they do for the NFL.

THE LIONS ARE ON THE CLOCK!!.

They could have Peter Gammons guess which team is going to take which player and 2 days later pick the same team and guess which different player they are going to take instead of the original guy they guessed the team would pick.

THE BROWNS ARE ON THE CLOCK!!.

Actually i don't think they should do any of these things, i can't even watch Sportscenter around the 52 weeks leading up to the NFL draft because all the mock drafts and mock war rooms and hearing EVERY TEAM IS ON THE CLOCK!! gets really boring and repetetive after a while (and i'm a Football fan saying this). I would rather they do nothing than over hype it like other drafts.

[MassNole]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

Not surprising, they aired the NHL Draft. The problem with this is we haven't heard of most of these kids and we won't hear from them again for at least 2-3 years, if we even hear of them again.

[bkfount]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

The problem with an MLB Draft is that it's an 'entry' draft and viewers won't even see these players take the field for 3 to 4 years. It's going to suffer in ratings just like the NHL entry draft.

plus the fact that a guy can skip the year, and get drafted again or whatever. This is totally boring, and they'd do better by actually airing minor league games.

[CWood2]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

Actually, I think 50 rounds is just the hypothetical cutoff. I believe teams are allowed to continue picking as long as they desire. Likewise, there are teams that may draft 30 rounds and quit.

Right. The draft ends when everyone passes up the pick or at round 50, whichever comes first.

If you think about it though guys, adding 30+ players to your franchise when you've got multiple rookie ball and extended teams, low a, high a, double a, triple a, and the big league rosters to fill ... it's not crazy at all. And when you add in that not all these guys will sign and will either return for their senior year or go to college ... having that many rounds is not wasteful. Now factor in losing guys to retirement, free agency, injuries, or the rule 5 draft. I'm pysched that the draft is being televised, but even I won't watch the whole thing ... but all those rounds do serve a purpose. Just look at where guys like Mike Piazza got drafted before they capped it.

[jmood88]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

Perhaps the MLB draft would get more attention if ESPN started hyping it 6 months before it happens like they do the NFL draft.

THE RAIDERS ARE ON THE CLOCK!!.

They could do mock drafts every day like they do for the NFL.

THE LIONS ARE ON THE CLOCK!!.

They could have Peter Gammons guess which team is going to take which player and 2 days later pick the same team and guess which different player they are going to take instead of the original guy they guessed the team would pick.

THE BROWNS ARE ON THE CLOCK!!.

Actually i don't think they should do any of these things, i can't even watch Sportscenter around the 52 weeks leading up to the NFL draft because all the mock drafts and mock war rooms and hearing EVERY TEAM IS ON THE CLOCK!! gets really boring and repetetive after a while (and i'm a Football fan saying this). I would rather they do nothing than over hype it like other drafts.

The NFL is more popular than the MLB, which is why anything dealing with the NFL is a big event.

[dkgojackets]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

The NFL is more popular than the MLB, which is why anything dealing with the NFL is a big event.

...not to mention that we actually know who the prospects are and have watched them play in college.

[sportsdude]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

Right. The draft ends when everyone passes up the pick or at round 50, whichever comes first.

If you think about it though guys, adding 30+ players to your franchise when you've got multiple rookie ball and extended teams, low a, high a, double a, triple a, and the big league rosters to fill ... it's not crazy at all. And when you add in that not all these guys will sign and will either return for their senior year or go to college ... having that many rounds is not wasteful. Now factor in losing guys to retirement, free agency, injuries, or the rule 5 draft. I'm pysched that the draft is being televised, but even I won't watch the whole thing ... but all those rounds do serve a purpose. Just look at where guys like Mike Piazza got drafted before they capped it.

Yeah, I will be curious to see just how much ESPN will televise, but I will definitely watch the first few rounds. I enjoy reading about baseball prospects and to think ESPN will no doubt have video on a lot of these guys makes me that much more interested.

[LiquidCrash]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

...not to mention that we actually know who the prospects are and have watched them play in college.

Exactly. Nobody knows who any of these players are, unless they are some diehard fan who is familiar with high school and college baseball. The only nationally televised college games are in the regionals/CWS. Then even the top prospects are ready for the big leagues this year, or even the next season for most of them.

[Spear]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

They should offer some sort of MLB draft preview show, or do something on sportscenter each night to build up to it. ESPN can hype up anything, hopefully this is a step in the right direction to making the MLB Draft as popular as the NFL and NBA.

[TarHeelMan]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

It's gonna be a long time... To make that happen, you have to generate some kind of interest in college baseball, and maybe even high school baseball. The beauty of the NBA and NFL drafts, as was already stated, was that we know most of the players and we'd see them right away on the rosters. A kid drafted in the MLB draft might be toiling in Birmingham or Charlotte for a few years before you even see him for a cup of coffee with the big club.

[aukevin]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

I'm a big baseball fan, but man will this draft be boring to watch. I might record it and fastforward to the Braves' picks, and find out where the Auburn guys go and see if they get any coverage.

[CM1847]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

There will certainly be an audience for this in the form of the hundreds of players who may be taken in the draft as well as their college/high school teamates and anybody who follows those programs. Many college teams have very strong followings and people will care about where their players get picked. Then of course there are certainly a group baseball nuts who will love this.

I expect ESPN will hire a baseball draft expert soon to go on Sportscenter and BB Tonight to start breaking down some of the project top 10 picks. They will probably post multiple Mock Drafts on ESPN.com to generate some interest. So many people watch Sportscenter, if they start mentioning some of the projected top picks on a regular basis, people will have some interest. I dont' follow the NHL at all, but thanks to Sportscenter I know who Sidney Crosby is and I knew where he got drafted because of the hype they put behind him leading up to the NHL draft. It wasn't full-on NFL/NBA draft hype, but they did mention him a fair number of times, that is all they have to do with the MLB. Parade their expert around on PTI, Sportscenter & BB Tonight and soon enough a bunch of people will know the names of some of the top prospects and that will at least generate some interest for the top of the draft.

It will never be the NFL or NBA draft, everybody else here has alreayd pointed out the 2-3+ year wait between the draft and MLB results, but ESPN is powerful enough to generate some interest for this on their own to make it a yearly TV event.

[Stu]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

I can see this working if they approach it right. They need some guys that everyone knows announcing it. Somebody like Gammons maybe.

The MLB draft also has a much shorter time between picks, so it will be quicker moving. It won't take 6 hours to get through the 1st round.

Quite frankly, most people that watch the NFL draft don't know anything about the players beyond what Mel Kiper tells them after they're picked. Everyone talks about how good or how bad a pick was, without having a clue what they're looking at.

The big thing it will be missing is that MLB doesn't allow draft picks to be traded. That's a big part of the excitement of the NFL draft.

[Sportsforever]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

For me, I'll watch it just because it's baseball and I think it will be interesting to see how each of the different organizations approach the draft. A lot of you have already touched on this, but the baseball draft will never be as popular as the NFL/NBA draft for a lot of reasons:

1) As mentioned, a lot of folks haven't heard of 90% of the players being drafted.

2) Most of these players will not have an impact on the major league team for 3-4 years.

3) The draft is 50 rounds or so long. That's 1500+ players taken and a good portion of those will never see time at the MLB level.

I'll be interested to see how they cover this. I've always followed the draft on the internet so it's nice that I'll have the option to watch it this year.