MLB Draft to be televised

[Stu]

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.

It's a big event because the NFL and ESPN decided to make it a big event. Like rsox said, they have all the mock drafts, Mel Kiper moving people around on his big board, etc. Which brings me to a tangent. Is there any bigger farce out there than Mel Kiper's big board? He just arbitrarily moves players around just for the sake of moving them so he can "update" it every week. Do people actually look at this crap?

I don't see any reason why the MLB draft can't become just a big over time. Sure the players aren't as well known, but after a couple months of hype by ESPN everyone will know who the top players are. Sure it's a long draft, but you'd be hard pressed to find anybody that watches the entire NFL draft either.

[jmood88]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

It's a big event because the NFL and ESPN decided to make it a big event. Like rsox said, they have all the mock drafts, Mel Kiper moving people around on his big board, etc. Which brings me to a tangent. Is there any bigger farce out there than Mel Kiper's big board? He just arbitrarily moves players around just for the sake of moving them so he can "update" it every week. Do people actually look at this crap?

I don't see any reason why the MLB draft can't become just a big over time. Sure the players aren't as well known, but after a couple months of hype by ESPN everyone will know who the top players are. Sure it's a long draft, but you'd be hard pressed to find anybody that watches the entire NFL draft either.

NCAA football is huge here and people get to see players play for at least three years. I don't see how there would be much interest watching a draft filled with high schoolers and unknown college players, especially when you might not even see those players play for the teams who draft them and if/when you do see them, unless they're major players, you won't see them for a couple years. I just don't see this draft being any more or less popular than the NHL draft(which I didn't even know was televised).

[Stu]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

NCAA football is huge here and people get to see players play for at least three years. I don't see how there would be much interest watching a draft filled with high schoolers and unknown college players, especially when you might not even see those players play for the teams who draft them and if/when you do see them, unless they're major players, you won't see them for a couple years. I just don't see this draft being any more or less popular than the NHL draft(which I didn't even know was televised).

I would venture a guess that a majority of the people that watch the NFL draft and pretend to know everything that's going on, have rarely, if ever seen the players play.

I agree college football is big, but how many players do you really follow around college football outside of your favorite teams, except during the draft?

EDIT - I'm not trying to say that the MLB draft will eventually be as big an event as the NFL draft, but if they do it right baseball fans will watch it.

[jmood88]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

I would venture a guess that a majority of the people that watch the NFL draft and pretend to know everything that's going on, have rarely, if ever seen the players play.

I agree college football is big, but how many players do you really follow around college football outside of your favorite teams, except during the draft?

EDIT - I'm not trying to say that the MLB draft will eventually be as big an event as the NFL draft, but if they do it right baseball fans will watch it.

Of course there are people who don't know every player but a majority of the people at least know who is expected to go in the first round. I'm not a college football expert so i don't know all the players but I know enough of them to be interested in just about every round of the draft. As far as baseball goes, I don't think even the major MLB fans would care too much about the draft since many of them can't even see any college baseball games outside of the college world series. And if ESPN talks about this like they do about the NHL draft I don't think very many people are going to be aware of it.

[Stu]

Re: MLB Draft to be televised

Of course there are people who don't know every player but a majority of the people at least know who is expected to go in the first round. I'm not a college football expert so i don't know all the players but I know enough of them to be interested in just about every round of the draft. As far as baseball goes, I don't think even the major MLB fans would care too much about the draft since many of them can't even see any college baseball games outside of the college world series. And if ESPN talks about this like they do about the NHL draft I don't think very many people are going to be aware of it.

I agree that a majority of people know who is expected to go in the first round, but I think it's more because of ESPN's pre-draft hype, mock drafts, etc than it is from watching college football.

If they do the same thing with baseball, then people will also know who is expected to go in the first round. I think they'll easily generate more interest in this than the NFL draft. I think people are becoming more and more interested in their team's farm systems and televising the draft will only help that interest grow.