Draft Order Overview

Tampa Bay Has Top Pick—Again
May 1, 2008

The franchise is barely a decade old, but the Tampa Bay Rays are already closing in on a draft record of dubious distinction.

By finishing the 2007 season with the poorest won-loss record in Major League Baseball, the Rays earned the right to select first overall in this year’s draft. It marks the fourth time in franchise history that the Rays will have the No. 1 pick. Only the New York Mets and San Diego Padres, with five such selections, have picked first more often.

But the Rays are the only team in the draft’s 43-year history to ever have the No. 1 pick in successive drafts. They chose Vanderbilt lefthander David Price with the top selection a year ago.

While that distinction is unique, it wouldn’t have been unprecedented had the ruling that establishes the order of selection not changed effective with the 2005 draft. The club that has the poorest overall record in the preceding year’s standings, regardless of league, is rewarded with the No. 1 pick. Prior to 2005, the American and National Leagues alternated the No. 1 selection from year to year. Had the current rule been in effect then, the Texas Rangers would have picked first in both 1972 and 1973, and the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1985 and 1986.

After finishing in last place in nine of its 10 seasons in the American League East, Tampa Bay suddenly finds itself challenging for first place in the division as the 2008 season enters May. Ironically, none of their previous No. 1 overall picks has contributed to the surge or is even with the club.

Outfielder Josh Hamilton, the top selection in the 1999 draft, never advanced above Double-A in the Rays farm system and was lost in the 2006 Rule 5 draft. He is enjoying an all-star caliber season in his first year with the Rangers. Outfielder Delmon Young, the top pick in 2003, spent last season with the Rays before being traded in the off-season to the Minnesota Twins. Price has yet to appear in even his first minor league game as he agreed on a deal with the Rays at the new Aug. 15 deadline last year and has been nursing a sore elbow to start this season.

Like Tampa Bay (incidentally, the Tampa Bay Lighting also has the first pick in the NHL draft later in June), the Kansas City Royals have also been regular participants at the top of the draft in recent years. The Royals pick third this year after choosing second in 2007, first in 2006 and second in 2005.

The Milwaukee Brewers, meanwhile, will be the most frequent participant in the early rounds of this year’s draft, which is scheduled for June 5-6, as they have six of the first 62 picks. The Brewers picked up two extra picks each for the loss of Type A free-agent righthanders Francisco Cordero and Scott Linebrink to the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox, respectively.

Two of Milwaukee’s extra picks are supplemental first-round selections—the 32nd and 35th picks overall. A year ago, there were a draft record 35 picks made between the end of the first round and beginning of the second round, but that number will shrink to 16 this year. Since 1979, teams that have lost ranked free agents have been awarded extra draft picks as compensation.

The loss of a Type A free agent has normally resulted in a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds for the team losing a player, but a provision in the newest Collective Bargaining Agreement, revised in 2006, has also awarded sandwich picks to teams losing Type B free agents. This year, there will be compensation between the first and second rounds for five Type A and 11 Type B picks.

An additional provision in the CBA involving draft-pick compensation kicks in this year. It provides an extra selection to a team that fails to sign its second- or third-round pick in the previous year. The Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves did not sign second-round picks a year ago and will be compensated with selections in the corresponding slots (plus one) this year. The Braves didn’t sign Georgia righthander Josh Fields, their second-round pick and the 69th pick overall in 2007, and will be compensated with the 70th pick in June.

Four third-rounders also did not sign in last year’s draft, and the teams that made those selections will be compensated with draft picks at the end of the third round.

Prior to this year, big league clubs were awarded compensation (in the form of a supplemental first-round pick) for failing to sign only their first-round picks. Teams now are entitled to select a player in the corresponding spot (plus one) in the first round from last year’s draft, but no first-round selection from 2007 went unsigned.

Another rule change effective with this year’s draft is the abolishment of the fifth-year senior rule. In the past, a fifth-year college senior could sign prior to the draft—either as a free agent or with the team that selected him in the previous year’s draft and controlled his rights. Recent clarification on the rule by the commissioner’s office states only college seniors who remain unsigned from 2007 and exhausted their college eligibility a year ago are permitted to sign prior to this year’s draft. Such players must sign before the start of the closed period, which begins a week prior to the draft.

The first round of this year’s draft is scheduled to be televised on ESPN2 for the second year in a row. Click here for the mechanics of the draft, including who is eligible, and a complete order of selection, including adjustments in the early rounds.

--ALLAN SIMPSON