Draft '08
Overview — When, What, How, Who
WHEN
Thursday-Friday, June 5-6
WHAT
Major League Baseball's first-year player draft is held every June—historically
on the first Tuesday of the month, but on a Thursday for the second year in a row.
It will be conducted by conference call among the 30 major league clubs. The clubs
take turns selecting players in reverse order of their 2007 won-loss records, regardless
of league.
The draft will conclude at the end of 50 rounds—or earlier. Each club is entitled
to select for 50 rounds, but is not required to do so. Tampa Bay has the No. 1 selection
this year, marking the fourth time in franchise history—and the second year in a
row—that the Rays have had the first pick. They also had the No. 1 selection in
1999 (Josh Hamilton) and 2003 (Delmon Young). The Rays selected Vanderbilt lefthander
David Price with the top selection a year ago.
HOW
The draft normally originates from the commissioner's office in New York, but the
early portion of the draft is scheduled to be televised again by ESPN2 for the second
year in a row. It will originate from Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando,
Fla. ESPN2 plans to televise the first round—30 picks in all—and select picks in
the supplemental first round in a four-hour special. MLB.com is also scheduled to
carry the entire draft—all five rounds on the first day on site on a video feed
and the balance on an audio feed from its New York-based studio.
The draft is scheduled to last two days.
The first selection is scheduled to be made shortly after 2 p.m. ET on June 5. Each
team generally has 30 seconds to select a player, but additional time (up to five
minutes) will be provided between picks in the first round this year to accommodate
TV coverage. ESPN2 is scheduled to have several potential first-rounders on site
and should have access to team draft rooms. Teams will continue to draft players
until they pass or reach the 50th round, whichever comes first.
The club that drafts a player will generally contact the player immediately after
the selection. No team may draft a player unless it has registered the player's
name with the commissioner's office, or his name has been submitted by the Major
League Scouting Bureau. The team that selects a player has the sole negotiating
rights to the player and must submit a written minor league contract within 15 days
of selection.
Some significant rules changes were enacted with last year’s draft. They were adopted
as part of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and
the Players Association in October 2006.
Previously, the club's negotiating rights to a player attending a four-year college
were lost as soon as the player physically entered his first class at the beginning
of the fall semester. For a player attending junior college, the selecting club
retained the negotiating rights to the player until one week before the following
year’s draft. This was commonly referred to as the draft-and-follow process.
But the new rules have established a firm signing deadline of Aug. 15—for all players.
If a team does not sign a player by that date (excluding college seniors whose eligibility
has been exhausted), they are forbidden from signing that player—regardless if he
attends a four-year school or two-year school, or simply chooses not to attend or
return to college. Effectively, the draft-and-follow rule, which had been in place
for 20 years, was abolished with last year’s draft.
Additional provisions of the CBA awarded clubs supplementary picks for the loss
of ranked free agents or their failure to sign picks selected in the second and
third rounds of the previous year’s draft.
Teams that lost a Type ‘B’ free agent during the offseason are now awarded a supplemental
first-round pick, but only after compensation is awarded to teams losing Type ‘A’
free agents. There are five Type ‘A’ free agents in this year’s draft and 11 Type
‘B’ free agents, meaning the initial selection in the second round will come with
the 47th pick.
For several years, a team has been entitled to a compensation selection after the
first round for its failure to sign a first-round pick from the previous year’s
draft. For the first time this year, a team will receive compensation for an unsigned
second-round pick that corresponds to the equivalent draft position (plus one) in
the previous year’s draft. For instance, the Atlanta Braves failed to sign second-rounder
Josh Fields, the 69th overall pick in 2007. They will receive the 70th pick this
year. The Boston Red Sox are entitled to similar second-round compensation.
Teams which fail to sign their third-round picks from the previous year are entitled
to a compensation selection at the end of the third round. There are four such selections
this year, meaning the third round will contain 34 picks.
WHO
Major league Rule IV rules govern which players are eligible for selection in the
draft. The basic eligibility criteria can be described as follows:
Generally, a player is eligible for selection if he is a resident of the United
States or Canada and the player has never before signed a major league or minor
league contract. Players who have played professionally but only in an independent
league are subject to selection. Residents of Puerto Rico and other territories
of the United States are also eligible for the draft. Also considered are players
who enroll in a high school or college in the United States, regardless of where
they are from originally.
Eligibility Requirements
Certain groups of players are ineligible for selection, generally because they are
still in school. The basic categories of players eligible to be drafted 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. In the case of a college
sophomore, he must have attained his 21st birthday within 45 days of the draft.
College players that have dropped out of school can apply for the draft by writing
the commissioner's office no later than March 24—75 days before the draft;
--Junior College players, regardless of how many years of school
they have completed, and
--players who have reached the age of 21 within 45 days of the draft date (this
year that qualifying date is July 20).
A player who is drafted and does not sign with the club that selected him may be
drafted again in a future draft, so long as the player is eligible for that year's
draft. A club may not select a player again in a subsequent year, unless the player
has consented to the re-selection.
Until this year, a fifth-year college senior was eligible to sign a contract as
soon as he finished his last class in college—provided the player had completed
eight semesters in college prior to the start of his senior and the player’s college
season was completed before the draft. But the fifth-year senior rule has been abandoned,
effective with this year’s draft.
HOW TO FOLLOW THE DRAFT
a. ESPN2
b. Major League Baseball, on
www.mlb.com