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