ESPN2 to broadcast 2007 MLB Draft

[TexasHSFootball]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070507&content_id=1950945&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Major League Baseball's 2007 First-Year Player Draft will be carried live by ESPN2 from 2:00-6:00 p.m. (EDT) on Thursday, June 7th, marking the first time that the Draft will be telecast. The Draft will be held at The Milk House at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.

ESPN2 will air each Club's first round choice. Clubs will have a maximum of five minutes to make their picks during the first round. Following the pick-by-pick coverage of the first round, ESPN2's telecast will continue as the Draft is ongoing until 6:00 p.m. (EDT). After the completion of ESPN2's coverage, the first day of the Draft will proceed until approximately 8:30 p.m. (EDT). On Friday, June 8th, the Draft will resume at 11:30 a.m. (EDT) and then will continue to its conclusion.

"Major League Baseball is delighted that ESPN2 will provide live coverage of our Draft," said Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig. "I am glad that this agreement will give fans access to see this critical function of an organization's development. This is an idea whose time has come."

The selection order is determined by the reverse order of finish at the close of the previous championship season. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays will have the first selection of the 2007 First-Year Player Draft. The San Francisco Giants will have three selections in the first round, while the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers will each have two first round choices. Supplementary selections are given as compensation to those Clubs that lost Type A or B free agents.

The Draft will have 50 rounds and will conclude after all 30 teams have passed on a selection or after the final selection of the 50th round, whichever comes first.

MLB.com, the official website of Major League Baseball, will offer comprehensive coverage of the 2007 First-Year Player Draft, highlighted by two days of live multimedia coverage from Orlando on The Baseball Channel and live interactive pick-by-pick results via the exclusive Draft Caster.

MLB Draft Order
http://mlb.mlb.com/pressbox/downloads/y2007/draft_order.pdf

[Old Tiger]

30 rounds of boring! yay!

[Keith7]

This is alot better then the stuff they normally show during the day like poker or bowling

[Old Tiger]

Originally posted by Keith7
This is alot better then the stuff they normally show during the day like poker or bowling Don't forget darts or arm wrestling!

[crzyjournalist03]

five minutes per pick, and they have millions more players to scout out than football...hmm....sounds like the NFL could take a lesson from MLB in terms of the draft length...

[JR2004]

They usually make the picks quicker than the 5 minutes they're being allotted because there's no trading of picks in the MLB draft. It's a lengthy draft that goes about 50 rounds or so, but these teams fire their picks out there pretty quickly.

[Emerson1]

They have to do so many rounds because they are able to draft anyone they want. I know someone that was drafted out of HS and twice in college

[JR2004]

Originally posted by Emerson1
They have to do so many rounds because they are able to draft anyone they want. I know someone that was drafted out of HS and twice in college

It's a unique draft with some pretty unique rules. You can get drafted, not accept who drafted you or the round you were drafted in and still attend college. However if you go to a 4 year school I believe you aren't eligible again for the draft until after your junior year. If you attend a juco you can re-enter the next draft without having to wait. You see a ton of very good prospects go the juco route, especially pitchers who want to try to quickly improve their draft positioning.

The most unique rule to me is a team retaining your rights until a week before the next draft. There's been some pretty good deals made the night before a team loses a player's rights.

[burnet44]

Yawn