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The MLB’s 2008 First-Year Player Draft will begin today at 2 pm EDT, and will be televised on ESPN 2 and MLB.com.
The Mets have three of the first 33 picks, including the No. 18 and No. 22 overall picks.
I will start up a Live Blog of the Draft just before 2 pm.
ESPN’s Keith Law predicts that the Mets will select C Jason Castro from Stanford with their first pick, while taking C-2B Brett Lawrie from Brookswood with their second pick.
According to ESPN, “Lawrie has a great swing, keeps his weight back well, and aside from a slight back-side collapse and a tendency to get a little too power-happy, he does everything right at the plate. He should make plenty of contact and hit for average to above-average power.”
Regarding Castro, ESPN writes, “His upside is as an average regular catcher in the big leagues, unless he develops more power. He has a very high probability of making it as a backup.”
Meanwhile, in his most recent Mock Draft for Baseball America, Jim Callis also predicts that the Mets will select Castro with their first pick, writing, “The Mets need a catcher for the near future, and Castro has convinced scouts he can handle the defensive responsibilities and produce at the plate.”
However, at MiLB.com, minor-league guru Jonathan Mayo believes the Mets will use their first pick to select OF Ike Davis from Arizona State, 2B Jemile Weeks from Miami or the hard-throwing RHP Ryan Perry from Arizona.
By the way, to watch a video interview between Mayo and SNY’s Ted Berg, click here.
According to ESPN, “When Davis connects, he has plus raw power and would easily hit 30-plus homers in the majors if he can make enough contact.”
Either way, consensus across the Internet appears to be that the Mets will target college bats, since their farm system is void of young hitters.
Again, I will start up a Live Blog of the Draft just before 2 pm.
Come on, best player available, show me best player available…
If Hosmer is there and they pass.. I may loose it….
I couldn’t agree more.
theres little to no chance Hosmer is going to be available. don’t worry about it.
devoid of young hitters? I thought we had a Teenage Hitting Machine!
so that gives us a young hitter
Get Ike Davis and plug him into leftfield this weekend against the Padres. Will be an upgrade over Tatis, he is a butcher out there.
Now THAT’S the fast track!
LOL! thats funny and a tad true…
it’s nice now that espn has legitimsed the draft by hyping it up and covering it but am i the only one that wishes they would enhance this hype by going back to televising college games? i mean, really people are getting excited by stats on players they may have never seen and going by what the likes of law, mayo and callis says.
i admit i’ve never heard of any of these guys like davis, lawrie or tim beckham. i’m a draft junkie when it comes to the nhl, nfl and nba but with the mlb, it’s almost a case of tell me what happens when it’s over.
ESPNU as well as the “CBS College” network have been televising baseball conference tournaments. Both are available on Direct TV, not sure where else.
The lack of interest in college baseball can be summed up in one word.
“ping”
Exactly….I love it and follow it but will not watch it. That sound sends shivers down my spine when I hear it.
Well.. until college baseball programs can afford to buy hundreds of wood bats.. you’re stuck with the ping…
you know how long it took me to get what you meant?! :P i’m scracthing my head going, “ping”?
five minutes later, it hits me…duh. aluminum….bats…
nice. is it that big a deal?
Yes when a pitcher jams a hitter in college the aluminum bat is strong enough where the hitter could still hit a hr off that, where the wood bat would break and be an easy ground ball to the infield. Aluminum bats give the batter an advantage where a college kid could hit 20 hr’s but with a wood bat it might only be 5. Imagine if college football used one of those real small rubber balls where college QB’s could throw the ball 90 to 100 yards but once they hit the pros they suddenly struggle to throw 60 yards. To get a true feel for how a college player would relate to the pro game, they need to be using wood bats.
I think the minor problem is the sound, which I find grating. The major problem is the aluminum bat produces hits in circumstances where the wood bat does not.
Are aluminum bats that much cheaper than wooden ones?
Hopefully someone else can post an actual cost analysis of it, but just due to the fact that they last longer because they don’t break has a value impact.
Found a USAToday article which states “aluminum bats can cost $300, which is 5 to 6 times the cost of a wooden bat, but are more cost effective because they won’t splinter or break.”
Is anybody experimenting with any other materials? What about lucite or some other type of plastic. Perhaps some other metal with a less distinctive sound. Stone. Dried whale skin. Fossilized dinosaur bones. Processed mummy meat. Anything but aluminum bats, please.
They definately need to take a second basemen because there are never good second basemens in free agency. I want them to draft Rickie Week’s younger brother Jemile but I wouldn’t mind if they took Ike Davis either
I’d love to see them get Weeks as well. Wright, Reyes, and Weeks would be great. Power hitting 1B are a dime a dozen. To me, he’s a safe pick to make it to the majors while picking a pitcher you have a longer shot that they’ll make it.
If power-hitting 1B are a dime a dozen then why don’t we have one?
Why is the report for Lawrie listed twice?
Uhhh Matt…
Regarding Castro, ESPN writes, “Lawrie has a great swing, keeps his weight back well, and aside from a slight back-side collapse and a tendency to get a little too power-happy, he does everything right at the plate. He should make plenty of contact and hit for average to above-average power.”
Copy and Pasting much? hehe.
he quotes it as per ESPN
I know. He just didn’t copy the right thing for Castro. He still had the quote from Lawrie copied.
I don’t care who we draft as long as we don’t adhere to the slotting system. Baseball America just had a great article about how the Red Sox missed out on 5 potential first rounders in this year’s draft (including Pedro Alvarez) because they refused to pay more than what is slotted by MLB. Of course, this was the same year (2005) they drafted Bucholz, Ellsbury, Lowrie, etc. There’s a lesson to be learned here and I hope Omar pays attention to it!
I’m confused? Did they or did they not use the slotting system? If they didn’t then what’s the problem, the players they got are great anyway.
In 2005, they adhered to it which is why 5 potential first rounders are in this year’s draft after previously being drafted by Boston. Had they not, Boston would have these 5 guys in their system along with Bucholz, Ellsbury, and Lowrie.
Once the Sox realized their mistake, they did away with the slotting system in 2006 and 2007 and paid whatever is necessary to get the top talents in their system.
Okay I see. Although it kind of makes me sick that a draft where they got Bucholz, Ellsbury, Lowrie, could have been that much better.
And by sick I mean insanely jealous.
In that case, I probably shouldn’t mention that they also got Craig Hansen and Michael Bowden in that draft who are projected to be a power setup guy and a middle of the rotation starter, respectively.