I have been waiting for today for a very long time. The beginning of the 2009 MLB Amateur Draft is just hours away (it kicks off at 6 p.m. EST on MLB Network and MLB.com) and will last well into Thursday, until the final pick of the 50th round.
It is easy to laugh about the fact that there are 50 rounds in baseball when there are only 2 rounds in basketball, but believe it or not, many players taken past the 40th round have made it to the stage. In fact, a few of Dynasty‘s clients were taken after the 40th round, or not even selected at all, and are currently making their way up their respective organizations (Pete Parise, Dan Leatherman, Kyle Gunderson…). That being said, it is preferable to be a top pick of the organization you play for. You get instant gratification with a large signing bonus (those players are commonly refered to as “bonus babies”) and your club feels “pot committed” to you (meaning they already have an investment in you and want to see you make it up the ranks). If they spent poorly on signing you, it’s their jobs at risk as well.
Today’s picks will get the instant gratification. They have been well covered by the Keith Law’s and Jonathan Mayo’s for a long time now. But just because they are a first or second round pick does not mean they are necessarily destined for greatness.
Dynasty’s main focus will be on Wednesday. We have some underclassmen that we are advising and hope to see get selected early in the day. The draft will resume on Wednesday at 12 p.m. EST. Dynasty is also helping out some college seniors who had remarkable seasons, but lack that underclassmen/high school leverage. We still love these kids because we see them having deep careers full of future success.
Today, all of us at Dynasty will take it easy. On Wednesday and Thursday, we will be tracking the draft from start to finish. It could possibly be the most draining days of the year for all of Dynasty’s Baseball Operations staff and interns. And many of the players waiting to see their names flash on the computer screen will also be sweating with anticipation (G-d forbid your internet goes out). Others will be on the diamond playing with a Summer League team, and some will be out on a boat fishing with friends.
We are always excited with new technologies and will be following not only the live picks, but also the Twitter feeds of MLB analysts and some players who will be drafted today or tomorrow. Can you guess which player on the list is being advised by Dynasty? All MLB Draft related tweets will have an #mlbdraft hashtag attached.
Related posts:
