The Draft

After you've had the sanitized-for-your-protection version of the draft, MLN will be bringing you real-deal coverage, MLB-delayed, round by round, with analysis by our draft expert, Lary Bump, being uploaded periodically throughout the day on both June 6th and 7th. After that, we'll continue to break down the draft for you during the month of June and tell you what it means to you as a minor league or indy baseball fan.

Draft 101 for Minor League Fans

Many minor league fans are new to the game. Several readers have written in to ask questions. We've included them, and a basic primer to the draft in MLB Draft 101, a sidebar.

How It Went

The Kansas City Royals first selection in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft came a few minutes late at MLB buck-and-winged a bit to bring the early draft festivities to you via the internet. The pick: Luke Hochevar, who pitched the 2005 season with the Fort Worth Cats after his manager, Scott Boris, parked him there when the Dodgers, who drafted him in 2005, wouldn't put up the jack. While MLB doesn't keep records of how many indy players cross back into the draft, as mentioning their existence can cause utter apoplexy, this is the first no. one to be successfully parked in the indies for the year. He was playing for Fort Worth at the beginning of their new tenure in the revived American Association as well.

Will more follow? Can one call it an amateur draft when picking a pro from Ft. Worth? MLB, with its usual level of denial, listed him suspiciously as having no college or high school, rather than acknowledge the pick from the Central Baseball League.

The one thing that appears clear from the first eighteen rounds of the draft is that last year's movment to beat the bushes for players in high schools great and small is over. Most of the picks in the first 18 center around the big baseball powerhouse colleges, and a much more select group of powerhouse high schools. The majority of high schoolers have found their way into the depths of the draft, minnows that may yield a star or two, with most being tossed back until they're bigger fish in a year or three.

We offer you the draft in several different digests. Choose one to begin your review of the draft. Round by round commentary is available only in the rounds area.

| By Round | By Last Name |

See also: | 2005 Draft | 2006 Draft | 2007 Draft | 2008 Draft |