MLB Dlog: Final Post, Meet the Newest Yankee

Andrew Brackman, a 6-10 pitcher out of NC State was taken as the 30th overall pick by the New York Yankees. Brackman was originally projected to be a top five pick, but suffered an elbow injury recently. Brackman was also a key member on the Wolfpack basketball team. He has yet to notify his coaches if he plans on returning for his senior season. The Yankees have until Aug. 15 to sign him. Outfielder Wendell Fairley went 29th to the Giants. That will do it for our first-ever MLB Dlog.

Now, poor first overall choices of the 1980's:

• 1981: Mariners take RHP Mike Moore. Cubs take Joe Carter at #2. Presumably much second-guessing with that one. Tony Gwynn & Sid Fernandez went in later rounds.

• 1982: Cubs select Shawon Dunston. Not bad, but the Blue Jays Padres and Twins took Augie JSchmidt, Jimmy Jones (Dipset!) and Bryan Oelkers respectively. Why does that suck? Doc Gooden went at #5 to the Mets.

• 1983: Twins draft Tim Belcher. He becomes the second top overall pick not to sign. Boston selects a RHP out of Texas named Roger Clemens with the 19th pick.

• 1984: Mets take high school outfielder Shawn Abner. A's take USC 1B Mark McGwire at #10.

• 1985: Brewers take UNC catcher BJ Surhoff. Will Clark goes second to the Giants while Arizona State outfielder Barry Bonds goes sixth to the Pirates.

• 1986: Could you imagine a lineup featuring Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield. Pittsburgh couldn't, so they made 3B Jeff King the top pick. Matt Williams and Kevin Brown went third and fourth respectively. Brewers took Sheff at #6.

• 1987: Griffey goes first to Seattle. Smart. Twins and Cubs bypass Jack McDowell for Willie Banks and Mike Harkey. Dumb.

• 1989: Ben McDonald went #1 to Baltimore. Frank Thomas went #7 to Chicago. Chuck Knoblauch went 25th to the Twins as a shortstop. Had he stayed there Mrs. Olbermann might have a prettier face.

MLB Dlog: Beane's Money Ball, 70's Drafts

Since 1998, the A's have taken college players with their first pick all but once. That trend just continued as Billy Beane took James Simmons, RHP from UC-Riverside. Peter Gammons is not well. He revealed that he used his one day away from the hospital after his unfortunate aneurysm to watch Simmons pitch in the Cape Cop summer league. Simmons finished the summer with a 1.18 ERA and apparently has some nasty command of his fastball. The Tigers then took high school pitcher Rick Procello, apparently the best high school pitching prospect since Josh Beckett. Ben Revere goes 28th to the Twins. Blah, blah, blah...let's get back to making GM's of the past feel inferior!

• 1970: The Padres grab catcher Mike Ivie, a career .269 hitter. Goose Gossage goes to the White Sox in the ninth round. These things really are a crap shoot.

• 1971: The White Sox make catcher Danny Goodwin the top pick and then fail to sign him. Jim Rice goes 15th to the Red Sox.

• 1972: This draft stunk, plain and simple. Dave Roberts went first to the Padres. Thirty-two years later his base running prowess helped the Red Sox to a World Series.

• 1973: This year made up for the previous year. The Rangers took David Clyde first. Clyde went on to have an all-time record of 18-33. Catcher John Stearns went second to the Phillies. They let him go after one season and he went on to make four all-star appearances with the Mets. Two guys named Robin Yount and Dave Winfield went third and fourth respectively. Fred Lynn and Eddie Murray went in the second and third rounds respectively. But seriously, David Clyde had tremendous signability at the time.

• 1974: Padres took Bill Almon. Dale Murphy goes fifth to the Braves. Almon blasts 36 career round-trippers, Murphy a respectable 398.

• 1975: The Angles make Danny Goodwin the first man to be the top pick twice. He hits .236 in a 252-game career. Andre Dawson goes in the 10th round.

• 1978: The Braves pass up the likes of Cal Ripken, Jr., Gaylor Perry and Kirk Gibson for Bob Horner.

• 1979: The Mariners grab Al Chamers, a Pennsylvania high school outfielder. Yanks go with an Indiana high school outfielder named Don Mattingly. Funny until you realize that 16 years later the Mariners will end Mattingly's career.

MLB Dlog: Catching Up

Way behind with this coverage (there are only five minutes between picks). Here are picks 6-25:

6	Washington Nationals	Ross Detwiler	LHP	Missouri State University
7	Milwaukee Brewers	Matthew LaPorta	1B	University of Florida
8	Colorado Rockies	Casey Weathers	RHP	Vanderbilt University
9	Arizona Diamondbacks	Jarrod Parker	RHP	Norwell High School (In.)
10	San Francisco Giants	Madison Bumgarner	LHP	South Caldwell High School (NC)
11	Seattle Mariners	Phillippe Aumont	RHP	École secondaire du Versant (CAN)
12	Florida Marlins	Matt Dominguez	3B	Chatsworth High School (Calif.)
13	Cleveland Indians	Beau Mills	1B/3B	Lewis-Clark State College
14	Atlanta Braves	Jason Heyward	OF/1B	Henry County High School (Ga.)
15	Cincinnati Reds	Devin Mesaraco	C	Punxsutawney High School (Pa.)
16	Toronto Blue Jays	Kevin Ahrens	3B	Houston High School (Texas)
17	Texas Rangers	Blake Beavan	RHP	Irving High School (Texas)
18	St. Louis Cardinals	Peter Kozma	Shortstop	Owasso High School (Oklahoma)
19	Philadelphia Phillies	Joe Savery	LHP/1B	Rice University
20	Los Angeles Dodgers	Chris Withrow	RHP	Midland High School (Texas)
21	Toronto Blue Jays	J.P. Arencibia	C/1B	University of Tennessee
22	San Francisco Giants	Tim Alderson	RHP	Horizon High School (ARI)
23	San Diego Padres	Nick Schmidt	LHP	University of Arkansas
24	Texas Rangers	Michael Main	RHP/OF	Deland High School (FL)
25	Chicago White Sox	Aaron Poreda	LHP	University of San Francisco

Thank god for Wikipedia.

MLB Dlog: Boras vs. Angelos on the Horizon

How many other drafts will you see where a player's status is lowered because of who his agent is? The Baltimore Orioles selected Matt Wieters, catcher out of Georgia Tech, with the fifth pick. He was projected as the second pick, but teams don't like dealing with Scott Boras. Seems as though his clients lack "signability", a word ESPN made up for today's coverage. Corner infielder Mike Moustakas went second overall to the Royals, Cubs took 3B Josh Vitters with the third pick and Pittsburgh took Dan Moskus with the fourth selection. Moustakas is straight out of high school where he hit 52 career home runs, 24 this season. Both are California state records. Bud Selig greeted him with a Kansas City cap and a urine cup.

MLB 2007 First-Year Player Draft Dlog

With the top pick in the 2007 first-year player draft, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays nabbed David Price of Vanderbilt. Price was an impressive 11-0 with a 2.71 ERA as he led division 1 with 175 strikeouts.

This is the first MLB draft to be televised. Karl Ravech is the MC of events over on the deuce, he is joined by Steve Phillips and Peter Gammons. As we prepare to cover the rest of the opening round, let's take a look at former first overalls and how they have failed miserably when compared to those taken behind them:

• 1965: A's take Rick Monday as Johnny Bench goes 36th to the Reds. Nolan Ryan goes 226th to the Mets. John Olerud went 67th to the Angels, which is amazing because he had yet to be conceived. Not enough credit is given to the Angles for their insight that year

• 1966: Mets pass on Reggie Jackson to take Steve Chilcott, one of only two top picks never to make the show. They would later nab Tom Seaver, so I guess they made out pretty well. The Yankees drafted Kan Stabler, who won them a Super Bowl in 1977.
  

• 1967: Yanks take Ron Blomberg who would go on to bat an incredible .500 during his rookie campaign (3-for-6). Bloomberg also has the distinction of being the first guy on an MLB starting lineup card to be told, "Nah, you stay here, we'll go field. We don't need you f#@%ing this up for us." Vida Blue went 27th.

• 1968: Mets nab Tim "Crazy Horse" Foli. Yankees more than happy to settle for Thurman Munson with the fourth pick.

• 1969: Senators take Jeff Burroughs, let him go after two seasons and he becomes one of just four top picks to be named a league MVP (1974 - Rangers). Dave Winfield was selected as a high school pitcher in the 40th round by the Orioles.
  

That wraps up the 60's. We'll tell GM's of the 70's how dumb they were later on in the draft.