Yesterday was the two week mark before the upcoming draft, and I thought it might be wise to give some sort of idea about what sort of resource this blog can be for you during those days. Here's a quick idea I've sketched together on what you can expect. I plan on live blogging through each round, even to the last if possible. Here's some basic info on the draft schedule from BA. In addition, I'm thinking of using the popular coveritlive.com chatting software to host some sort of live chat, though it would probably only be on the evening of the first day, June 9. Before the second day ramps up, I'll give a quick roundup of the best players still on the board, and I'm fairly sure there might be some news come out overnight about deals made with some of those players. Teams picking early in that round have a nice advantage, as certain high-upside players with either injury or signability questions could go quickly after having had a negotiation period of sorts.
My final mock draft will be published the day of the draft, with all rounds posted before the first pick is announced starting at 6 pm. It will be a little fun to not only compare how I do against how the draft board actually goes, but also to compare my first mock draft, which is published at Minor League Ball, to the draft board, as well. It will show how much the class has evolved. All the little snippets I've written can be analyzed to see if I ever really got on the right path in trying to line up teams' boards. It's a difficult thing to do, and I think you'll appreciate that on the day.
Lastly, between now and June 9, I'll be making a mad attempt to finish my draft previews, and while I think my draft stock updates might make it all the way through, I think I might have started a bit too late. This blog started quite late in general, so I hope you'll forgive that inconvenience. Mock drafts will continue to go up at a regular pace, though it might change more than weekly as we go along. More info is coming out almost daily about connecting teams to certain players, and I might go into a more traditional blogging platform with newsflashes like that. I'm trying to get an interview set up with a high-ranking draft prospect, and I think I might even be able to get one to give some updates on here personally about what their spring draft year experiences have been like, as well as give updates on pre-draft workouts and their draft and signing processes. The potential for that kind of an article series is quite amazing, and I hope to capitalize on that in the future. However, we have to realize that players are extremely busy in the spring months, and college players have an especially heavy burden during their junior draft years.
In the long run, I think we can have a particularly unique draft setup on here, capitalizing on the niches not even covered by those of BA or PG, those of the experiences of the players. I think we all want to know what it's like to be heavily recruited or heavily scouted, throwing or hitting in front of dozens of scouts. I hope to be able to provide you with some sort of idea of what that's like through some interviews and personal journal-type of entries written by the players themselves. It should be a lot of fun.
Heavy lists of players to watch, most without any sort of actual writeup, are forthcoming, and I'm actually going to be putting together a personal draft board of what players I would like in the separate rounds of the draft. I'll pick 51 players over 50 rounds, drafting from my slot as the Texas Rangers, starting at #14 overall. I'll give you tons of names to watch, and I hope you remember at least some of them when your team picks on June 9.
As usual, ask me any questions you want about individual draft prospects, teams, etc. I'll get back to you as soon as possible. As for now, vote in the poll below.
[polldaddy poll=1654611]
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