FanHouse MlbDraft

MLB Draft day is officially here (follow the results with our MLB Draft Tracker), and while baseball's first-year player selection process hardly elicits the same excitement, hype or drama as its cousins in the NBA and NFL, it's still an enormously important day for every franchise.

Don't believe us? Just ask the Rays, who ascended all the way to the World Series last year in part thanks to their shrewd drafting. Or the Pirates and their fans, who have watched the team sink further and further with a series of poor picks.

With such a momentous day upon us, the MLB FanHouse team will be covering the draft (first round broadcast live on the MLB Network at 6 PM ET) from every angle. Ed Price will be on site in Secaucus, N.J., Andrew Johnson will be at Nationals Park in Washington, where Nationals brass will make the No. 1 and No. 10 overall selections, and the rest of the team, along with a special guest or two, will be live chatting during the proceedings.

After the jump read a wrapup of the first-round chat.

The Major League Baseball draft is only two weeks away, and, as Josh Alper reported earlier this month, the league is holding a ceremonial, voluntary draft of Negro League players before the actual draft begins. The idea is to honor the accomplishments of the guys we still have and throw a little money their way, and while that's nice enough, Jon expressed via (real live copy and pasted) Dugout our general malaise and disappointment. You shouldn't honor the Negro Leagues like this. You should honor the Negro Leagues by buying a big jacket with all of the teams' logos on it. All of them at once. I don't like any specific team, I just like the Negro Leagues!

Well, the official chatroom of Major League Baseball (that's us) couldn't let baseball have a fantasy draft without doing one of their own, and presented today post-jump is part 1 of the completely legitimate shoot conversations that went on during said draft.

Not featured: Joe Torre drafting Satchel Paige and then cutting him for being too flamboyant.

Featured: everything via this link

Fellow FanHouser Tom Fornelli just lamented on the sad state of his -- and my -- White Sox. It's been a rough couple weeks for the South Siders and there doesn't seem to be any relief in sight.

So, do we look to the recent MLB Draft for some solace? Well, the Sox snatched up manager Ozzie Guillen's son, Oney, in the 36th round of the draft with the 1,102nd overall pick.

Home Run Derby has the tale of the tape on Oney:

He's a sophomore from North Park University in Chicago. He hit .190 and committed 23 errors in 47 games as a second baseman for the Thunder Bay Border Cats (Ontario, Canada) of the North Woods League in 2006 (the NWL is a collegiate summer league).

Wow, it looks like he'd fit in quite well with White Sox offense this season. If you're interested, MLB.com has a rundown of players drafted with familial ties to teams or former big league players. Take a gander if you're interested in all that.

Here are the first round picks by the NL Central teams in today's MLB Amateur draft and a few words about them:

Chicago Cubs (3)- Josh Vitters, 3B, HS. The Cubs got their guy here. Just about everyone had him and Mike Moutsakas (selected directly above by the Royals) as the 1-2 high school hitters in the draft, with neither one a clear #1.

Pittsburgh Pirates (4)- Daniel Moskos, LHP, Clemson. Big overdraft. The Pirates apparently asked for the money to sign Matt Wieters and were denied by ownership, so instead they drafted a guy that's been mostly a reliever in his college career. With the fourth overall pick. John Sickels listed him as the ninth best pitcher. I'm a Pirate fan. Permit me an, "ugh."

Milwaukee Brewers (7)- Matt LaPorta, LF, UFlorida, pictured above. Maybe a bit of a reach here. Baseball America was surprised by the pick and noted that it's rare for a college senior to be picked this high. He does lead the SEC in OPS this year, though, so how bad can he be?

Cincinnati Reds (15)- Devin Mesocaro, C, HS. He's from Punxatawny. You know, the place with the groundhog and the funny movie. It seems risky to me to take a high school catcher, but I'm a blogger and not a general manager. Also, that Joe Mauer guy worked out OK.

St. Louis Cardinals (18)- Peter Kozma, SS, HS. Baseball America calls him the best middle infielder available, but still a reach at 18. They do seem to think it's more of a need pick for the Cardinals. I can't tell you because he's the only guy on this page that I've never heard of at all before.

The Astros lost their first round pick by signing Carlos Lee.

Because our friends at ESPN and MLB decreed it so, the MLB Draft is being televised this year for the first time ever. According to the guide on my TV, it's running from 2pm-6pm EST on ESPN2 and it includes the first two rounds. I will only be live-blogging the first round for fear my brain might explode. I'm not really entirely sure what to expect. Is there a green room? What will the players be wearing? Will fans boo picks? Will there even be fans there?

Well, I guess time we tell. I'll be doing this with the freshest/newest content on the bottom of post and I'll be adding in comments from my fellow MLB FanHouse comrades as the draft unfolds. Also, Matt Watson set you up with a nice little preview of this thing earlier in the day. And lastly, for the reasons the MLB Draft is not fair, I will direct you to Pat Lackey's post.

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2:00-2:10EST

ESPN2 starts off with a nice little montage of the superstars of today and what number they were drafted. It almost gets be excited for all this. Almost.

Daryl Strawberry was sent by MLB as an "ambassador" of the game to the draft. Interesting choice.

Bud Selig is making his opening remarks. Many more cheers than boos. This surprises me a bit.

Other thoughts from the MLB FanHouse:

Mullet:

Wow, they went all out! A draft board and everything!!!

The crew just mentioned that Devil Rays fans are chanting for David Price and it got me thinking: A draft without Jets fans just isn't a draft.

On Daryl Strawberry: I guess Dock Ellis wouldn't return their calls.

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2:10-2:20EST

Um, we are 14 minutes in here and Devil Rays still haven't made the first pick. Come on guys. Let's get to it here. The Devil Rays fans are getting restless as they yell "We want Price!"

And here it is....the Rays select David Price, he is smiling, wearing some Ralph Lauren. He's a lefty pitcher from Vanderbilt who every said was going No. 1. So no surprise yet. Why isn't the No. 1 pick at the draft?

On Deck is The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

MLB Amatuer Draft-ESPN2 2:00PM Est.

The day you've waited your entire life for is here. The MLB Draft is this afternoon, and this time it's televised. That's right, you can now watch it live in your own living room. You'll get the chance to see the names of a bunch of kids you've never heard of called by other people you've never heard of. Of course, if you don't know any of these kids, don't feel bad. I don't either, but thankfully PostmanR is going to be live-bloggin the first-round or so, and he'll be filling you in on everything you need to know.

St. Louis Cardinals (26-30) vs. Cincinnati Reds (22-38)-8:10PM Est.

Don't look now, but the Cardinals might be starting to put things together. They've won their last three games, and six of their last seven. They're playing so well, the league is looking to move them out of the NL Central. Albert Pujols has also come back to life, as he's raised his batting average 43 points in the last three weeks, and hit his third home run in his last three games on Wednesday. Adam Wainwright gets the start for the Cardinals tonight, and will face off against Kyle Lohse and his 2-7 record.

San Diego Padres (35-23) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (34-25)-10:05PM Est.

The Padres have now won four in a row, and look to complete a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight. It'll be up to Jake Peavy and his MLB-best 1.68 ERA to get the job done. In Peavy's last nine starts against the Dodgers he's 5-0 with a 1.74 ERA. Hong-Chi Kuo gets the start for the Dodgers, and his numbers are just about the opposite of Peavy. He's 0-1 with a 7.71 ERA, and that's just not going to get it done. It'll also be only Kuo's second career start as a Dodger. All of which means that the Padres will probably finish off that sweep this evening.