MLB Draft Preview

I'm not going to pretend that I know any of the players for Tuesday's draft, except I heard there's a good catcher from Key West. If you draft him, he comes with a complimentry basket of conch fritters. People ignore the MLB Draft because no one knows the players and it usually takes a long time for even a top drafted player to make it to the majors.

What interests me is the debate over whether to take high school talent or college talent. Followers of the Billy Beane philosophy, such as the Red Sox and Blue Jays, take mostly college talent believing there's less risk and it takes less times for college players to make it to the majors or at least be good trade bait.

Two good examples supporting this theory are Jeff Allison and Dustin Pedroia. Allsion was a "can't miss" high school phenom with an amazing arm. He also was immature and happened to like Oxy-Contin. He's now struggling to stay in the Marlins' minor league system. Pedroia was an undersized but very talented college players. The Red Sox took him in the second round of last years draft. Already he's mentioned in trade talks and there's some speculation he may be given a shot at second base next year in the big leagues.

The major problem with only taking college players is that top high school players seem to have more potential to become a superstar. College players are usually in college because they weren't good enough to be drafted in a high round straight of high school. The Billy Beane method does work, but you're decreasing your chance to get a superstar.

Teams with money like the Red Sox and Yankees don't care because they can throw a lot of money into international scouting and signings, or they can buy theur superstars threw free agency.

Therefore, we have another example of how money affects competition in baseball too much. Money teams like the Red Sox can be safer in the draft and get more tradeable talent, knowing there's other ways of getting superstars. Meanwhile, teams like the Devil Rays need to take more risks in the draft need to take more chances on high school players who have more potential but are riskier. Usually this means the Red Sox will have a better draft.

I didn't even get into the whole issue with the struggles teams have signing their picks. That's another problem that can be covered later.