Draft Day Approaches

Less than a week until the draft that only true geeks pay attention to, the MLB Draft. The reasons why baseball's draft is far less popular are fairly obvious-high school and college players get drafted (that's a ton of kids), no one really follows baseball on the amateur level (this year had more college baseball on national tv than the previous ten years combined), draft picks are far less certain to be successful (it seems like it anyway) and the darn thing isn't even on cable television. It's a simple case of lots kids with almost no exposure in an event no one can watch. I cannot imagine why it's not popular?

As a public service, and because I am one of the aforementioned geeks, I thought I would take a peek at what my fellow baseball draftniks are saying about the Tigers would-be top choice. Well, boys and girls, the Tigers are drafting tenth in the first round. A bit lower than normal, thanks to Pudge, Guillen and the '04 Tigers, but still high enough to get an impact player. Well, in theory anyway.

Let's be honest. Very, very few teams have so utterly failed the draft process more than our beloved Tigers. I refuse to list all of their draft day disasters here, however know this. It's a long list of really bad players chosen over an extended period of time. That's how you lose 119 games in a season.

As to this year's choice, the name floating around is Wichita State pitcher Mike Pelfrey. As this may be the first or second time you have ever heard the young man's name, I figured I would do a little research for you.

A chat with Pelfrey in 2004 at The Hardball Times.

Brewerfan.net provides this profile.

A look at Pelfrey, including a Team USA photo, courtesy of Baseball Digest Daily. The site is one of those new MLBlogs.

A Baseball America review of Pelfrey's ability.

What else do you need to know? It seems Mr. Pelfrey is generally considered no worse than the second best pitcher in the draft. Many think he is the best pitcher in the draft and a top five pick. So, you are now asking yourself, how can the Tigers get Pelfrey with the tenth overall pick if he's arguably the top pitcher in the whole draft? I'm glad you asked.

Guess who the young hurler's agent is? That's right, Scott Boras. Yes, him, again. Sounds like Mr. Boras has done his usual good job of scaring the you-know-what out of the teams picking ahead of the Tigers. So, based on Boras' recent history with our Bengals, many are assuming that Pelfrey will fall all the way down to number ten.

I'm not going to ponder this much. Quite a bit can happen between now and when the Tigers get to make their first pick. Let's just consider this an introduction to a potential future Tiger. If Pelfrey ends up with the Tigers, you can impress all of the casual fans in your neighborhood with your vast knowledge about the WSU righthander.

If Pelfrey lands elsewhere on draft day, all you've done is wasted a few moments reading this. Oh, and you've learned how a baseball geek spends some of his evening-researching college players you have never heard of.