The amateur draft has come and gone, and the next event in line for the baseball season is the All-Star game, a juxtaposition of what baseball has done right and what they have done wrong for the sport.
Televising the draft can only be a positive thing, even if the ratings and reviews weren’t that good for its first season. It will surely be a work in progress, but definitely has the potential to increase interest in the sport at all stages, including the upcoming College World Series, where fans of MLB teams can take interest in a variety of players from different schools.
On the other hand, the All-Star game is an exhibition, and the idea that an exhibition game will determine home field advantage for the World Series is ridiculous. Bud… if you’re reading this… immediate All-Star game reform is a necessity.
Rank (Pv) |
Team |
Record |
Comments |
| 1 (2) |  |
40-25 | Early on in the season, the Angels lost six in a row and had a record of 6-9. Since then they’ve played at a .680 clip, going 34-16. |
| 2 (1) |  |
41-22 | The Red Sox are showing some weakness for the first time all season, losing seven out of their last 12 games, including a sweep on the road to Oakland. |
| 3 (4) |  |
37-26 | Amazingly Paul Byrd has six wins, while having walked only four batters. However opponents are hitting .320 off him. |
| 4 (7) |  |
37-26 | In the past five years the Tigers have selected Joel Zumaya (11th round, 2002), Andrew Miller (1st round, 2006) and the no-hitter thrower himself, Justin Verlander (1st round, 2004). This year they picked two high school pitchers with their first two picks (Frederick Porcello, 27th, Joey Hamilton, 60th). Some consider Porcello to be the top high school pitcher in the draft. |
| 5 (6) |  |
36-27 | The Padres have one of the weakest offenses (worst batting average in the NL and third-worst OPS) to go along with the best pitching staff in baseball. |
| 6 (5) |  |
37-28 | Nomar Garciaparra only has one homerun this season, after his comeback performance of last year, in which he hit 20. |
| 7 (8) |  |
37-28 | The D-Backs have had quite a bit of success in past drafts, selecting Brandon Webb (8th round, 2000), Chris Young (16th round, 2001), and Justin Upton (1st round, 2006). This year they took high school pitcher Jarrod Parker with the ninth selection overall. |
| 8 (3) |  |
36-27 | The Mets looked so well-rounded at the beginning of the season, but are beginning to show signs of glaring weaknesses as the season continues. They’ve lost nine out of their last 11, and their June ERA is third worst in the National League (5.05). |
| 9 (12) |  |
35-26 | Good to see Johnny Durocher get drafted and have a chance at pro baseball. Durocher is a former University of Washington quarterback who had a brain tumor, and switched to baseball after his operation. Seattle took the Husky pitcher in the 34th round. |
| 10 (11) |  |
34-29 | The A’s have been hot as of late, winning eight of their last 10, but have failed to gain ground in the AL West. They still trail the Mariners (who have won nine of 10) by two games and the Angels (who have won seven of 10) by five games. |
| 11 (9) |  |
35-30 | Kelly Johnson is one of the unheard of young stars of the Braves. The 25-year old second baseman is hitting .285 with a .389 on-base percentage, and leads Atlanta with 45 runs scored. |
| 12 (10) |  |
34-30 | While membership for Pee Your Pants for the Brewers continues to rise (now up to 5,552 members), the Brewers themselves continue to fall, losing six out of their last nine. |
| 13 (13) |  |
35-31 | With Tom Gordon and Brett Myers both rehabbing injuries, the Phillies acquired Jose Mesa to shore up their bullpen. With Senor Smoke back in the NL, we could see the second round of the Mesa-Vizquel feud. |
| 14 (15) |  |
31-31 | With the Twins struggling to breach the .500 mark, what are the chances that Torii Hunter could be moved before the trade deadline? The Twins have proven to be very effective in getting good value for trades. Hunter has a limited no-trade clause in his contract, which could potentially hinder a move, but there several teams could have a need for a solid hitting, outstanding defensive center fielder (think Dodgers, Red Sox, Athletics, and several other teams if they remain in contention). |
| 15 (17) |  |
31-31 | With so much talk about the starting pitching of the Yankees, attention has been deflected away from the relief pitching, which has been nothing short of awful. Mariano Rivera has an unheard of 4.13 ERA, Mike Myers has allowed 14 of his 29 inherited runners to score, and Big Unit trade-bait Luis Vizcaino has an ERA of 6.60. |
| 16 (18) |  |
32-33 | The Marlins continue the tradition they’ve created of consistently overachieving with bargain-basement talent. They sit just one game under .500 and are not out of the playoff picture, at five games behind in the NL East and the NL Wild Card. |
| 17 (19) |  |
31-34 | Alex Rios is quickly establishing himself as an underappreciated star. He leads the Jays in essentially all offensive categories (average, homeruns, RBI, runs, stolen bases, slugging, and total bases). |
| 18 (20) |  |
29-35 | With the fifth pick, the Baltimore Orioles took Matt Wieters, who was considered by many to be the best player in the draft. A catcher from Georgia Tech, Wieters could have easily gone higher if his agent was somebody other than Scott Boras. |
| 19 (16) |  |
30-35 | The Giants ended up with six of the first 60 picks in the draft, due to compensatory picks. They selected five high school players and a catcher from Oklahoma. |
| 20 (14) |  |
27-35 | The White Sox have been outscored by 62 runs this season, a worse run-differential than Colorado, Cincinnati, Tampa Bay, and the equal to Texas. |
| 21 (21) |  |
31-33 | Chris Iannetta has struggled to adapt to Major League pitching, hitting only .200 with 11 RBI. |
| 22 (22) |  |
28-35 | Despite being seven games under .500, the Cubbies are only 5.5 games out in the weak NL Central. Their major flaw has been the close game- they’ve lost 14 games by one run. |
| 23 (23) |  |
27-37 | Since Brad Lidge has been pulled from the closer’s role, he’s stabilized his numbers. His ERA of 2.56 is best on the team, and his 11.94 strikeouts per nine innings is just short of the ratio he put up in 2005 when he saved 42 games. |
| 24 (26) |  |
29-33 | As predicted, Tampa Bay went with the lefty from Vandy, David Price, who had an 11-1 record and a Division-I leading 194 strikeouts. Price was considered to be a first-round prospect even in his senior year of high school. |
| 25 (24) |  |
27-37 | Although Jack Wilson plays a fantastic defensive shortstop, he is certainly not the answer for the Pirates at offense. Gone are the days of the all-field, no-hit, shortstops of the 70’s and 80’s, and Jack Wilson’s days as a full-time player are probably also limited. His .658 OPS is fourth worst amongst National League shortstops. |
| 26 (25) |  |
27-34 | In a recent Sports Illustrated poll, Major Leaguers overwhelmingly voted David Eckstein as the player who gets the most production out of the least amount of talent. He is currently hitting .307. However, defensively he is struggling, having already committed 11 errors- his career high is just 15. |
| 27 (27) |  |
27-37 | Not trading Alfonso Soriano at the trade deadline last year was a huge mistake. In a situation where they could easily have gotten some top prospects, they got nothing, instead. Without Soriano the Nationals are having a very hard time scoring runs, ranked 15th in the National League. |
| 28 (28) |  |
26-39 | The Cincinnati Enquirer has reported that the Reds are looking to trade Adam Dunn. Any team interested must be willing to pick up the remainder of his salary for 2007 and renegotiate a new contract. |
| 29 (30) |  |
25-40 | John Buck has turned into one of the top hitting catchers in the league. He leads all catchers with a .564 slugging percentage to go along with his 10 homeruns and 22 RBI. If history repeats itself, Buck will go the way of Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye, and others that have given the Royals the reputation of being the farm system for other clubs. |
| 30 (29) |  |
23-41 | There’s obviously something about Texas that makes it near impossible for a pitcher to be successful. Look at Kevin Millwood, who had the best ERA in the AL in ’05 with Cleveland, and a career ERA well under 4.00. In two years with Texas he has had ERAs of 4.52 and 7.82. |