The NFL and NBA drafts have been televised for years. Now, Major League Baseball is joining the trend. For the first time in its history, the baseball entry draft will be aired live on ESPN2. Coverage will begin on Thursday, June 7th at 2 p.m. ET from Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Fla. The broadcast will end at 6 p.m. ET. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said the telecast, “will give fans access to see this critical function of an organization’s development.

This is an idea whose time has come.” Each team’s first round pick will be televised and all clubs will have a maximum of five minutes to make their selections. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays will have the first selection. The San Francisco Giants will have three picks in the first round, while the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers will each have two first round choices. The draft will have 50 rounds and will conclude after all 30 teams have passed on a selection or after the final selection of the 50th round, whichever comes first.

My Take:

“I don’t know if this would have the impact of say the NFL because many of us don’t know many of these guys. Even in the NBA, after the first few players in the 1st round, there are many foreign players that we have never heard of. In baseball, we have those coming straight out of high school and have not seen many of the players play like we would on Saturdays during the fall. It may be successful, but it looks like ESPN doesn’t feel too good about it either because it is being placed on their B-Team with it being on ESPN 2. I just hope that we don’t have to hear Chris Berman go ‘There it gooooes, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back!!!!’ ”

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