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2007 MLB DRAFT ARCHIVES |
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First Year Checklist |
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New Signing Deadline Delays Pro Debuts |
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Now that the 2007 minor league season is complete, we've taken a close-up look which 2007 draft picks performed the best in their debut seasons. With many first-rounders and other premium picks not signing until the new Aug. 15 signing deadline, it opened the door for a fifth-rounder and seventh-rounder to shine. |
Draft 2007 Checklist  Posted: 9/19/2007 12:20pm |
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Checking Results: Rawlings Preseason All America Teams |
Rawlings is a name that always stands for baseball excellence. Being the only baseball that is used at all Perfect Game, WWBA and BCS events, it stands to reason that Rawlings would come to Perfect Game to name the first Rawlings Preseason High School All America and All Regional teams. Looking at the results, it’s very easy to see why Rawlings partnered with Perfect Game to honor the nation’s top prep players.
2007 was the first year that Perfect Game named the Rawlings Pre-season High School All America Teams. A first, second, third team was announced along with 8 Rawlings All Regional teams. |
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Checking Results: Rawlings Preseason All America Teams Posted: 9/4/2007 5:20pm |
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Signing Frenzy Nets All 30 First-Rounders,
But At A Near-Record Cost to Clubs |
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By Allan Simpson |
Major League Baseball’s grand plan to further suppress signing bonuses by implementing new draft rules and strong-arming clubs to impose an across-the-board 10 percent rollback on bonus payments did not have its desired effect. In fact, it had the opposite impact and may open the door for more teams breaking rank in the future and ignoring the efforts of the commissioner’s office to control bonuses.
Signing bonuses to first-round picks actually rose this year, to a five-year high of $2,098, 167. Only in 2001 ($2,154,180) and 2002 ($2,106,793) has the first-round average been higher—years when runaway inflation on bonuses prompted MLB to enact new measures to control bonus payments. All players from this year’s draft had to be signed by Wednesday midnight, a uniform signing deadline that was incorporated this year. |
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Signing Frenzy Nets All 30 First-Rounders Posted: 8/17/2007 11:45am |
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Signing Bonuses - Top 10 Rounds Updated: 8/16/2007 3:55pm |
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Draft Slotting Process Flawed |
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By David Rawnsley |
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Now that all the players have either been signed or returned to school, it’s a good time to get a perspective on the 2007 draft—specifically, how the new rules and recommendations laid down by the commissioner’s office impacted this draft and could impact future drafts. |
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Draft Slotting Process Flawed Posted: 8/17/2007 12:10pm |
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Complete Team By Team Lists |
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Team By Team Draft Lists Posted: 7/10/07 5:00pm |
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Taking a look ahead to 2008 |
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By Blaine Clemmens |
Those that read our state-by-state previews for the 2007 draft may have noticed an item in the overview for each state where we identified the top prospect for the 2008 draft. Why did we include that? Well, because it is never too early to start looking ahead.
While the major league scouting departments were still grinding away on the 2007 draft prospects last fall and through this spring leading up to the draft, we have been looking one or two drafts into the future. |
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Taking a look ahead to 2008 Posted: 6/14/07 |
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Draft 2007: First 3 Rounds |
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By PG Staff |
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Complete scouting reports on players selected in the first three rounds of this year's draft--124 players in all.
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Draft 2007: First 3 Rounds Posted: 6/11/07 |
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DRAFT RESULTS |
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Click the logo below to review all the picks in the 2007 MLB Draft, courtesy of MLB.com! |
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Draft Day Quick Hits |
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By Patrick Ebert |
The televised draft obviously slowed down the pace of which teams have been accustomed to, getting through only five rounds on the first day of the two-day event. That alone may prompt some teams to stop drafting well before the 50th round during the second day of the event (mostly kidding, but the second day of the draft is going to be a long, long day for those going another 45 rounds).
Since only five rounds have passed, I’m going to offer some quick observations, with more observations to come in next week’s column. |
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Draft Day Quick Hits Posted: 6/8/07 |
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Draft Unfolds Like It Was Supposed To |
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By Allan Simpson |
The 2007 draft was almost like the classic case of the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Amidst heavy speculation that this year’s draft would unravel at the seams because of an across-the-board rollback on signing bonuses, as recommended only last Monday by the commissioner’s office, and the presence of an unusually large number of premium clients represented by agent Scott Boras, there were gloomy predictions that the early rounds—particularly the first round—would bear little resemblance to how the talent stacked up. |
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Draft Unfolds Like It Was Supposed To Posted: 6/8/07 |
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State-By-State Previews  Posted: continuously up until Draft Day 2007 |
We began our release of each states' top prospects with Florida and Puerto Rico and will continue to release them daily leading up to Draft Day 2007. These top prospect lists contain a brief scouting report on every player listed and are linked to a complete draft-follow list for that particular state. We grouped each states' players by the location of the school they attend, NOT by their hometown. Check back daily as the draft content provided by Perfect Game Crosschecker will be unmatched by anyone, anywhere!
NOTE: Non-subscribers can click the links to these lists and get a preview of what type of information they contain, however, to get the full lists, one must be a subscriber! Enjoy! |
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Top 200 MLB Draft Prospects (with revised Top 100) |
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TOP 200 PROSPECTS, 1-200 Posted: 5/14/07 |
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2007 High School Draft Propects |
Class of 2007: Updated Top 2,100 Prospects  Updated: 6/6/07 |
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2007 Prospects - State By State Updated: 6/6/07
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2007 Prospects - State By State Rankings Updated: 6/6/07
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2007 College Commitments List
Updated: 6/6/07
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Perfect Game, ESPN, MLB.com and the Draft |
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By PG Staff |
The 2007 June Draft will be televised for the first time ever and Perfect Game, PGcrosschecker.com and Baseballwebtv.com are proud to have a large role in this milestone event. Perfect Game’s David Rawnsley
and
Allan Simpson
will provide analysis for both the ESPN and MLB.com coverage of the entire draft.
ESPN has long televised amateur drafts in other sports and their coverage of the NFL Draft has evolved into an event in and of itself, but this is their first venture into baseball.
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Perfect Game, ESPN, MLB.com and the Draft Posted: 6/4/07 |
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Gearing Up For Draft Day |
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By David Rawnsley |
One of the most underrated parts of the entire draft process is the scouting staff meetings that each organization holds in one form or another in the weeks leading up to the draft. There are usually two levels of meetings: (a.) regional meetings where the area scouts sit down with the scouting director and crosscheckers, and then (b.) the final days of meetings with the scouting director and his chief lieutenants.
It’s at these meetings that prospects are dissected, argued for, argued against and eventually slotted on a team’s draft board. It’s not a process for the mild, the agreeable personality or the easily offended, rather a place where scouts fight for the players they want. |
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David Rawnsley's Draft Notebook Posted: 6/4/07 |
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David Rawnsley's Draft Notebook Archives Posted: 6/4/07 |
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Gatorade Players of the Year Released |
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By Perfect Game Staff |
How did the recently released Gatorade list compare to the PGCrosschecker list that was released last week?
In 31 states Gatorade and Perfect Game Crosschecker named the exact same player. In 15 states Gatorade and PGCrosschecker named different players. There were 4 states that either Gatorade or PGCrosschecker did not select a player. PGCrosschecker also selected West and East Canada and Puerto Rico.
Of the 51 Gatorade Player’s of the Year, all but six players have attended Perfect Game events. In fact, about half of the Gatorade selections attended last year’s Perfect Game National Showcase held in Fayetteville, Arkansas. |
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Gatorade Players of the Year Released Posted: 5/29/07 |
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High School Player of the Year in Each State |
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By Perfect Game Staff |
Each year Gatorade names a top player from each state. It is a big honor for those players selected. We took a poll in our main office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa recently to see how close we come to the actual Gatorade list. The Gatorade State winners will be announced soon, so we won’t have long before we can compare.
Here are the rules our staff played by: You can only pick ONE 2007 high school player as the best player in his state. Not necessarily who you think will be the highest draft pick, but who you think will end up being the best player in the future. |
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High School Player of the Year Posted: 5/23/07 |
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About the Draft |
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Signing Bonuses |
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| 2004
| 2005 | 2006 |
Posted: 5/11/07 |
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Schedule |
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Order of Selection Posted: 5/11/07 |
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Mechanics Posted: 5/11/07 |
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Draft Notebooks |
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By Jerry Ford |
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It always bothers me when we see what we believe to be high level talent being inaccurately portrayed in the media. It has happened to many outstanding talents over the years and it continues this year. I wrote an article recently that talked about the rumors and posturing that goes on in the MLB Draft.
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Jerry Ford's Draft Notebook Posted: 5/23/07 |
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Jerry Ford's Draft Notebook Archives Posted: 5/23/07 |
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Perfect Game’s annual Pre-Draft Showcase was held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wednesday (May 16), with about 50 players on the field and many more scouts than that in the stands.
Although there were high-profile players from many states at the event, including Florida, Texas and Alabama, many national-level scouts and scouting directors had circled this mid-week date on their calendars long ago for a close-up look at Iowa City High shortstop/third baseman Jon Gilmore, a 2006 Aflac All-American and one of the top high school infield prospects in the country. |
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David Rawnsley's Draft Notebook Posted: 5/18/07 |
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David Rawnsley's Draft Notebook Archives Posted: 5/18/07 |
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By Patrick Ebert |
Alabama centerfield prospect D.J. Jones is a name on the rise this spring. A talented and athletic five-tool talent, Jones received more attention for his speed and defense prior to the 2007 season. His power started to emerge, as the high doubles and triples totals that he had posted in his three years leading up to his senior campaign started to turn into home runs, as he blasted 16 dingers this spring while also setting the state record for triples.
Hardly a stranger to larger, national showcase and tournament events, Jones put his skills on display at last summer’s Perfect Game National Showcase in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and later at the East Coast Professional Showcase in Wilmington, North Carolina. The busy summer travel schedule started to wear on Jones, who admittedly wasn’t as sharp at the plate as he has been at other events, yet he still received high overall marks for his approach, arm strength, speed and overall athleticism. |
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Player Spotlight: D.J. Jones Posted: 5/18/07 |
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Patrick Ebert's Column Archives Posted: 5/18/07 |
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The Calm Before The Storm |
This year’s draft is still a month away and the normal pre-draft preparations are taking place. Big league teams are busy assembling their preferred lists, taking a final look at players in a competitive environment as the college and high school seasons wind down, scheduling private workouts and making a determined effort to get signability readings on select players.
Early draft projections even appear orderly. Everyone agrees that Vanderbilt lefthander David Price is in a league of his own as the top prospect and appears to be a near-lock to be the No. 1 pick. There’s also a general consensus on the pool of prospects earmarked for the top half of the first round. PG Crosschecker is in the process of rolling out its own priority list of the top 200 prospects—and it will be a representative compilation of the talent available in the first five or six rounds this year.
Call it all The Calm Before The Storm. |
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Allan Simpson's Draft Notebook Posted: 5/10/07 |
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Allan Simpson's Draft Notebook Archives Posted: 5/10/07 |
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Complete State-by-State Follow List |
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The most thorough draft follow list ever published is now available on the PG Crosschecker site. Compiled by national scouting coordinator Allan Simpson and Perfect Game's extensive scouting staff, the list includes more than 3,000 college, junior college and high school players--all ranked and grouped by states. We identify all the players projected to go in the top three rounds (Group 1), rounds 4-10 (Group 2), rounds 11-25 (Group 3) and others who have a chance of being drafted in 2007 (Group 4). The list also includes biographical information of the players, along with college commitments and when players were previously drafted.
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MLB 2007 Draft
State-by-State Follow List 
Posted: 2/07/07 |
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Top Prospect Rankings |
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Class of 2007: Updated Top 2,100 Prospects Updated: 4/26/07 |
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Class of 2007: Top 250 College Prospects |
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Top 200 Junior College Prospects Posted: 1/26/07 |
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Class of 2007: Top 100 Prospects (photos and scouting reports) |
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