DRAFT '07

Overview—When, What, How, Who

WHEN
Thursday-Friday, June 7-8

WHAT
Major League Baseball's first-year player draft is held every June—historically on the first Tuesday of the month, but on a Thursday this year, and by conference call among the 30 major league clubs. The clubs take turns selecting players in reverse order of their 2006 won-loss records, regardless of league.

The draft will conclude at the end of 50 rounds—or earlier. Each club is entitled to select for 50 rounds, but is not required to do so. Tampa Bay has the No. 1 selection this year, marking the third time in franchise history that the Devil Rays have had the first pick. They also had the No. 1 selection in 1999 (Josh Hamilton) and 2003 (Delmon Young).

HOW
The draft normally originates from the commissioner's office in New York, but the early portion of the draft is scheduled to be televised this year on ESPN for the first time in history. It will originate from Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Fla. ESPN plans to televise the first round—30 picks in all—and select picks in the supplemental first round in a four-hour special. MLB.com is also scheduled to carry the entire draft—all five rounds on the first day on site on a video feed and the balance on an audio feed from its New York-based studio.

The draft is scheduled to last two days.

The first selection is scheduled to be made shortly after 2 p.m. ET on June 7. Each team generally has 30 seconds to select a player, but additional time (up to five minutes) will be provided between picks in the first round this year to accommodate TV coverage. ESPN is scheduled to have several potential first-rounders on site and is scheduled to have access to team draft rooms. Teams will continue to draft players until they pass or reach the 50th round, whichever comes first.

The club that drafts a player will generally contact the player immediately after the selection. No team may draft a player unless it has registered the player's name with the commissioner's office, or his name has been submitted by the Major League Scouting Bureau. The team that selects a player has the sole negotiating rights to the player and must submit a written minor league contract within 15 days of selection.

Some significant rules changes will be enacted with this year’s draft. They were adopted as part of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and the Players Association last October.

Previously, the club's negotiating rights to a player attending a four-year college were lost as soon as the player physically entered his first class at the beginning of the fall semester. For a player attending junior college, the selecting club retained the negotiating rights to the player until one week before the following year’s draft. This was commonly referred to as the draft-and-follow process.

But the new rules have established a firm signing deadline of Aug. 15—for all players. If a team does not sign a player by that date (excluding college seniors whose eligibility has been exhausted), they are forbidden from signing that player—regardless if he attends a four-year school or two-year school, or simply chooses not to attend or return to college. Effectively, the draft-and-follow rule, which had been in place for 20 years, has been abolished.

An additional provision of the CBA awarded clubs that have lost a Type ‘B’ free agent during the offseason a supplemental first-round pick. That has resulted in a record number of ‘sandwich’ picks this year—34, or 35 if the Diamondbacks do not sign former University of Missouri righthander Max Scherzer, their first-round pick last June. In the past, the team that lost a Type ‘B’ free agent would gain the signing team’s first- or second-round pick—or possibly a later round selection if the team had already forfeited one of those picks.

WHO
Major league Rule IV rules govern which players are eligible for selection in the draft. The basic eligibility criteria can be described as follows:

Generally, a player is eligible for selection if the player is a resident of the United States or Canada and the player has never before signed a major league or minor league contract. Residents of Puerto Rico and other territories of the United States are also eligible for the draft. Also considered are players who enroll in a high school or college in the United States, regardless of where they are from originally.

Eligibility Requirements
Certain groups of players are ineligible for selection, generally because they are still in school. The basic categories of players eligible to be drafted are:

--High School players, if they have graduated from high school and have not yet attended college or junior college;

--College players, from four-year colleges who have either completed their junior or senior years or are at least 21 years old. College players that have dropped out of school can apply for the draft by writing the commissioner's office no later than March 24—75 days before the draft;

--Junior College players, regardless of how many years of school they have completed, and

--players who have reached the age of 21 within 45 days of the draft date.

A player who is drafted and does not sign with the club that selected him may be drafted again in a future draft, so long as the player is eligible for that year's draft. A club may not select a player again in a subsequent year, unless the player has consented to the re-selection.

A player who is a fifth-year college senior may sign a minor league contract as soon as he finishes his last class in college—provided the player had completed eight semesters in college prior to the start of his senior and the player’s college season is completed before the draft. If he does not sign or his season is incomplete, he re-enters the draft.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE DRAFT
a. ESPN2
b. Major League Baseball, on www.mlb.com