Baseball amateur Draft

The NFL first year player draft dominates ESPN and other sports media outlets for several days. The baseball draft flies under the radar comparatively. ESPN might have mentioned the baseball draft but if you blinked you missed it. The main reason for the disparity is players drafted by the NFL are expected to play this year whereas players drafted by MLB teams go to the minor leagues and are expected to see the majors 2 or 3 years from now at best. The most important thing is getting started so I dread holdouts. Two of the highest rated players from last years draft (Steven Drew and Jared Weaver) just recently signed which means developmentally they lost a year of playing time but at least their agents got their percentage of a slightly higher amount. Having said all that, this is encouraging:

John Drennen, the 18-year-old high school center fielder taken with the Indians' second pick (33rd overall) in the draft, is as single-minded as one can get. He wants to play baseball, and he wants to play now, and never mind how much he's going to make with his first professional contract.

``It is what it is, the slotting money,'' said Drennen, ``You take it and play. The money will come when you get to the big leagues.''

Drennen, who will graduate June 22 from San Diego's Rancho Bernardo High School, batted .500 (46-for-92) with 51 runs, 15 homers, 46 RBI and 12 steals.

He said negotiations are under way, and he hoped to start his career at Burlington, the Tribe's short-season rookie-league team, on June 25.

``I'm going to sign as soon as possible,'' Drennen said.

Here is more.

Separately, since I live in southern Ohio, I should acknowledge that the Reds first round pick, Jay Bruce, signed a contract on Friday and seems similarly anxious to start his career.