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It’s MLB draft day!
Thursday’s Say Hey, Baseball includes Day 1 of the MLB draft, Yordano Ventura’s team of super villains, and Splash hit No. 69.
Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
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Major League Baseball's annual June draft is starting Thursday, meaning the first 77 of roughly 1,200 selections will be made by Friday morning. Did we mention that the MLB draft is very long? It is very long. The good news is that the longest portion of it is happening rapid-fire on Saturday. Day 1 is just the first two rounds, Competitive Balance rounds, and supplemental picks. Day 2 is rounds three through 10 -- the rest of the rounds that include the draft budget and prospects your average fan might care about -- and then the third day is the other 30 rounds. It takes a lot of players to fill an organization, you know, and Day 3 of the draft is how a lot of that goes down.
What’s fascinating about this year’s draft in particular is that it’s not quite clear who the Phillies are taking with the first overall pick. Everything everyone does behind them, at least early on, will be determined in part by the first pick Philadelphia does make. There are also whispers that there could be an early emphasis on arms -- you have seen how much pitchers cost in trades and free agency lately, so you can probably guess why -- leaving some top-10-worthy bats outside the top 10.
The Phillies go first, then it’s the Reds, the Braves, and so on in reverse order of 2015 record. Oh, and with some changes here and there for free agent compensation, and Competitive Balance picks, and ... you know what? We’ve got the full order for you written out already. Remember, too, that you can watch on MLB.com or MLB Network at 7 p.m ET. Or 6 p.m., even, if you want to do the whole pre-draft pre-show thing.
- Snoop Dog threw out the first pitch at Wednesday's Padres' game, and it was nearly as terrible as 50 Cent's famous pitch.
- A 7-year-old with a prosthetic eye -- one that has a Cubs' logo on it -- showed it off to the Cubs themselves.
- Yordano Ventura is embarrassing himself and the Royals.
- That being said, a good villain helps make baseball what it is. Here is a team of baseball's super villains, one for each position.
- Promising young Phillies' starter Vincent Velasquez left Wednesday's game after just two pitches thanks to biceps soreness.
- The White Sox fell back to .500 and are now under it. So, now what?
- Splash hit No. 69 (nice) was finally struck at McCovey, and a fan went swimming after the ball.
- We have another dad catching a baseball while holding an infant.
- One last draft thing: here are the consensus rankings for draft prospects based on all the available mocks. At the least, it will give you an idea of the relative draft position for these players.
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