There are a bunch of links to get to today, so I'm going to jump right into things:
- As one can expect, Scott Boras is not happy with how the MLB Draft turned out. The idea behind the draft was to save the owners money and to rein in spending, so of course it was bound to frustrate Boras; it was essentially put in place to counteract the influence he's had on the draft. But I do think he has a bit of a point; the draft worked a lot differently this year, and the Pirates essentially got penalized for taking the best player available when it was their turn to draft. The new rules also caused a large number of college seniors to get drafted later on in the draft, supposedly so they could be signed for cheap and give teams more money to sign their top picks. Different? Certainly. Better? Eh, that's up for debate.
- As mentioned during the broadcast last night, Evan Longoria is close to beginning a rehab assignment. He's been progressively working himself harder and harder, and he says he's at the point now where "I'm ready to push it." So fingers crossed, here's hoping Longo gets back before the end of the month.
- So remember how instant replay was supposed to be expanded this year to include fair/foul calls? It was written into the CBA and I remember being excited about it, but it obviously hasn't materialized. I think I heard about this earlier in the year too, but the change has been held up by the Umpire Union. There's no word on when it will get implemented, but I suppose we shouldn't blame Selig for not expanding replay. At least he's trying somewhat.
- Wait...I thought moving the Astros to the American League was supposed to help with balancing the schedule? Instead, there are actually going to be more games against divisional opponents? Great, awesome.
- Jamie Moyer isn't done yet, apparently. He signed a minor league deal with the Orioles, which cracks me up a bit. Can you imagine Moyer pitching in the AL East? I'm not so sure I see his current repertoire cutting it here, but hey, maybe he can teach some tricks to some of the O's young pitchers.
- We conducted our FanGraphs Franchise Draft last week, and the results got posted yesterday. Erik picked Troy Tulowitzki; I picked Ryan Braun; and Brad grabbed Matt Wieters. Not going to lie, I'm a little surprised Mike Trout and Bryce Harper went so high. I understand the hype about them right now is unreal -- and they are incredible players -- but at least personally, the memory of young players that got off to fast starts but then took a while to reach their peak (Jason Heyward being a prime example) tempers that somewhat.