2013 MLB Draft Thread

As I am sure you all know, today is the first of three days during which the 2013 MLB draft will take place. Tonight, the first and second round of the draft will play out. The Rays have three picks today, with two in the first round and one in the second. The first pick, #21 overall, is the Rays designated, standard pick based on their performance during last season. Their second pick, #29 overall, is compensation for losing BJ Upton as a free agent. Finally, the third pick (#60 overall) is their normal second round pick.

Here are the basic essentials for tonight's draft:

Time: 7:00 PM EST, with the draft preview kicking off at 6:00 PM EST.

Television: The draft will air tonight on MLB Network. You can also follow along using the "Draft Tracker" available at MLB.com.

Rays Picks: As mentioned before, the Rays pick at #21, #29, and #60.

As the Rays make their picks, we will get an article up on each of the players selected.

For those not familiar the the new rules of the draft due to the new CBA, I'll give a quick explanation. The draft has been shortened from 50 rounds to 40. Each team is given a certain bonus pool to use to sign players taken in the first ten rounds. The bonus pool is affected by the location and amount of draft picks. This year, the Rays bonus pool is $6,694,900. If a team goes more than 5% over their bonus pool, they will pay a tax and lose their first round pick in the next draft. If a player in the top 10 rounds is not signed, their slot value is subtracted from the bonus pool; picks in the first three rounds are protected. Picks after the first ten rounds can be signed for $100 K or less; if their bonus is greater than that, the extra money is included in the bonus pool for the first ten rounds. Simple enough, right?!?

Here are a few useful links:

Baseball America's Top 500 Draft Prospects ($)

ESPN's Top 100 Draft Prospects ($)

Matt Garrioch's MLB Draft Essentials

And for more Rays specific pre-draft coverage:

Deep Thoughts (with Scott and I) Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Positional Player Previews Part 1 and Part 2.

Pitcher Previews Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

The Process Report's Recap of Players Linked to the Rays

cookiedabookie's Rays Draft Preview

Also, I kindly ask that you refrain from posting more than a sentence or two of content behind a pay-wall. Thanks.