Why the MLB draft simply doesn't work as a television spectacular

Commissioner Bud Selig kicked off the draft by announcing that the Nationals selected ultra-hyped hurler Stephen Strasburg. AP

On draft day, every pick can change the world. That's the nature of hope and sports. Every recruit is a future star. Every draft pick might go to the Hall of Fame. In the NFL draft -- the biggest talent-grab of them all -- you have these fun interviews with general managers and coaches after every pick. Every one sounds the same:

Reporter: So were you surprised that Bob Hossenfefer was still available for you at 23?

Coach: Surprised? Shocked is the word, Chris. It's a miracle, that's all. We didn't think there was any way he was going to be there at No. 23. Frankly, he was No. 1 on our board. In fact, I'll be honest with you, he's so good that in our draft room he has his own board ... we put all the other guys on a different board. I don't even know where we keep that other board. And who cares? We had a draft meeting yesterday that lasted 19 hours and Bob was the only player we even talked about.

Reporter: What can he do for your team?

Coach: Chris, the real question is, "What can't he do?" I have to tell you, the 22 teams that picked ahead of us, well, I mean no offense, but they're clearly morons.

In years past, baseball had the one draft that was low on hype. There's a good reason for this: The baseball draft is different for all the obvious reasons. Every player drafted is three-four-five levels below the big leagues. And so, almost every player drafted will have to spend three-four-five years in the minor leagues.

And, in the minor leagues, anything can happen. The players could get hurt. They could get fat. They could get frustrated. They could get discouraged. They could get sick of baseball. They could lose themselves in the nightlife*. They could find it impossible to throw their fastball for strikes. They could find it impossible to hit even mediocre sliders. And so on.

*Minor league ballplayers do have a knack of finding nightlife ... even in those small towns you suspect would not have any.

Because of all this, the baseball draft has long been a non-event. For many years, baseball teams would not even tell us who they drafted -- it was like a secret society or something. But, lately, it has changed. Baseball people cannot help but notice that the NFL draft is now one of the biggest events in sports. And baseball people, frankly, are jealous of the way fans are utterly smitten by the NFL.

So, this year, for the first time, they tried to make the First Year Player Draft a television spectacular. They broadcast it in prime time. Commissioner Bud Selig came out to the lectern every few minutes to make a dramatic reading of a name he clearly had never seen before. Then, some baseball analysts talked for a few minutes about that name, and how great that name would become, how that name had 60-power or three-plus pitches -- scout talk -- and everyone came to the inevitable conclusion that the name would really help the team in the future. Yes, it's a familiar formula.

Only ... the whole production didn't work at all, at least for me. To be fair, this isn't anyone's fault -- not even Bud Selig's. The baseball draft simply doesn't make any sense as an event because:

1. The vast majority of players drafted will never get close to the big leagues. Take the 1994 draft ... 15 years ago. There were 287 players taken in the first 10 rounds, and 190 of them -- two thirds -- did not get a single at-bat or throw a single pitch in the big leagues.*

*And many of the 97 who DID make it only made it for a brief and beautiful moment -- Stephen Larkin and Ron Wright got three at-bats, Eddie Priest pitched in two games, Jason Ryan and Todd Belitz and Tony Mounce and Alberto Castillo won once, Jamie Bluma never won a game and so on.

Remember, that's just the FIRST 10 rounds. After that, there were another 1,420 player selected -- and only 97 of them (6.8 percent) had a single at-bat in the big leagues. And many of those 97 players don't even count because they didn't sign that year -- they went back into the draft later and made it with a whole different team.