MLB's First Year Player Draft This Evening - A Thought About Free Agent Compensation

The first three rounds of baseball’s First Year Player Draft will take place this evening. The first round of the draft will be shown live on MLB Network. There will be five selections in the first round that constitute compensation for Type A free agents that were signed during the off-season. The list is as follows: Number 17 - Diamondbacks from Dodgers for Orlando Hudson; number 24 - Angels from Mets for Francisco Rodriguez; number 25 - Angels from Yankees for Mark Teixeira; number 27 - Mariners from Phillies for Raul Ibanez; and number 32 - Rockies from Angels for Brian Fuentes.

There will be 16 selections taken in the supplemental round between rounds 1 and 2 linked to free agent compensation. The list of these choices are as follows:

33 - Mariners - signing of Raul Ibanez by the Phillies; 34 - Rockies - signing of Brian Fuentas by the Angels; 35 - Diamondbacks - signing of Orlando Hudson by the Dodgers; 36 - Dodgers - signing of Derek Lowe by the Braves; 37 - Blue Jays - signing of A.J. Burnett by the Yankees; 38 - White Sox - signing of Orlando Cabrera by the Athletics; 39 - Brewers - signing of C.C. Sabathia by the Yankees; 40 - Angels - signing of Mark Teixeira by the Yankees; 41 - Diamondbacks - signing of Juan Cruz by the Royals; 42 - Angels - signing of Francisco Rodriguez by the Mets; 43 - Reds - signing of Jeremy Affeldt by the Giants (beginning of the Type B free agent compensation); 44 - Rangers - signing of Milton Bradley by the Cubs; 45 - Diamondbacks - signing of Brandon Lyon by the Tigers; 46 - Twins - signing of Dennys Reyes by the Cardinals; 47 - Brewers - signing of Brian Shouse by the Rays; 48 - Angels - signing of Jon Garland by the Diamondbacks.

The other compensation choices in rounds 2 and 3 for Type A free agents are:

56 (second round) - Dodgers - signing of Derek Lowe by the Braves; 60 - Diamondbacks (second round) - signing of Juan Cruz by the Royals; 61 (second round) - White Sox - signing of Orlando Cabrera by the Athletics; 73 - Brewers (second round) - signing of C.C. Sabathia by the Yankees; 104 (third round) - Blue Jays - signing of A.J. Burnett by the Yankees.

One interesting point to me is the compensation for the three Type A players signed by the New York Yankees. Teixeira was ranked ahead of both Sabathia and Burnett by the Elias Sports Bureau. Because of the rankings, the Blue Jays received picks 37 and 104. The Brewers received picks 39 and 73, and the Angels received picks 25 and 40. The Yankees still have a first round choice, number 29, because they failed to sign Gerrit Cole, their first round selection last year.

With the able assistance of third year Notre Dame Law student Johnny McDermott, Johnny and I have been able to take a look at all of the compensation selections back to 2000. For instance in 2006, the Yankees chose Joba Chambelain with the 41st pick (round 1 - supplemental) as compensation from the Phillies for signing of Tom Gordon. Gordon is now in his 21st major league season. The next pick went to the St. Louis Cardinals from the Giants who signed Matt Morris. The Cardinals selected Chris Perez. Morris is off to a tough start this year with the Pirates. Huston Street, who was sensational with the Athletics in 2005 when Oakland promoted him to the big leagues after only one season in the minors, was selected by the A’s in 2004 as compensation from the Orioles for the signing of Miguel Tejada. For these examples of successful selections, however, one looks at many, many names of players who did not make a contribution to the team that selected them or are still in the minors. This underscores the significant difference of the MLB draft from the NFL and NBA although one can easily find “busts” in the first round there as well.

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