Twenty-one former Major League All-Stars -- including three Hall of Famers, five Most Valuable Players, four Rookies of the Year, three Managers of the Year, two batting champions and one Cy Young Award winner -- are among the baseball dignitaries scheduled to represent the 30 Clubs at Major League Baseball's 2018 Draft, it was announced today. Amateur players who will attend the 2018 Draft will be forthcoming.
The decorated list of baseball personnel scheduled to attend includes Hall of Famer, eight-time All-Star, 1977 National League Rookie of the Year and 1987 NL Most Valuable Player Andre Dawson; Hall of Famer, seven-time All-Star and 1981 American League MVP and Cy Young Award winner Rollie Fingers; Hall of Fame manager and two-time NL Manager of the Year Tommy Lasorda; 1989 All-Star sensation and multi-sport star Bo Jackson; 1988 NL MVP and 2011 NL Manager of the Year Kirk Gibson; nine-time All-Star, 1975 AL MVP and Rookie of the Year and 1979 AL batting champion Fred Lynn; and seven-time All-Star and two-time NL MVP Dale Murphy.
:: 2018 Draft coverage ::
Other former All-Stars who will represent the Clubs are (alphabetically): Bob Boone (WSH); Larry Bowa (PHI); Adam Dunn (CIN); Brian Fuentes (COL); Ralph Garr (ATL); Geoff Jenkins (MIL); Mike Moore (SEA); Mickey Morandini (PHI); Joe Nathan (MIN); Gregg Olson (BAL); A.J. Pierzynski (CWS); Aaron Rowand (CWS); Junior Spivey (ARI); Nick Swisher (NYY); Ryan Vogelsong (SF); and Duane Ward (TOR). Additional representatives include World Series champions Tim Salmon (LAA), Juan Pierre (MIA) and Mookie Wilson (NYM); former Major Leaguer Tony Gwynn Jr. (SD), the son of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn; and long-time Tampa Bay Rays baseball operations employee Sandy Dengler, who is in her 41st season in professional baseball. Sandy, who represents the Rays in their 20th anniversary season after joining the Club in December 1997, will become the first-ever female Club representative at the Draft. (A complete list of the Club representatives who are scheduled to attend the 2018 MLB Draft accompanies this press release.)
The Draft will begin live on MLB Network and MLB.com on Monday, June 4th at 7:00 p.m. (ET). Prior to the start of the Draft, MLB Network will air a Draft preview show, also simulcast on MLB.com, at 6:00 p.m. (ET). The Draft will have 40 rounds, and a Club may pass on its selection in any round and not forfeit its right to participate in other rounds. The 2018 Draft will span three days, as it has since 2009. For day one on June 4th, Round 1 and Competitive Balance Round A will air exclusively on MLB Network and MLB.com.
Beginning with the first pick in Round 2 and continuing through overall pick number 78, the Draft will air live exclusively on MLB.com, while MLB Network will continue to provide live look-ins and coverage of the Draft on MLB Tonight. The intervals between selections during round one will last four minutes, followed by one-minute intervals between selections for the remainder of day one.
The Draft will resume at 1:00 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, June 5th, when selections will be made for rounds 3-10, with one minute intervals between selections. Day three of the Draft on Wednesday, June 6th will begin at 12:00 p.m. (ET), featuring picks in rounds 11-40, with no time delay between selections.
The selection order of the Draft is determined by the reverse order of finish at the close of the previous championship season. For just the second time in team history, the Detroit Tigers will have the first overall selection of the Draft. Previously, Detroit drafted right-handed pitcher Matt Anderson with the top overall selection in 1997. The Tampa Bay Rays (16th, 31st, 32nd, 56th, 71st) and the Kansas City Royals (18th, 33rd, 34th, 40th, 58th) each have a Major League-best five selections within the first 78 picks during the first day of the Draft. The Chicago Cubs (24th, 62nd, 77th, 78th) and the Cleveland Indians (29th, 35th, 41st, 67th) will each make four selections on the Draft's opening day.
Beginning with the Draft preview show on Monday, June 4th at 6:00 p.m. ET, MLB Network's Greg Amsinger, Peter Gammons, Dan O'Dowd, Harold Reynolds and MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo will anchor live coverage featuring news, analysis, interviews with Club front office personnel and representatives, footage from Club draft rooms, and features and interviews with prospects and newly drafted players. Coverage will also include contributions from MLB Network analysts including Hall of Famers Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Jim Thome, plus Sean Casey, Ron Darling, Ryan Dempster, Mark DeRosa, Cliff Floyd, Joe Girardi, Al Leiter, Mike Lowell, Carlos Peña, Dan Plesac, and Bill Ripken, as well as Jim Callis of MLB.com and Carlos Collazo of Baseball America.
Fans can visit MLB.com for exclusive live programming of the Draft's final two days with a live draft show at 12:30 p.m. (ET) on June 5th, also taking place at MLB Network's studios, followed by a live pick-by-pick stream and draft and scouting expert commentary from Mayo, Callis and former Major League general manager Jim Duquette. On the site, fans also can follow every pick with It Draft Tracker, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of more than 1,500 draft-eligible players with statistics, scouting reports and video highlights. On Twitter, the official Draft Twitter account, @MLBDraft, will provide up-to-the-moment updates and commentary using the official Draft hashtag, #MLBDraft, while @MLBDraftTracker will tweet all picks as they are made.
The MLB Network Radio channel on SiriusXM will also offer live MLB Draft coverage to listeners nationwide. SiriusXM's Mike Ferrin and former MLB general managers Jim Duquette and Jim Bowden will host Monday, June 4th starting at 6:00 p.m. (ET) and will provide live pick-by-pick analysis throughout the first round on Sirius channel 209, XM channel 89 and with your phone on the SiriusXM App.
2018 MLB DRAFT CLUB REPRESENTATIVES
Monday, June 4th * 7:00 p.m. (ET) * Draft Preview Show at 6:00 p.m. (ET)
List of club representatives is tentative and subject to change.
CLUB REPRESENTATI VE(S)
ARI -- Junior Spivey, Joe Robinson
ATL -- Dale Murphy, Ralph Garr
BAL -- Gregg Olson, Tripp Norton
BOS -- Fred Lynn, Edgar Perez
CHI -- HOF Andre Dawson, Keronn Walker
CWS -- A.J. Pierzynski, Aaron Rowand
CIN -- Adam Dunn, John Ceprini
CLE -- John McDonald
COL -- Brian Fuentes, Jesse Stender
DET -- Kirk Gibson, Murray Cook
HOU -- Art Howe, Don Sanders
KC -- Bo Jackson, Colin Gonzales
LAA -- Tim Salmon
LAD -- HOF Tommy Lasorda, Bobby Darwin
MIA -- Juan Pierre, Geoff DeGroot
MIL -- Geoff Jenkins, Mark Mueller
MIN -- Joe Nathan, John Wilson
NYM -- Mookie Wilson, Ray Corbett
NYY -- Nick Swisher, Victor Roldan
OAK -- HOF Rollie Fingers
PHI -- Larry Bowa, Mickey Morandini
PIT -- Rennie Stennett
SD -- Tony Gwynn Jr., John Martin
SF -- Ryan Vogelsong, Mike Murphy
SEA -- Mike Moore, Dan Rovetto
STL -- Bernard Gilkey, Jaelen Gilkey
TB -- Sandy Dengler, Lou Wieben
TEX -- Darren Oliver, Jeff Williams
TOR -- Duane Ward, Matt O'Brien
WSH -- Bob Boone, Johnny DiPuglia