Live blogging the 2010 MLB Draft

Kevin Jacob, drafted by New York Yankees.
Photo courtesy of AnchorageBucs.com

It's day one of the 2010 MLB draft, and I will be doing what I like to call "more-or-less-live blogging" it. Obviously my primary concern will be former ABL players who are drafted, and I'll do a little analyzing as we go along. I just got into the house and missed picks 1-5, but no ABLers yet. I would be surprised if there weren't a few to go off the board here soon, so here we go!

3:39 PM Day 1: No ABL draft picks yet. Gone through picks 1 through 6. Just waiting for the name James Paxton to be called! I'll make the post as soon as it's official, or if someone else (Kevin Jacob? Logan Darnell?) comes up before him.

4:11 PM: Still waiting. I have to confess that this is the first time I've ever watched the draft live. I have to wonder, is it really necessary for teams to be "on the clock" this long in the first round? I mean, if I were a Major League GM, I would start preparing by making a list of my top draft choices and my very first pick would be the highest ranked player left on my list. It wouldn't take a lot of phone calls and hand-wringing or whatever the heck these clowns are doing. But obviously I'm not a Major League GM so I don't know.

6:42 PM: The first/comp A rounds are complete and none of our top draft picks are anywhere to be seen. I checked a few of the big prospect watchers' draft boards and our guys have slid completely off the first-round radar, and the MLB teams seem to agree with their analysis. I wonder when the last time we went through a first round without any ABL players was? In any event, draft day is only one day out of a player's career, and although I expected to have at least one guy out of our league, and as many as three, drafted by now, the second round should be a lot more action-packed. Stay tuned as we pick up the coverage tomorrow.

2010 Draft Eligibles: Anchorage Glacier Pilots

With every passing day we're hurtling headlong toward the biggest day of the year for prospect watchers: the MLB Rule 4 draft. We're going through the ABL team by team, seeing which former players are eligible to be drafted this year, and today we're going to have a peek at the Anchorage Glacier Pilots. The Pilots have one of the most exciting draft classes in the league this year, so let's see who they've got.

The biggest names on the list have to be a pair of Pilot pitchers out of the University of Kentucky: James Paxton and Logan Darnell. Paxton is a big, hard-throwing southpaw with a fastball that he can run up to about 98 mph, settling in at about 95. He compliments this with a power slider and a changeup. We mentioned this the other day when we updated the Pro Prospects list, but Paxton somehow rubbed the NCAA the wrong way and instead of butting heads with them all year long, he opted out of his senior season at UK and went to work in the independent leagues (this does not nullify him for the MLB draft).

His teammate Darnell took over the role of staff ace for the Wildcats after he proved he could make the move from the pen with a stellar Glacier Pilots season last year. Baseball America named him the sixth-best prospect in the ABL for his efforts. Darnell is also a lefty; he doesn't throw as hard (topping out at 91-92) but he has a three-quarters delivery that helps him generate some interesting movement.