In Major League Baseball’s Sisyphean quest to build its annual amateur draft into something close to the NFL or the NBA draft in terms of fan interest, including making it part of the All-Star festivities, the fans in attendance have at least embraced the universal sports-draft tradition of booing the commissioner whenever he steps on stage.
When MLB commissioner Rob Manfred appeared for the first time on a stage shaped like half of an Amazon orb with trees imported into the background to make it look like a forest, he was booed loudly and lustily by the few hundred fans with field access and the few thousand in the stands of Lumen Field.
With the stage located inside the 20-yard line going into the north end zone and the Hawks Nest, it wasn’t the first time fans have booed someone they disliked in that area. Manfred was lucky he didn’t have Russell Wilson on stage with him.
Perhaps it was wise to have someone else a little more popular with fans announce the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.
Ken Griffey Jr., who was the first overall pick in the 1987 draft, took the stage to great applause to announce the Pittsburgh Pirates selection.
Of course, when the Mariners and then-team president Chuck Armstrong made the correct decision to select Griffey out of Moeller High School in Cincinnati, instead of college pitcher Mike Harkey, the desired choice of owner George Argyros, there was no big production or stage. The entire draft was done over the phone via conference call.
When Griffey announced, “With first overall pick, the Pittsburgh Pirates select, right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes, LSU,” there was a loud cheer.
Of the notable players in the draft, Skenes and his stellar “Wyatt Earp” mustache might be one of the most recognizable. It was just a few weeks ago that the Tigers beat Florida in a three-game series to win the men’s College World Series.
Skenes, a flame-throwing right-hander who stands 6-foot-6 and pumps fastballs over triple digits and averaged 98 mph as a junior, is considered one of the most MLB-ready players in the draft, meaning he could make his MLB debut as early as next season.
Skenes went 13-2 with five shutouts, two complete games and a 1.69 ERA in 19 starts. In 122 2/3 innings, he registered an SEC-record 209 strikeouts with only 20 walks and .165 batting average against.
He also won the College World Series Most Outstanding Player award after going 1-0 with a 1.15 ERA and 21 strikeouts in two starts in Omaha.
Most prognosticators had Skenes’ teammate — outfielder Dylan Crews — going first overall. The Nationals quickly grabbed with him the No. 2 pick.
Crews is considered a true five-tool player — hit for average, hit for power, speed, throwing arm and defensive ability. He won the Golden Spikes Award for best player in NCAA Division I baseball while posting a .426/.567/.713 slash line.
Given his mature approach and understanding of the strike zone, he’s expected to rise quickly through the minor leagues to the big leagues.
But many of the picks that followed won’t be making their MLB debuts for a number of years, particularly the high-school players selected.
The Tigers surprised a few draft analysts by taking high-school outfielder Max Clark with the No. 3 pick out of Franklin, Ind.
With Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford available with the No. 4 overall pick, the Rangers and their general manager Chris Young couldn’t get their selection to Manfred fast enough and you could almost hear audible groans from American League West rivals, who knew that Texas wasn’t expecting to have a chance at Langford.
Langford is considered by many scouts to be the most talented player in the draft with possibly a higher ceiling than Crews because of his power and speed. He doesn’t have a position on defense, playing left field this season, but he has enough athleticism to be more than capable at the position.
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Because of the setup and timing of the draft as well as the variation of selections, only a handful of potential first-round picks were in attendance.
The first to hear his name called was shortstop Jacob Wilson, who was selected with the No. 6 overall pick out of Grand Canyon University by the Oakland A’s.
And, no, Manfred didn’t accidentally call them the Las Vegas A’s when making the pick.
Wilson appeared from the green room underneath the Lumen stands with an A’s jersey and cap on and did an interview on stage.
Mariners fans might remember his father, Jack Wilson, who was an All-Star shortstop with the Pirates and was acquired by the Mariners in midseason in 2009. Jack Wilson played for parts of three seasons with the Mariners.
Prior to the Mariners’ selections, the most genuine cheers came when the Marlins selected right-handed pitcher Noble Meyer with the 10th overall pick.
Meyer was another power-pitching product from Portland’s Jesuit High School and considered the top high-school pitcher in the draft. He was also in attendance and looked every bit of his 6-foot-5 frame. He was even wearing a light-blue tie and light-blue-and-white Nike dunk shoes that matched the secondary colors of the Marlins’ white jersey. Meyer’s fastball was hitting 97-98 mph earlier this summer.
Besides Meyer, right-hander Mick Abel was taken out of Jesuit in the first round of the 2020 draft by the Phillies with the No. 15 pick. He was the winning pitcher in Saturday’s Futures Game at T-Mobile Park.
Easily the most emotional moment of the evening came when the Mariners were about to make their selection for the No. 22 pick.
Instead of Manfred making the pick, a special guest was announced. Tiago Viernes, a 9-year-old from Wapato, was given the honor. Viernes, who was diagnosed as a 2-year-old with Stage 4 neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer, was befriended by Julio Rodriguez and Ty France and other Mariners during his recovery. Now a healthy and happy kid, he announced the pick of high-school shortstop Colt Emerson out of New Concord, Ohio, to the roar of the fans in attendance.
The end of the first round was punctuated with perhaps the most humorous moment of the night. With the Houston Astros on the clock for the 28th pick, the DJ played Chris Isaak’s “Baby did a bad, bad thing,” which was fitting on multiple levels. MLB officials made the unwise decision of showing Yordan Alvarez’s walkoff homer off Robbie Ray in the 2022 postseason.
The crowd of mostly Seattle fans booed louder and angrier that any point of the night, well, that is until Manfred tried to the announce the pick of shortstop Brice Matthews out of Nebraska. The booing became so loud that he began to speak louder in the microphone to the point of yelling and even pausing in irritation before finishing the announcement.
The boos turned to cheers when Manfred told the crowd that the first round had concluded and that Raul Ibanez would announce the remainder of the picks of the evening.
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