The June Amateur Draft for Major League Baseball is just around the corner.. Depending on when you read this it is: tomorrow.. today.. or a couple days ago.

The draft is on June 5, 2008 and, for the second year in a row, it will be televised. This year it will be on ESPN2 at 2 eastern.

Now what does this have to do with recruiting – and thus, making it’s way to the recruiting blog? Plenty.

Have a look at this article by Brian Meehan at the Oregonian.

The Amateur Draft (or Ammy draft as it is often called) tends to make early signing class rankings completely obsolete, as most of the high-impact players that commit – and sign – with a team, get drafted and sign with a major league team right out of high school.

It is this sort of thing that the NBA created their age-rule for.

What can bring this sort of thing to the forefront of Arizona fans’ minds? Take a look at this..

Here is the Rivals.com prospect rankings for baseball. Out of the top 100, three are currently signed with the Arizona Wildcats. To broaden out this to an entire Pac-10 spectrum, here is the breakdown of committed players by Pac-10 team:

Arizona: 3
Arizona State: 2
Cal: 0
Oregon (Yes, they have a baseball team now): 0
Oregon State: 3
Stanford: 0
Washington: 0
Washington State: 0
UCLA: 5
USC: 4

It appears as though UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State and Oregon State ought to have a fair amount of talent coming in next season. However, the early rankings for these classes amount to.. well.. nothing.

Of the total projected 100 top high school prospects of 2008, 12 of them are projected by Baseball America to go in the first round – meaning 12 of them are basically guaranteed to never see the field for a collegiate team.. And that is just the first round.

The Amateur Draft is basically another recruiting proposition for Major League Baseball teams, only instead of offering playing time or a positive collegiate experience or even a winning tradition – the teams throw money at players. Enough money and the recruitment will be successful and the player will not enter college. Not enough and the player will decide not to sign and head off to college for a little bit before they get their number called again in subsequent years.

Now don’t get me wrong, as a huge baseball fan and a fan of prep sports, the Amateur Draft is one of my favorite times of the year. When it was announced it would be on television last year, I set my TiVo at the earliest possible moment that I could – something I intend to do this year as well.

My only issue is much the same as many of your issues with signing a letter of intent, or making a commitment to a program. If you make a commitment, something that a good chunk of these players did (60 of the top 100 are committed,) and you sign an LOI, you should stick with that program – at least for a season, like in basketball.

At the same time, these players make early commitments to a program knowing full well that they will likely never step foot on campus – so why commit at all?

Either way, keep an eye on ESPN2 on June 5th, and look out for Anthony Gose, Kyle Lobstein and Donn Roach to be selected – odds are that is the only time these Arizona Wildcat commits will run across your view for quite a few years.

Check out the Mudville blog for more on the draft