In the beginning of February with Felipe Lopez signing a Minor League deal, the draft order for 2011 was set. This year the first round will consist of 33 picks, and the first compensation round will have 27 picks. One way to think about that is there are so many compensation picks this draft that the supplemental round this year is almost as long as a normal round. The only difference is not everyone is invited to the supplemental round and some teams will be there multiple times (Rays – 6, Blue Jays – 4, Padres – 3, etc.)
The big story will be the Rays in the draft. We all know how the Rays essentially lost their entire team this offseason, however they have a very good minor league system filled with a lot of talent, and they will have 9 picks between the first round of the draft and the supplemental round. If they do their scouting right, they could get big rewards out of this year's draft.
The Mets will have the 13th overall pick this year and then they will get the 44th pick in the supplemental round (followed by pick 71 in the second round. In other words, the Mets will have a normal draft. We don't have an incredible amount of first year picks, and thanks to limited spending/losing, we don't have a lower amount of picks. (The Mets first round pick was actually protected this year, so we would have lost a later pick, but thanks to the amount of Supplemental picks this year, losing a pick would not have been good, but not terrible in an overall sense of things).
You know who I feel bad for though? And by feel bad I mean I feel not bad at all. The Phillies will get the supplemental pick #39 for Jason Werth signing with the Nationals and then pick #66, since the Nationals first round pick is protected.
