MLB Draft 2012: 10 Ways to Improve the MLB Draft

Monday marked the beginning of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft for Major League Baseball. Oh, you didn't hear about it? That's because of the four major sports, the MLB draft operates in complete anonymity. Over the next three days, there will be 40 rounds of players being selected, and you'll probably hear nothing about it.

Today, we're going to try and change that. Bud Selig better be listening because it's time to look at ways that the MLB Draft can be just as exciting as its counterparts.

It won't be easy to do, but there are several things MLB can do to get this going in the right direction.

Have It on a Different Night Than Monday Night

The first problem with the MLB Draft is that it's being held on a Monday night. I highly doubt that the majority of Americans want to go home and watch a draft after experiencing the backlash of the worst day of the week.

The NFL, NBA, and NHL all shy away from this as they conduct their drafts later in the week (NFL and NHL on the weekends; NBA does theirs on a Thursday night).

This allows for fans to have draft parties and follow along to what their favorite team is doing (or they could chug a lot of beer trying to figure that out).

Just like real estate, interest is generated by the location of your event. The primetime slot on a Monday isn't going to get it done.

Don't Have It Take Place in MLB Network's Studio 42

Studio 42 is great and all, but MLB needs to have their "marquee event" in a more public location. I'm sure that a lot of the executives in the draft would rather stay in seclusion with only a few television cameras in sight, but if this is a lesson in exposure, they need to go bigger.

The NFL holds their draft at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. It's a well-known place that could attract baseball fans from around the globe to see the future of their favorite team.

While MLB wouldn't draw quite as many fans as the NFL does, it would still help out if the event wasn't taking place in an over-sized version of my bedroom when I was eight years old.

Give the Prospects More Exposure Prior to the Draft

The first pick in the 2012 MLB draft was Puerto Rican High School shortstop Carlos Correa. Chances are that unless you're a hardcore baseball fan, you've never heard of Correa until this week.

This is another thing that Major League Baseball would be suited to change. A majority of the players that are being selected in the first round are fairly anonymous to the average baseball fan. There needs to be a way to get some of these guys more attention.

It would be easy to do with college baseball players, as the media megapowers (in this case ESPN and MLB Network) could show more college games, but what do you do with high school players?

That's where this becomes a double-edged sword. Giving high schoolers more exposure may give them a sense of entitlement. The next thing you know, Dwight Howard is playing third base for your favorite team.

A favorable option would be a show similar to NFL Network's Path to the Draft program which profiles prospects from lesser known colleges as well as some of the top guys.

Getting to know some of the prospects before you draft them would create more excitement for the fan bases of all 30 major league ballclubs.

Get More Prospects to Show Up in Person

Another reason the MLB Draft doesn't have the suspense of some of the other drafts is that half the prospects chosen don't show up to the live presentation of the draft.

In the NBA and NFL, they have a green room in which the prospects wait for their names to be chosen. Yes, sometimes the players have to wait a little bit, but that may earn that player more fans and become more likeable in the long run.

Getting more players to show up would also make the broadcast more interesting to watch.

Courtney Hawkins, the first-round pick of the Chicago White Sox, showed unbelievable charisma as he flashed the biggest smile known to man and did a backflip. It was a nice change of pace from the church mice precedent that had been set by the previous 12 announcements of draft picks.

So what if the players may drop a couple rounds? They could pull a Cordy Glenn and just leave if they aren't called on the first day and nobody would care. Or they could stay around, get interviewed and vow to make every team that passed on them pay.

Seeing more of the draftees there would make the draft more watchable and further establish some of the new players coming into Major League Baseball.

Allow the Trading of Draft Picks

As Mark Appel continued to fall all the way to the Pittsburgh Pirates with the eighth pick, I couldn't help but to think what could have happened if this scenario played out in the NFL.

Before the viewing audience would know it, there would be 20 teams calling the Pirates with offers that may sell their entire future to get the pitcher that could have gone first overall in the draft.

Such a move would be just as risky as the one this NFL offseason where the St. Louis Rams traded the second-overall pick to the Washington Redskins for multiple first-round draft picks, but it would be worth it here because teams wouldn't have to give up the top prospects they already have.

Allowing for trades would also keep all baseball fans interested throughout the first round. When the Minnesota Twins selected Byron Buxton second overall, I knew they were done until the 32nd overall pick a couple hours later. That's just not fun.

It's time to introduce a little chaos into the MLB Draft and see what could happen when trades are flying at the speed of light.

Have General Managers Elaborate on Their Picks

Listening to most baseball general managers talk about anything is like talking to a wet sock. It's not all that entertaining.

However, it somehow works in the NFL to talk to coaches and general managers about their draft picks. It would let the average baseball fan into the mind of their general manager and how the pick came to be.

There were a couple of interviews with executives last night, but not nearly enough to the point where you saw what they were thinking heading into the pick.

Sure, that will probably never happen either way, but it would make the process a little more interesting.

Get a Bigger Studio Audience

While it goes hand in hand with not holding the draft inside Studio 42, adding more fans to the MLB Draft would make things more interesting.

Watching the draft on Monday was a lot like going to a college class that was outside of my major. I almost had no interest in it because the person presenting the subject was unbelievably dry and boring. At some point I was even worried there would be a pop quiz on the top-ten draft picks.

Adding some fans in the background would be an interesting move, as I'm sure that some crazy fans would actually show up to hear Bud Selig read off names.

It would also be interesting to hear most fans' immediate reaction to the pick. What if one of the fans of a team with a top-seven pick really wanted Mark Appel once he fell to them? To hear boos would give the pick more of an impact and possibly give the broadcast team something more to talk about.

Select a Higher Tier of Legends If You Want Them to Read Draft Picks

Major League Baseball decided to take a page out of the NFL's playbook by having legends read off the picks made in the compensation round. The only problem is that some of the players that teams had chosen weren't exactly legends.

The biggest example where I said "Really?" was when I saw former Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin reading off their compensation pick. Were the eleven retired numbers attending a barbeque somewhere? The Cardinals couldn't get Ozzie Smith to do this?

If some of the legends took part in this, it would show that they cared about who was coming into their organization. It seems like an insignificant step, but it might get the average fan to tune in if one of their favorite team's greats read off a pick in the MLB draft.

Get Some Analysts with Higher Charisma to Cover the Draft

Normally, I like the way MLB Network covers events on their channel. Most of the guys on there have a good understanding of the game, and they don't get into screaming contests like a certain other media power (more on them in the last slide).

For this year's coverage, they rolled out a main team of Greg Amsinger, John Hart, Harold Reynolds and Jonathan Mayo. The result was an incredibly dry announcing team that made you wish Gus Johnson kicked down the door and forced his way onto the set.

It was grueling to listen to Hart spit out facts in his monotone style, and even though Mayo wanted to be charismatic, he just fell flat. Even the efforts of Amsinger and Reynolds to give the broadcast some color fell flat (maybe because the other two were so dry).

I'm not asking for Johnson's Rise and Fire: Greatest Hits to be blaring in the background during the draft, but it shouldn't be asking too much for some analysts that can add a little bit of character.

Keep ESPN off Coverage of the Draft

I know I just ripped MLB Network for their first-round coverage, but the truth is that it was infinitely better than anything ESPN could have done.

I shudder to think what broadcast team "The Mothership" would have thrown together for last night's draft.

Chris Berman would probably be the ringleader, as he would yell and scream nicknames that didn't make sense. Then John Kruk would challenge Tim Kurkjian to an impersonation contest. For the cherry on top, they could have had Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith in another set screaming about Tim Tebow.

(I know, Tim Tebow isn't a baseball player. They would still talk about him anyway because it's ESPN.)

In all seriousness, ESPN just wouldn't cut it as they normally try way too hard in these situations. To have the draft on MLB Network is fine for most baseball diehards, and hopefully we won't have to see Chris Berman screaming and shouting about baseball anytime soon.