Eighteen former Major League All-Stars ¡ª including three Hall of Famers, two Most Valuable Players, two batting champions and two Cy Young Award winners ¡ª are among the baseball luminaries scheduled to represent the 30 clubs at Major League Baseball¡¯s 2019 Draft, it was announced Thursday.?Amateur players who will attend the 2019 Draft will be forthcoming.
The decorated list of baseball personnel scheduled to attend includes Hall of Famer, 10-time All-Star, five-time Cy Young Award winner, 2001 World Series MVP and 2002 pitching Triple Crown winner Randy Johnson; Hall of Famer, 10-time All-Star and 1984 National League MVP Ryne Sandberg; Hall of Famer and seven-time All-Star Lee Smith; 1991 NL MVP and batting champion Terry Pendleton; two-time All-Star and 1976 NL Cy Young Award winner Randy Jones; 1974 NL batting champion Ralph Garr; and six-time All-Star and 1981 World Series MVP Ron Cey.
Other former All-Stars who will represent the clubs are (alphabetically): Carlos Baerga (CLE); Tom Browning (CIN); Ken ¡°Hawk¡± Harrelson (CWS); Brandon Inge (DET); Jason Isringhausen (STL); Grant Jackson (PIT); Charles Johnson (MIA); Jim Kaat (MIN); Shane Reynolds (HOU); Reggie Sanders (KC); and Nick Swisher (NYY).?Former first round Draft picks among the group include Tommy Greene (14th overall pick by PHI in 1985), Chad Hermansen (representing LAA; 10th overall pick by PIT in 1995), Johnson (28th overall pick by FLA in 1992), Bill Swift (2nd overall pick by SEA in 1984),?Swisher (16th overall pick by OAK in 2002) and B.J. Upton (2nd overall pick by TB in 2002).?(A complete list of the club representatives who are scheduled to attend the 2019 MLB Draft accompanies this press release.)
The Draft will begin live on MLB Network and MLB.com on Monday, June 3 at 7 p.m. (ET).?Prior to the start of the Draft, MLB Network will air a Draft preview show, also simulcast on MLB.com, at 6 p.m. (ET).?The Draft will have 40 rounds, and a club may pass on its selection in any round and not forfeit its right to participate in other rounds.?The 2019 Draft will span three days, as it has since 2009.?For day one on June 3, the first 41 selections, through Competitive Balance Round A, will air exclusively on MLB Network and MLB.com.??
Beginning with the first pick in Round 2 and continuing through overall pick number 78, the Draft will air live exclusively on MLB.com, while MLB Network will continue to provide live look-ins and coverage of the Draft on MLB Tonight.?The intervals between selections during round one will last three to four minutes, followed by one-minute intervals between selections for the remainder of day one.
?The Draft will resume at 1 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, June 4, when selections will be made for rounds 3-10, with one minute intervals between selections.?Day three of the Draft on Wednesday, June 5 will begin at 12 p.m. (ET), featuring picks in rounds 11-40, with no time delay between selections.
The selection order of the Draft is determined by the reverse order of finish at the close of the previous championship season.?For just the second time in history, the Orioles will have the first overall selection of the Draft.?Previously, Baltimore drafted right-handed pitcher Ben McDonald with the top overall selection in 1989.?The Arizona Diamondbacks (16th, 26th, 33rd, 34th, 56th, 74th, 75th) have a Major League-best seven selections within the first 78 picks during the first day of the Draft.?The Pittsburgh Pirates (18th, 37th, 57th, 72nd) and the Tampa Bay Rays (22nd, 36th, 40th, 61st) will each make four selections on the Draft¡¯s opening day.?
Beginning with the Draft preview show on Monday, June 3 at 6 p.m. ET, MLB Network¡¯s Greg Amsinger, Kelly Nash, Dan O¡¯Dowd, Harold Reynolds and MLB Pipeline¡¯s Jonathan Mayo will anchor live coverage featuring news, analysis, interviews with club front office personnel and representatives, footage from club Draft rooms, and features and interviews with prospects and newly drafted players. Coverage will also include contributions from MLB Network analysts including Hall of Famers Pedro Mart¨ªnez, John Smoltz and Jim Thome, plus Eric Byrnes, Sean Casey, Mark DeRosa, Cliff Floyd, Joe Girardi, Al Leiter, Mike Lowell, Kevin Millar, Carlos Pe?a, Dan Plesac and Bill Ripken, as well as MLB Pipeline¡¯s Jim Callis and Carlos Collazo of Baseball America.
MLB Network will also feature exclusive content with the newly drafted players in attendance across its social media platforms.?Fans will be able to decide the content that appears on MLB Network¡¯s Instagram Story during Draft night by allowing Instagram users to tell @MLBNetwork what they would like to see behind the scenes and from the Draft floor.
Fans can visit MLB.com for exclusive live programming of the Draft¡¯s final two days with a live Draft show at 12:30 p.m. (ET) on June 4, also taking place at MLB Network¡¯s studios, followed by a live pick-by-pick stream and draft and scouting expert commentary from Mayo, Callis and former Major League general manager Jim Duquette.?On the site, fans also can follow every pick with Draft Tracker, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of hundreds of draft-eligible players with statistics, scouting reports and video highlights.?On Twitter, the official Draft Twitter account, @MLBDraft, will provide up-to-the-moment updates and commentary using the official Draft hashtag, #MLBDraft, while @MLBDraftTracker will tweet all picks as they are made.
The MLB Network Radio channel on SiriusXM will also offer live MLB Draft coverage to listeners nationwide.?
SiriusXM¡¯s Grant Paulsen and former MLB general managers Jim Duquette and Jim Bowden will host Monday, June 3 starting at 6 p.m. (ET) and will provide live pick-by-pick analysis throughout the first round on Sirius channel 209, XM channel 89 and with your phone on the SiriusXM App.
2019 MLB Draft Club Representatives
List of club representatives is tentative and subject to change.
ARI: Randy Johnson, Jeremy Kehrt
ATL: Terry Pendleton, Ralph Garr
BAL: Tripp Norton
BOS: Gary Hughes, Josh Labandeira
CHI: Ryne Sandberg, John Koronka
CWS: Ken ¡°Hawk¡± Harrelson, Anthony Olivo
CIN: Tom Browning, John Ceprini
CLE: Carlos Baerga
COL: Yorvit Torrealba, Julian Valentin
DET: Brandon Inge, Murray Cook
HOU: Shane Reynolds, Ralph Bratton
KC: Reggie Sanders, Kyle Vena
LAA: Chad Hermansen, Adam Kennedy
LAD: Ron Cey, Marty Lamb
MIA: Charles Johnson, Adrian Puig
MIL: Taylor Green, Gord Ash
MIN: Jim Kaat, John Leavitt
NYM: Art Shamsky, Brian Reid
NYY: Nick Swisher, Kelly Rodman
OAK: Eric Byrnes
PHI: Tommy Greene, Frank Coppenbarger
PIT: Grant Jackson
SD: Randy Jones, Kevin Ham
SF: Lee Smith, Jose Alou
SEA: Bill Swift, David Pepe
STL: Jason Isringhausen
TB: B.J. Upton, Lou Wieben
TEX: Darren Oliver, David Hulse
TOR: Willie Upshaw, Pete Holmes
WSH: Jack McKeon, Johnny DiPuglia
*Players in bold are in the Hall of Fame