The date has really snuck up on us, but the first round Major League Baseball's amateur draft is set for June 4. The league will again try to make this a television spectacle on MLB Network with all 30 teams being represented in the league's Secaucus, N.J., studios by one or two notable players, coaches or front-office personnel.
You can find the full list here, but we've taken the liberty at listing 10 of our favorite men who've been enlisted to stand around for the cameras while the actual picks hide under their agents' desks until 10 minutes before the signing deadline on July 13. (Thank the good heavens that it's moved up this year.)
1. CC Sabathia, New York Yankees: He's the only active player enlisted for duty that night and you have to wonder how he drew the short straw from the Yankees, who have an off-day. Shouldn't Mark Teixeira be the one coming in for makeup work these days?
2. Ron Karkovice, Chicago White Sox: Some of you may suspect this post is just a poor excuse to get a picture of Ron Karkovice out on Big League Stew. Some of you are 100 percent right.
3. Roberto Hernandez, Tampa Bay Rays: One of Andrew Friedman's famed value bullpen pickups? Perhaps. But until then, he's just another member of the 1993 AL West-winning Chicago White Sox, who is apparently staying busy. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when the Gene Lamont stories start flying in that green room!
4. Ryan Franklin, St. Louis Cardinals: From starting the 2011 season as the team's closer to serving as the Cards' desk jockey for the 2012 draft. Yep, nothing says good organizational guy like Ryan Franklin. Who knew?
5. Kent Tekulve, Pittsburgh Pirates: Color me disappointed if Tekulve isn't wearing this t-shirt while making picks and not telling stories about the time he met Rick Santorum between them.
6. Don Money, Milwaukee Brewers: Love the '82 Crew love, but do you really want a man named "Money" to be the first person reaching out to your new draft pick? Especially under the new collective bargaining agreement, which limits draft spending?
7. Mike Hargrove, Cleveland Indians: And to think there are some — *coughChrisPerezcough* — who believe it's impossible for those who were at Jacobs Field during the '90s glory days to ever return.
8. Willie Mays Aikens, Kansas City Royals: No jokes here. After all he's been through, it's nice to see him proudly representing his old franchise on draft day.
9. Ivan Rodriguez and Jim Sundberg, Texas Rangers: Any truth to the rumor that Sundberg has challenged I-Rod to a table arm wrestling match with winner getting first pick of being announced as the franchise's best catcher at Rangers alumni events? Let's hope so.
10. Tommy Lasorda, Los Angeles Dodgers: Ron Cey will be there too, just in case Tommy gets too deep into a story about Don Drysdale to answer the phone.
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