Top News:
Keith Law / ESPN:
Cole still No. 1 in final 2011 mock — UCLA righty goes to Pirates; Nationals are poised to add another potential superstar — I'll call this the “final” first-round projection, but I'm hoping to update this throughout the day on Monday. Many high-level sources are telling me they're …
Discussion:
Sports Illustrated, Boston Globe, FanGraphs Baseball, Scout.com, Lookout Landing, Royals Review, MetsMinorLeagueBlog.com, U.S.S. Mariner, Projo Sox Blog, Bucs Dugout, Rays Index, Washington Post, Beyond the Box Score, River Avenue Blues, The Crawfish Boxes, Federal Baseball, MetsBlog.com, Where Have You Gone …, Steve Melewski, MLB Rumors and AZ Snake Pit
RELATED:
Jim Callis / Baseball America:
Final Mock Draft — As draft morning dawned, one thing was certain: The Pirates will take UCLA righthander Gerrit Cole with the No. 1 overall selection. After that, teams were still scrambling to line up their picks. — The consensus in the industry is the Mariners will choose Rice third …
Discussion:
baseballmusings.com, Baseball Nation, Lookout Landing and Steve Melewski
Jonathan Mayo / MLB.com:
Pirates will take Cole with No. 1 Draft pick — Power right-hander from UCLA eyed as durable, front-line starter — The Pirates will take UCLA right-hander Gerrit Cole with the No. 1 overall pick in the First-Year Player Draft on Monday, a baseball source told MLB.com.
Dave Sheinin / Washington Post:
Draft surprise: Rice 3B Anthony Rendon falls to Nationals with sixth overall pick — Toss out all the projections and mock drafts, which were rendered obsolete two picks into tonight MLB draft. By the time the Nationals' turn came with the No. 6 overall pick, the players most frequently linked …
Discussion:
Mr. Irrelevant …, Federal Baseball and Nats Enquirer
Kevin Goldstein / Baseball Prospectus:
Future Shock — The 2011 Mock Draft — 1. Pittsburgh Pirates: Gerrit Cole, RHP, UCLA. Upgrade this call from “lean” to “heavy lean.” It seems clear that Anthony Rendon is out of the picture, so it's between Cole and Danny Hultzen, who did himself few favors by throwing out a big bonus number over the weekend.
Discussion:
Toronto Sun, Dodgers Blog, Batter's Box Interactive …, Camden Chat, Lone Star Ball and South Side Sox
Associated Press:
Pirates take UCLA's Gerrit Cole — SECAUCUS, N.J. — The Pittsburgh Pirates selected hard-throwing UCLA righty Gerrit Cole with the No. 1 pick in the baseball draft Monday. — Cole, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound junior, posted mediocre numbers this season for the Bruins (6-8, 3.31 ERA) …
Discussion:
Batter's Box Interactive …
Ken Gurnick / MLB.com:
Dodgers draft Stanford lefty Reed 16th — Having served as closer in 2011, southpaw can hit 96 mph — The Dodgers selected Stanford left-handed relief pitcher Christopher Reed with their first selection — No. 16 overall — in Monday night's First-Year Player Draft.
Discussion:
True Blue LA and Britt's Bird Watch
Dave Cameron / FanGraphs Baseball:
Are the Pirates Making a Mistake with Cole? — In the run-up to tonight's MLB draft, the Pirates have been linked to a host of various players at different times, but this weekend the chatter all began to point toward Pittsburgh selecting UCLA right-hander Gerrit Cole.
Discussion:
Bluebird Banter and U.S.S. Mariner
Duk / Yahoo! Sports:
Mets give blogger a bigger audience by ejecting him from Citi Field — Whoops! In an attempt to curb the exposure of outside business interests, the New York Mets did the complete opposite over the weekend and unwittingly gave extreme exposure to something their very policies were designed to prevent.
RELATED:
Toni Ginnetti / Chicago Sun Times:
DL likely for White Sox' Jake Peavy — The frustration of this White Sox season might be epitomized by starter Jake Peavy, who likely is headed to the disabled list again. — Less than a month after his return from shoulder surgery, Peavy left the game Sunday against the Detroit Tigers with a strained right groin.
Discussion:
HardballTalk, Yahoo! Sports, Baseball Nation and Call to the Pen
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Dykstra charged with car theft, drug possession — SAN FERNANDO, Calif. — Former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies star Lenny Dykstra was charged Monday with grand theft auto and drug possession by prosecutors who claim he used phony information to lease a car from a Southern California dealership.
Discussion:
NESN.com
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Brian Costa / Wall Street Journal:
Mets Look to Open Their Wallets — With their finances in distress, the Mets need to stay in the good graces of Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig. And yet, now more than ever, it's essential that they ignore Selig's wishes in one critical area: the amateur draft.
Discussion:
Mets Merized Online, MLB Rumors and MetsBlog.com
RELATED:
Andy McCullough / New Jersey Online:
As mind behind Mets' future, Paul DePodesta tasked with replenishing farm system
Discussion:
Patrick Flood
NY Daily News:
Madden: David deserves to be dealt — These are both strange and estranged days for David Wright, who is seen regularly strolling the clubhouse at Citi Field, occasionally stopping to chat with the media regulars, scarcely casting a glance at the handful of bats in his locker.
Discussion:
NorthJersey.com, Amazin' Avenue, ESPN and Tedquarters
RELATED:
Troy Renck / All Things Rockies:
Rockies' Fowler considered for disabled list; Blackmon possible replacment — SAN DIEGO — With their offense struggling mightily, the Rockies couldn't stomach having a position player unavailable for another game. So Dexter Fowler might land on the disabled list with a sore left abdomen …
Discussion:
HardballTalk, NotGraphs Baseball and Call to the Pen
John Manuel / Baseball America:
Pick 1/9: Cubs Select Javier Baez — Anthony Rendon began the year No. 1 on Baseball America's draft board, and despite a shoulder injury that limited him to DH most of the year, he finished the year at No. 1. But nine picks in, he still isn't off the board.
Discussion:
Bucs Dugout
Fox Sports:
Cubs mess just getting worse — The worst thing about the Cubs? You can't even blow them up. — Left fielder Alfonso Soriano, immovable. Third baseman Aramis Ramirez, immovable. Right-hander Carlos Zambrano, movable only if he is in the right mood to approve a deal.
