Vanderbilt's Price first pick in first TV draft; Rockies pick Graham
6/8/2007Hard-throwing left-hander David Price of Vanderbilt was selected by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with the No. 1 pick in the baseball draft yesterday.
Price went 11-1 with a 2.63 ERA and Division I-leading 194 strikeouts for the Commodores. He is the fourth left-hander taken with the top pick and first since Brien Taylor went to the New York Yankees in 1991.
The first round of the draft was being televised live from an actual site for the first time after being held strictly by conference call in previous years. About 400-500 fans were at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex located outside of Orlando, Fla., and commissioner Bud Selig was in attendance, along with Tom Lasorda, Dave Winfield, Darryl Strawberry, Don Zimmer and Frank Howard.
Kansas City took power-hitting California high school infielder Mike Moustakas with the second pick. The Chicago Cubs went with California high school third baseman Josh Vitters, who was at the draft and posed with his Cubs hat and jersey next to Selig - the first in the event's history to do so.
Next, Clemson lefty Daniel Moskos went to Pittsburgh. Baltimore selected Georgia Tech catcher Matt Wieters with the fifth overall selection.
Each team had five minutes to make its first-round pick.
Moustakas, California's career high school home run leader with 52, hit a state-record 24 this season while leading Chatsworth High School to the city title at Dodger Stadium. The left-handed slugger played shortstop in high school, but projects more as a corner infielder in the pros.
Vitters, considered by many to be the top high school player in the draft, hit .360 with nine HRs and 29 RBIs - despite missing two weeks with pneumonia - for Cypress High School.
Connor Graham, a Bowling Green native who pitched at St. John's Jesuit and then Miami, was selected in the fifth round by the Colorado Rockies.
The 6-foot-7, 240-pound right-hander was 5-4 with a 4.24 ERA for the RedHawks this spring.