The draft is eight days away.  Use this thread as a catch all for draft discussion.

With the draft coming up I thought it would be interesting to take a look at who the Jays have taken and how they did.

I start this post at a disadvantage because I'm not a subscriber to either ESPN or Baseball America. I'm aware that BA has ongoing previews of the best players available for the upcoming June Draft.  and that Keith law has also weighed in with a Top 100 list. but given that both are not available for free, I must leave any discussion of those expressed opinions to others.

Here are some links and analysis following both days of the draft.

Has the draft always been in the evening? I seem to remember if being an afternoon affair... I suppose they want to capitalize on TV audiences. Anyway, it goes down at 6PM tonight.

Batters Box recently had the opportunity to check in with Jon Lalonde before June's draft.  Lalonde and the entire amateur scouting team are at their busiest right now preparing for the draft.  Obviously Lalonde was unable to comment on specific players and in truth the Jays draft board has probably not been settled yet.  Many college teams are still playing and trying to qualify for the college series.  Meanwhile cold weather high school players have recently started playing their seasons.

I don't think there are many surprises in his answers but he does leave the door open on high school pitching and also suggests, but does not absolutely say, that his budget has not been cut back.

The Nationals went 1-9 down the stretch to 'win' the first pick in next year's draft over the Mariners and Padres.

Back at it today beginning around 11:30 with the next 44 rounds, or until the Jays get tired and quit.

Yesterday the Jays took only one pitcher, Andrew Liebel, (and liked him more than my man Chris Carpenter who went a few picks later in round 3 and was also a senior) so I'd expect to see a lot of college pitchers being taken today.

Any player that makes the majors from this point on (other than signability players) is a huge success. In the Ricciardi era the best 7th round and later picks have been Tom Mastny (round 13) and Jesse Litsch (round 24).

The draft starts at 2 pm today. The Jays pick should come around 2:45-3:00.

Our friends at Future Redbirds organized a team blog mock draft. So writers of blogs of (most) teams made picks based on who they thought the team they cover would take.

Here's how things shook out and what I think the Jays would do given what happened in the top 16 picks.

And now some pitchers.

The draft doesn't end after round 1!

The Jays have taken a High Schooler with their top pick two years in a row. Who might be on the radar this year?

It's not a particularly deep year for college pitchers.