Alright, here it comes … the first year player draft in the WBL is a big deal, especially this year as a mixture of additional talent and the dissolution of some independent leagues has really elevated the talent pool.
The goal was to make the first 5 or 6 rounds all contain potentially worthy players.
Each team may make up to 4 “free” picks, meaning they can select anyone remaining in the game. For the rest of their selections, they are limited to players historically attached (meaning, a significant amount of their playing time) to their franchises.
Here are the teams, listed in the draft order, and their number of picks per round in the draft for the first 10 rounds (rounds 11 and 12 are unchanged, with each team having 1 pick):
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Tot |
| PHI | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | ||
| MCG | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |||
| KCM | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | |
| HOM | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 | ||
| OTT | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | ||
| MEM | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | |
| SFS | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||||
| LAA | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| IND | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 15 |
| BRK | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |
| HOU | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | |
| NYY | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 11 | ||
| HOD | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 13 | |||
| BBB | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 15 | |
| POR | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 13 | ||
| CLE | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |
| NYG | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | |||||
| CAG | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | |||
| DET | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | ||
| BAL | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
A few things jump out from that:
- San Francisco clearly made a mess of the season, finishing both with the 7th worst record on the season and having traded away most of their draft capital in deals in June when they still looked to have a shot to contend.
- Birmingham, tied with Indianapolis for the most picks, did so while still making the playoffs.
- Kansas City, Homestead, and the House of David each have 4 picks over the first 2 rounds.
Here’s how the AI sees the top twenty prospects, along with the franchises that are eligible to draft them.
| # | Name | Pos | Age | Franchises |
| 1 | Bullet Joe Rogan | SP | 27 | KCM |
| 2 | Vladimir Guerrero | OF | 19 | LAA,OTT |
| 3 | Ed Delahanty | 2B | 20 | PHI |
| 4 | Al Orth | SP | 23 | NYY, PHI |
| 5 | Mickey Hughes | SP | 20 | |
| 6 | Hugh Duffy | OF | 20 | BBB |
| 7 | Kyle Tucker | OF | 18 | HOU |
| 8 | Edgar Martínez | 3B | 20 | OTT |
| 9 | Clayton Kershaw | SP | 18 | BRK |
| 10 | Chuck Klein | OF | 22 | PHI |
| 11 | Doc Newton | SP | 21 | |
| 12 | Joe Torre | C | 20 | BBB,KCM |
| 13 | Tim Lincecum | SP | 21 | NYG |
| 14 | Ralph Kiner | OF | 19 | HOM |
| 15 | Ichiro Suzuki | OF | 28 | OTT |
| 16 | Steve Brodie | OF | 20 | BAL |
| 17 | Ben Tincup | SP | 19 | PHI |
| 18 | Carlos Baerga | 3B | 18 | CLE |
| 19 | Earl Averill | OF | 24 | CLE |
| 20 | Josh Beckett | SP | 20 | MEM.MCG |
That is, of course, a really odd list in places (Mickey Hughes, anyone?). So here are the next 20, in no particular order and according to me.
| # | Name | Pos | Age | Franchises |
| 1 | Trea Turner | 2B | 20 | OTT |
| 2 | Darren Daulton | C | 18 | PHI |
| 3 | Ad Gumbert | SP | 18 | HOD |
| 4 | Julio Rodríguez | OF | 19 | OTT |
| 5 | Joe Cunningham | 1B | 21 | KCM |
| 6 | Lenny Dykstra | OF | 20 | PHI,LAA |
| 7 | Aubrey Huff | 3B | 21 | MCG |
| 8 | Noah Syndergaard | SP | 21 | LAA |
| 9 | Matt Morris | SP | 21 | KCM |
| 10 | George Selkirk | OF | 24 | NYY |
| 11 | Walter Ball | SP | 26 | CAG |
| 12 | César Cedeño | OF | 17 | HOU |
| 13 | Jimmy Dykes | 2B | 20 | SFS |
| 14 | Charlie Ferguson | SP | 19 | PHI |
| 15 | Zack Greinke | SP | 19 | HOU,BRK |
| 16 | Bryan Harvey | RP | 22 | LAA |
| 17 | Pink Hawley | SP | 20 | HOM |
| 18 | Jack Kramer | SP | 18 | BAL |
| 19 | Jim Maloney | SP | 19 | IND |
| 20 | Max Scherzer | SP | 23 | OTT,DET |
Results for each team are listed in their Season Review pages, coming soon.