The Tampa Bay Rays were prepared for the first pick in the 2008 MLB draft held at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. on June 5-6, 2008. For the second year in a row the Tampa Bay Rays were holding the No 1 pick and this year they selected Tim Beckham, the talented high school shortstop from Griffin, Ga., over Florida State University catcher Buster Posey who was expected to be their first choice but instead the Rays went with Beckham because of his well rounded skills as a fielder and his hitting abilities, leaving Buster Posey to be selected by the San Francisco Giants as their first round (fifth overall) draft pick in 2008.

Tim Beckham (pictured at the left) has been recognized by scouts as one of the best pure athletes in this year’s draft and he has been labeled a legitimate five-tool player. He established himself as the top prep prospect in the nation with solid performances at last summer’s high school showcase events and hit .500 with five homers, 31 RBIs and 16 stolen bases this season.

With the second pick in hand, the Pittsburgh Pirates selected the power swinging Vanderbilt third baseman Pedro Alvarez. Florida high school first baseman Eric Hosmer went to the Kansas City Royals as the third pick overall. The Baltimore Orioles took top college pitching prospect Brian Matusz out of San Diego as the fourth overall pick in this year’s draft. The San Francisco Giants selected catcher Buster Posey as the fifth overall pick.

Here’s the Top Ten overall draft picks for 2008

Catchers must be in high demand because this year there were three of them selected in the top ten overall picks. Two shortstops, both with the last name Beckham were selected in the top ten overall. To see the complete first round results, visit ESPN’s MLB Draft Tracker.

Congratulations to Tim Beckham and all the young, future MLB baseball talent who are making their dreams come true as a result of their hard work and dedication.

There’s a lot of talk going around about the Milwaukee Brewers Rookie Star third baseman Ryan Braun being a potential candidate for National League Rookie of the Year. Ryan Braun entered the 2007 season as the second best prospect in the Brewers organization according to Baseball America and he has been living up to the accolades of fans and critics. Braun has had an exceptional season thus far racking up a .343 batting average, 24 home runs and 62 RBI’s with 10 stolen bases. Braun was brought up by the Brewers on May 25th because after leading the Brewers with five home runs during spring training, Braun was assigned to Nashville of the Pacific Coast League to work on his defensive footwork and throwing. It is because of this late start to his season, he’s 46 plate appearances short of qualifying for the league lead in batting average and other statistics. Otherwise Braun’s statistics have him in the elite company of such former greats Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize, Albert Pujols, Frank Robinson, and Ted Williams according to Rich Lederer at BaseballAnalysts.com. Rich has compiled an impressive array of stats on Ryan Braun versus former legendary sluggers in his very thorough blog post Ryan Braun: Greatest First-Year Slugger Ever?. It seems Mr. Lederer is amongst the legions of baseball analysts who are forecasting Ryan Braun to be almost guaranteed to win the NL Rookie of the Year and quite possibly as an MVP candidate.

Ryan Braun, who hails from Mission Hills, CA, was a first round draft pick by the Brewers in 2005 and he was the 5th pick overall. Prior to being drafted, he attended the University of Miami, where he was named to the First Team Freshman All-American picks and was also voted National Freshman of the Year by Baseball America. In 2006 he started in 118 games, dividing his time between Class-A Brevard County and Double-A Huntsville ball in the Brewers farm leagues where he Was named 2006 Brewers Minor League Player of the Year. His accomplishments included batting .289 with 22 home runs, 77 RBI’s and 26 stolen bases. Following the 2006 season Braun played for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League where he was named to the All-Prospect Team, batting .326 with 6 home runs, 25 RBI’s and 4 stolen bases in 25 games he started in. His outstanding performance in the minor leagues put him onto the fast track into the big leagues in 2007 where he has definitely earned his position as a regular starter in the Brewers lineup. The Brewers are currently sitting one game behind the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central with four or five other NL East and West teams leading the Brewers in the wildcard chase. A postseason appearance for the Brewers could only further Ryan Braun’s impressive debut in the majors and I know there’s a lot of Brewers fans out there keeping their fingers crossed that the BrewCrew can pull it off.

I personally like Ryan Braun because I managed to acquire him for my Yahoo Fantasy League team and he’s been consistently picked as a “Key to Success” in the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball leagues. I just hope he keeps slugging away like he has been all season !!!