The 2011 Major League Baseball Draft is just around the corner, with the first round kicking off on Monday, June 6, 2011, at 6 p.m. Central.
With the Rangers having picks 33 and 37 on the first day, there's a little less buzz and excitement around the Rangers' picks than there's been in the past few years, when the Rangers had more, or higher, picks in the first and supplemental rounds.
Nevertheless, as T.R. Sullivan points out in his piece at the Rangers website today, MLB Draft 2011 isn't a non-event for Texas, and with the new, deep-pocketed ownership in place, Texas could end up getting a higher-end talent than would normally be expected to be taken in the 30s.
Sullivan notes that the names to be aware of, as far as players who could drop to Texas because of signability issues, are Dallas outfielder Josh Bell, New Mexico catcher Blake Swihart, and Wyoming outfielder Brandon Nimmo. Both BA and Keith Law had Nimmo going to Texas in their most recent mock drafts.