Lincecum to be No. 1 pick?

Thursday, April 20, 2006 | Feedback | Print Entry

A staggering list of injuries in the links below, but first:

The Kansas City Royals are long overdue for some good news, but in a year in which they have the first pick in the amateur draft, the talent pool is regarded as one of the weakest in recent memory. "The top-notch college position players are almost nonexistent," one talent evaluator said Wednesday. "And there are not a lot of talented position players at the high school level, either."

There are no Mark Mulders or Delmon Youngs, no take-it-to-the-bank rising star who is an obvious choice at No. 1. In fact, word going around to other organizations yesterday was that the Royals are currently focusing on Tim Lincecum, a 6-foot right-handed pitcher out of Washington projected in some quarters to be a reliever -- and in the potential draftee rankings published by Baseball America in mid-February, Lincecum was ranked 31st overall. That tells you this is a very fluid situation.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

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