It’s that time of year again.  Just two weeks (13 days) remain until Opening Day, and in two days, the Oakland Athletics will have completed the 2008 draft, which will make up for most of the C’s roster for ‘08.  

Thursday morning, through Friday night, all 30 MLB teams will go through round after round, trying to find the next Alex Rodriguez, or Randy Johnson.  Last year, with their First Round pick, Oakland selected James Simmons, 26th overall.  The RHP has done nothing but impress in his first full pro season, despite some injury troubles. 

In ‘06, Oakland didn’t select until 66th overall (2nd round), picking another RHP Trevor Cahill, who in two seasons remains one of the organization’s top prospects.  And back in 2005, the A’s had pick number 21, selecting SS Cliff Pennington, who was recently promoted to AAA.  While Pennington is in the Top 10 for A’s prospects, those selected behind him in the ‘05 draft include OF Jacoby Ellsbury, RHP Matt Garza and RHP Clay Buchholz. 

Who they’ll pick this year remains to be seen, but with the 12th overall pick, this could make or break the organization.  One guy who they could pick, is one of the most sought-after power-hitters in the draft, Brett Lawrie.  The Langley Blaze 3B doesn’t have a set position (even though he’s listed at the hot corner), but it doesn’t matter.  He can flat out pound the ball.  He stands at 5′11, 200 pounds, but still remains the top Canadian in the draft, and could go as high as the Top 10. 

After Oakland picks their first-round selectee, they won’t go back to the picking until the Second round, with the 58th pick.  They don’t have one pick in the Compensation Rounds, but then again, it was more than a few years ago when they last had this high of a First Round pick.

Who will the A’s select, you ask?  And will they wear red and black this summer?  Well, there are five guys I can see the A’s picking, and they’re all very talented.  The first is a no-brainer, a guy they picked out of high school, before he elected for post-secondary education, Justin Smoak. 

A 1B from the University of South Carolina, he has a great bat, but the chances of him falling to the 12th pick are slim to none. 

The next guy, is OF Aaron Hicks (left), out of Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach.  Hicks is supposed to go to USC next season, but he is considered the best two-way player in the draft.  He has a good consistent bat, a huge threat on the base paths, and a defensive threat in the outfield.  In his Sophomore and Junior years, he hit a combined .375, with just 29 strikeouts and 19 extra-base hits in 187 at-bats.  Oh yeah, and there’s the 70 stolen bases, getting caught just once.  Did I mention he switch-hits? This kid’s got all of the tools, and is the real deal.

One other of the five is RHP Andrew Cashner, a 6′6 giant out of Montgomery, Texas.  The College Junior hails from Texas Christian, where he had a team-high 30 appearances, with an ERA of 2.32, a record of 9-4, to go along with 9 saves in 54.1 innings, striking out 80 batters.  Batters batted just .122 against him, now that is clutch pitching.  If Huston Street was ever to leave Oakland soon, Cashner would be a fine replacement.

LHP Christian Friedrich comes from the Eastern Kentucky Colonels baseball team, where the 6′3 starter compiled a 5-1 record, to go along with an ERA of 1.78 - good enough for best on the team.  He hurled 65 innings, giving up just 13 earned runs, 24 walks, while K-ing 86 batters.  Opponents batted .142 against #12.  I’ll tell you what - with only Greg Smith and Dana Eveland as LHP starters in the majors (even though Dallas Braden and Dan Meyer are right behind them), the A’s could certainly use someone of Friedrich’s nature in the future.

The final guy I can see the A’s nabbing, is none other than 1B/3B Brett Wallace, out of Arizona State’s Sun Devil Baseball program (which produced A’s ’star’ Travis Buck).  In his Sophomore year, he won the Pac-10 Triple Crown, and Player of the Year award, where he had an average of .404, 107 hits, 16 home-runs and 78 RBI, which were all best in the Conference.

His favourite team growing up was the A’s, and they still are, and his favourite MLB player is Eric Chavez.  If there wasn’t a better fit for Wallace - I’d be shocked.  This season, Wallace has only improved his 2007 numbers.  His average stands at .414 (with the season not over yet), and after 227 at-bats he has 94 hits, 12 doubles, 2 triples, 21 home-runs, 81 RBI, 45 walks, and he’s scored 83 times.  He was also named this year’s Pac-10 Player of the year (Back-to-back), and still leads the Triple Crown categories.  The last player to win back-to-back?  Ex-Canadian Casey Myers in 2000 and 2001.

Those five will certainly be top picks in this year’s draft tomorrow, but no draft analyst is set on which player Oakland will take, tomorrow afternoon.

Radio show a home-run:

The C’s have made improvement after improvement going into the 2008 season, and Sunday afternoon was one of the first that really became a hit off the bat.  Rob Fai’s ‘Vancouver Canadians Gameday’ made a perfect first impression, with guests Bert Blyleven (a future MLB hall-of-famer) and Pete Incaviglia, whose story is one that doesn’t come up very often.

The show talked to the pair of MLB greats, as well as recapping where some ex-C’s are these days, in addition to some self-promotion of Opening Day Tickets.  Which brings me to my next point, Ticket Manager Jason Takefman says Opening Day box seats are almost sold-out, two weeks prior to the first pitch, man that’s great to hear.

Back to the show, this Sunday’s guests will include BC’s Justin Morneau (why so many Twins players?  Well, Andrew Seymour worked with the Fort Myers Miracle, a farm team for the Twins, and yes Morneau played for them some years ago..), among others.  And with the draft’s completion Friday evening, Fai could end up talking about some players we could see in Vancouver very shortly.