Looking ahead

Christine and I know we've been spoiled by a good run of baseball for both of our teams in recent years. A lot of their continued success has been attributed to the farm systems. Each team has a nucleus of players who are young or in their prime: Cole Hamels, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard for the Phils, Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester and Jacoby Ellsbury for the Sox.

We know fans of other teams have not been as fortunate and look at days like tomorrow - MLB draft day - as their hope for the future. We don't follow college baseball, so we'll leave it to Joe Wolf's Vertical Jump, who loves everything college sports and draft-related, to preview tomorrow's action. (He's a Nationals fan who will be very nervous until he hears that Scott Boras and Stephen Strasburg have agreed on a deal with the team.)

As for me, I like reading the stories behind draft strategies. For instance, I've long known how several teams undervalued Dustin Pedroia in the 2004 draft. I didn't know the Red Sox were torn between him and Kurt Suzuki, both of whom they thought would be long gone by the time they made the draft's 65th selection.

Jim Salisbury has a good read today about the scouts who lay the foundation for teams' drafts. It prominently features Eric Valent - a notable draft pick himself. He was selected by the Phillies 42nd in 1998 as compensation for J.D. Drew not signing the year before. We were at Valent's debut - a SoxandPhils game in Fenway. (There's always a SoxandPhils connection.)

Sports Illustrated is already featuring someone expected to be a top pick in a future draft: high schooler Bryce Harper. After reading the piece, I am convinced his story will end in tragedy.

Stars of today: Christine plans to stuff the ballot box when we're at Saturday's SoxandPhils game to try to get as many Phillies as possible to start in the All-Star game. Despite his .220-ish batting average, she even plans on punching out for Jimmy Rollins. If his new lead holds up, he would be the least deserving All-Star selection since ... Jason Varitek last year. Raul Ibanez has taken a deserving lead among outfielders, while Shane Victorino is making a run at Manny Ramirez, but Christine will probably have to punch a few hundred thousand ballots for Victorino to to reach the third outfield slot.

Today's games: None. Both teams get a needed respite before each takes on their New York rivals before this weekend's SoxandPhils series in Philadelphia.