The 2017 MLB Draft: How to Watch

The 2017 MLB draft is finally here, huzzah! If you love the draft, this makes you happy, because it’s your favorite time of year. If you hate the draft, well, you should also be happy, because this marks the last week we will be blitzing you with draft coverage. This is the first year I’ve ever been really into the draft, and it’s pretty fun to follow along with the different mock rounds and familiarize myself with the top prospects. I don’t mind the NFL draft, actually, because I like to hear different people’s life stories, and weepy draft reaction videos shot on shaky cameraphones are my drug of choice. It’s too bad we don’t get more of that with the MLB draft, which, outside of the first round, is pretty much a silent affair that you have to follow online. There has to be a happy medium between the ridiculous oversaturation of the NFL draft coverage and the utter anonymity of the MLB draft. I will say, in my requiem for the end of draft season, that I will not miss watching several hours’ worth of grainy prospect videos with terrible production values set to even more terrible music.

Here is everything you need to know to follow the draft yourself!

• Round 1 of the MLB draft will air on MLB Network at 7 PM ET/4 PST today, June 12; the following rounds aren’t televised, but you can follow them on MLB.com. On June 13 (rounds 3-10) the draft begins at 1 PM ET/10 AM PST, and on June 14 (rounds 11-40) at 12 PM ET/9 AM PST.
• Here’s a link to the draft order. The Mariners have picks 17, 55, and 93, and then they’ll pick every 30 times after that until we all die.
• If you’re following via Twitter, a few of the best draft follows: for draft updates, @MLBDraft or @MLBDraftTracker, and for more general prospect info, @MLBPipeline. For analysis, @JimCallisMLB or @JonathanMayo are the two major voices; you can also find useful stuff from @EmilyWaldon2080 or @Crawford_MiLB or @JohnManuelBA.
• If you want to get up to speed with some of our draft coverage, search the “Seattle Mariners Draft” section on the site. So far we’ve covered past drafts, a positional breakdown of the depth at the farm, and potential targets at each position.
• Here are some mock drafts to peruse: Baseball America’s latest (although who knows they’ll probably come out with another one right before this publishes); MLB’s dueling pianos mock; CBS’s (caution: horrible autoplay video ahead); Keith Law’s if you’re an E$PN In$ider; Bleacher Report’s blissfully utilitarian, IKEA-sparse list; or this one, clearly THE BEST ONE, that our own Ethan Novak collaborated on with some of the writers from Twinkie Town, Bless You Boys, Over the Monster, and Talking Chop.

We will be putting up an open draft thread for each day of the draft and updating it with the Mariners’ picks, as well as publishing some rudimentary scouting reports on the picks as they come in. So get drafty with us! Join us as we see what Santa Jerry brings to all the good little Mariners fans this year.