cgubata

As everyone on both sides of the Pacific Ocean knows, the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics are playing a two game series in the middle Major League Baseball's most recent escapade into the other parts of the world who are baseball-crazy. Commissioner Bud Selig as well as the owners of all 32 teams are licking their lips at the prospect of sending the most dominant team of the decade overseas to strut their stuff for the people of Japan, who they view as no more than a collective, burgeoning representatives of an economy where the sky's the limit.

Because baseball does not have a salary cap, we rarely hear about the "business" end of things the way we do about other sports, particularly the NFL, where teams can, and do, cut players who are not proving their worth. But this entire week, we have seen in great clarity, the business side of baseball, where as long as fans are buying jerseys and hot dogs, the number of wins rarely matters except in appearance only. It so happens that, for most baseball markets, the number of wins over the short term directly correlates to the number of foam fingers and plastic helmets that faceless fans shell out immensely too much money for.

The fact is that, and I am not crying about my favorite team being taken advantage of, but these two teams are going to need a long time to recover from the traveling. The Red Sox's ultimate road trip is going to cover three, yes three, countries! The players seem all for the trip, but ask them off-camera and see how many of them, besides Hideki Okajima and Dice-K, about how much they want to travel more than 10,000 miles in two weeks. And even though the coaches got the extra money, what is $50,000 to Manny Ramirez and J.D. Drew. As Manny said to the $10,000 that he earned from being player of the game of the first game, "That will be gas money." The players are being forced to go along with something that is going to do nothing but line the pockets of the already wealthy owners who control the best teams, while the small-market teams have nothing to offer, and will get nothing to gain.

Even though mock drafts are just that, mocks, I cannot help myself...

A run down of what teams actually need, not necessarily the best players available at each pick, and what each team will look for in the later rounds. Starting from the top:

Miami Dolphins, Pick One:
DT Glen Dorsey, Louisiana State. He is the best defensive player in the draft, and the Dolphins need some explosive young infusion of talent in their once aging, and now depleted defense. They will look for linebackers and cornerbacks later in the draft.

St. Louis Rams, Pick Two:
OT Jake Long, Michigan. The Rams have some holes, and Long will fill up a big one on that offensive line. The Rams offense was stagnant at best last year, and they need some who can throw defensive players around and create lanes for Stephen Jackson. They will look for wide receiver and linebacker help later in the draft.

Atlanta Falcons, Pick Three:
QB Matt Ryan, Boston College. The Falcons suffered an absolute debacle at quarterback last year, a terrible revolving door that including Joey Harrington and Bryan Leftwich. They need a signal-caller who can come in and start in week one and take over a team that needs a leader under center who can run a new offensive scheme. They will look for wide rece