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  • 10 notable team reps for MLB’s upcoming draft

    The date has really snuck up on us, but the first round of Major League Baseball's amateur draft is set for June 4. The league will again try to make this a television spectacle on MLB Network with all 30 teams being represented in the league's Secaucus, N.J., studios by one or two notable players, coaches or front-office personnel.

    You can find the full list here, but we've taken the liberty at listing 10 of our favorite men who've been enlisted to stand around for the cameras while the actual picks hide under their agents' desks until 10 minutes before the signing deadline on July 13. (Thank the good heavens that it's moved up this year.)

    1. CC Sabathia, New York Yankees: He's the only active player enlisted for duty that night and you have to wonder how he drew the short straw from the Yankees, who have an off-day. Shouldn't Mark Teixeira be the one coming in for makeup work these days?

    2. Ron Karkovice, Chicago White Sox: Some of you may suspect this post is just a poor excuse to get a picture of Ron Karkovice out on Big League Stew. Some of you are 100 percent right.

    3. Roberto Hernandez, Tampa Bay Rays: One of Andrew Friedman's famed value bullpen pickups? Perhaps. But until then, he's just another member of the 1993 AL West-winning Chicago White Sox, who is apparently staying busy. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when the Gene Lamont stories start flying in that green room!

    4. Ryan Franklin, St. Louis Cardinals: From starting the 2011 season as the team's closer to serving as the Cards' desk jockey for the 2012 draft. Yep, nothing says good organizational guy like Ryan Franklin. Who knew?

    5. Kent Tekulve, Pittsburgh Pirates: Color me disappointed if Tekulve isn't wearing this T-shirt while making picks and not telling stories about the time he met Rick Santorum between them.

    6. Don Money, Milwaukee Brewers: Love the '82 Crew love, but do you really want a man named "Money" to be the first person reaching out to your new draft pick? Especially under the new collective bargaining agreement, which limits draft spending?

    7. Mike Hargrove, Cleveland Indians: And to think there are some — *coughChrisPerezcough* — who believe it's impossible for those who were at Jacobs Field during the '90s glory days to ever return.

    8. Willie Mays Aikens, Kansas City Royals: No jokes here. After all he's been through, it's nice to see him proudly representing his old franchise on draft day.

    9. Ivan Rodriguez and Jim Sundberg, Texas Rangers: Any truth to the rumor that Sundberg has challenged I-Rod to a table arm wrestling match with winner getting first pick of being announced as the franchise's best catcher at Rangers alumni events? Let's hope so.

    10. Tommy Lasorda, Los Angeles Dodgers: Ron Cey will be there too, just in case Tommy gets too deep into a story about Don Drysdale to answer the phone.

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  • Next generation: Scott Van Slyke, son of Andy Van Slyke, hits first career homer

    In case you were wondering where former major leaguer Andy Van Slyke had gone, he reportedly was sitting in the stands at Dodger Stadium on Sunday night, watching his son Scott Van Slyke hit his first major-league home run.

    And a timely blast it was: The 25-year-old Van Slyke took reliever Mark Rzepczynski deep in the seventh inning for a pinch-hit, go-ahead, three-run homer, the key moment in a 6-5 victory for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Having won four in a row, the Dodgers at 28-13 sport the best record in the majors. They're winning with MVP candidate Matt Kemp out because of an injury (one of many injuries) and they're doing it with six sons of former major leaguers on the roster.

    [Related: Dodgers put Matt Kemp on DL after streak ends]

    Van Slyke's homer definitely made St. Louis Cardinals nation shout "Son of a ... !" considering it led to getting swept by the Dodgers. It also came on a 3-0 count when Van Slyke got a green light to swing from the bench. A rookie with a green light on 3-0? A son of a former Cardinals player, no less. And he totally pulled a reverse Jack Clark against Tom Niedenfuer in the '85 NLCS, didn't he?! Son of a ... !

    "At first, I looked down at (third base coach) Tim Wallach, and maybe there was a little part of me that was surprised,'' the 25-year-old outfielder said. ''But once I got back in the box, I was really zoned in, trying to get a pitch I could do something with.''

    That's what separates the pros from the regular Joes. And the sons of regular people from the sons of former major leaguers. Van Slyke's dad broke in with the Cardinals, though was playing with the Pirates by the time Scott was born in 1986. The junior Van Slyke was a 14th-round pick in 2005 and never has been considered a high-end prospect. But he's put up strong numbers in the minors, particularly since 2009. In addition to Van Slyke, the Dodgers have five other second generation (or later) ballplayers on their roster:

    • Dee Gordon, son of Royals and Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon.
    • Justin Sellers, son of former Red Sox pitcher Jeff Sellers.
    • Ivan DeJesus, son of former Cubs shortstop Ivan DeJesus.
    • Jerry Hairston, son of former White Sox pinch hitter Jerry Hairston and grandson of Sam Hairston.
    • Tony Gwynn, son of former (well, you know).

    That doesn't even include Wallach's son, Matt Wallach, who was with the club in spring training. So, to fill out the roster after the likes of Kemp, Andre Ethier and Clayton Kershaw, did Dodgers' GM Ned Colletti just ask around during an MLBPA alumni dinner for some tips on guys with kids in the minors?

    [Jeff Passan's 10 Degrees: Examining dubious starts in MLB]

    We're looking into whether the Dodgers have set some kind of major-league record for ancestry. But this is for sure: They're not kidding around in the NL West.

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