MINNEAPOLIS -- When Major League Baseball's draft commences Thursday night, a handful of top prospects will be with their families at the site of the draft. Others will be gathered at home with a viewing party, watching the draft unfold on TV or on the Internet.
Things have changed a bit in the five years since Caleb Thielbar was drafted in 2009. When the Milwaukee Brewers took Thielbar in the 18th round, he wasn't even following the draft. Instead, he was working for the Department of Natural Resources in St. Paul.
"There was really no anxiety or anything," recalls Thielbar, now a reliever for the Twins. "I just started getting a whole bunch of texts and everything, so obviously I figured out what happened. There's really no big buildup or hype or anything. I just finished out the work day and went on after that. There was nothing really special about it, I guess, other than getting drafted."
Thielbar is one of several examples of players on Minnesota's roster who didn't have the pomp and circumstance of a first-round pick. Sure, the Twins' clubhouse is filled with many first-round picks, such as Joe Mauer (No. 1 overall), Aaron Hicks (14th overall) Trevor Plouffe (20th) and Glen Perkins (22nd). They didn't have to wait long to hear their names called on draft night.
There are also the guys like Kurt Suzuki (second round), Brian Duensing (third round) and Kevin Correia (fourth round), who went early but not early enough to garner the first-round status. And then there are the Thielbars of the world, players taken in the middle of the draft, unsure at that point whether their big league dreams would ever come true.
While there's plenty of pressure -- and big signing bonuses -- that accompany first-round picks, there's pressure being a mid-round pick as well. The odds are seemingly stacked against them. They may not get as many chances to make a club, and they're certainly not compensated as well as their first-round counterparts.
Naturally, there is often disappointment that comes along with falling in the draft.
That was the case for Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, who expected to go in the second or third round after his junior year at Southern Miss in 2008. He instead slipped to the Cubs in the seventh round. Despite being "95 percent sure" he was ready to leave college to turn pro, Dozier instead returned for his senior season.
A broken collarbone 35 games into his senior year didn't help his draft stock. The Twins wound up taking him in the eighth round in 2009. Dozier was out to lunch with some friends when he got a call from Twins scout Earl Winn.
"He called me the day before and he was like, 'I'm going to try to do everything I can to get you in the top 15 rounds,'" Dozier recalled. "Draft day comes, I was thinking I was going to go later on, being hurt and everything. I was eating at Firehouse Subs with four of my friends and he calls me, saying, 'Hey, did you see what just happened?' I was like, 'I have no idea.' He said, 'We just took you in the eighth round.' So it was pretty cool."
The disappointment of dropping in the draft was something outfielder Sam Fuld experienced as well. After his junior year at Stanford, Fuld went in the 24th round by the Cubs in 2003. Like Dozier, Fuld made the decision to return to college for his senior season. He improved his draft stock by 14 rounds as the Cubs once again drafted him, this time in the 10th round.
"Any time you get your name attached to a major-league organization, that's a lifelong dream coming true," Fuld said. "I think most of us probably felt some sort of disappointment. I think you always sort of have expectations to get drafted earlier than you end up getting taken. You've got a combination of probably a little disappointment, but also a huge weight off your shoulders and a sense of pride for being taken no matter where you are."
Of the players on Minnesota's 25-man roster who were drafted, seven were taken in the first round. Reliever Anthony Swarzak was a second-round pick, and Suzuki, Duensing, Correia and Ricky Nolasco (fourth round) all went in the first four rounds. But being a mid-round pick doesn't mean the majors are unreachable. Just ask Josh Willingham, who was taken in the 17th round. Or Casey Fien, who as a 20th-round pick is currently the player on the Twins' roster taken latest in the draft.
While the first-round picks taken Thursday night will get all the headlines and the attention, there will surely be an eight-round pick or a 15th-round selection in this year's draft who will one day have a locker in a major-league clubhouse next to a player taken much earlier than he was.
"I guess there's different forms of pressure. When you're a high pick you've got a whole different kind of pressure, probably more so than somewhat of an afterthought like myself because everybody expects you to perform," Fuld said. "I knew I had to kind of outperform everybody, but I was happy in that role. It gives you a little more fuel to start your career."
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