"Bring me your young."

If you’re a fan of MLB odds, you’re likely aware the baseball draft is tomorrow. This year, everyone seems to be talking about it, and by it, I mean Scott Boras. The Super Agent is employed by prospective No. 1 pick Stephen Strasburg, and there are rumors abound Boras will be shooting for as much as a $50-million deal (easily besting the previous record of $10.5 million).

I have a ton of complaints about baseball’s draft (the lack of slotting system, rules against trading picks, etc.) but at least this year it’s generating more interest than normal, so I suppose sportsbook fans can thank Boras for something. In fact, the league is making a concentrated effort to increase hype and awareness surrounding the event, not unlike the NBA and NFL, which are looked upon with as much interest as the games themselves. The draft is taking place during primetime and will feature Twitter updates of picks.

While I commend the notion, it simply ain’t gonna happen. There’s pretty much zero chance the MLB draft even remotely approaches the popularity and fanfare of the NFL and NBA drafts. The problem is we simply don’t know any of these kids, we have nothing invested in them. If you regularly watch or bet on sports, you obviously get attached to different athletes for a plethora of reasons. In football and basketball, we get to watch these young stars grow and learn at the college level; we learn to love (or hate) them over time.

Baseball is much different, however. For starters, it’s all over the map. Half of these kids play college ball, the other are still high schoolers. Moreover, college-level baseball simply doesn’t get the mainstream exposure that college football and basketball do. Yes, a lot of people love watching or betting online when the College World Series rolls around, but that’s about it–a quick, passing interest.

So by the time the draft rolls around, we don’t know much about these potential Major Leaguers beyond stat lines and scouting reports. Ultimately, that’s why the draft won’t become a national “event” on par with the other big two.