Baseball questions

[CheeseDonkey]

1) What is a national crosschecker?

2) In Japanese baseball, what is the "distribution draft?"

3) Anyone know the story behind Astros minor leaguer Steve Martin, who was born in Swaziland?

Thanks.

[Barkis is Willin']

1) A team's national crosschecker is a scout who compares prospects from all over the country. Most scouts are regional, so they cover a specific area. The NC will get recommendations from regional scouts for which guys to check out and compare to other prospects throughout the country.

2) ?

3) ?

You have some relatively obscure baseball questoins. I like it.

[Barkis is Willin']

http://www.hsbaseballweb.com/pros/scouting_ranks.htm

That's a decent, although brief, description of baseball scouting.

[Lamar Mundane]

2) Just as in American pro sports, if a league is expanded, (new teams added) existing teams get to "protect", or exclude from the draft, a certain number of players (like 75% of their roster.) The remaining players then go into the "distribution draft" and the new teams get to pick a team from those players. MLB last did this when the Rockies and Marlins were added. I think it was called an expansion draft. It was done in MLS a couple of years ago when Montreal was added.

[Justin_Bailey]

Originally Posted by Lamar Mundane

MLB last did this when the Rockies and Marlins were added. I think it was called an expansion draft.

Nitpick: Devil Rays and Diamondbacks.