Bernie On The Scene: Carbon Copy?

Baseball position strength comes in waves. For example, last year 19 pitchers were selected in the first round of the first-year player draft. That really isn't unusual, because pitching is such a critical position. What is unusual is the quality of those 19 pitchers. I listed most of the top-notch pitchers on these pages in recent weeks.

In 2008, seven first basemen were drafted in the first round. Not another had been selected until Matt Olson, a player from Parkview High School in Georgia was chosen by Oakland with pick No. 47 in the supplemental compensation portion of the first round this week. That's an amazing fact.

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