Despite the Diamondbacks struggling this season, there are still a few bright spots. In normal years I would be looking forward to the first week of June when Major League Baseball holds its annual amateur draft. This is a chance for dreams to become realities.

Around the nation kids have been playing baseball hopefully in front of parents, friends, fans, and for a select few scouts. No not boy scouts although some of these scouts likely were boy scouts when they were younger. The scouts in these stands carry Jugs guns and notebooks and are constantly making notes about even the most miniscule happenings on the field. Those notes are collected and entered into databases for Major League baseball teams. From there data scientists and baseball evaluators will look over these numbers and dissect them like the lifeless frogs we had to cut up in biology class.

These scouts travel the back roads and visit small towns and big tournaments all looking to strike it rich. Instead of panhandling for gold during the California gold rush these scouts are hoping to find a nugget that will bring riches, championships, and countless fans to teams who will flock to see these ballplayers in Major League games.

For the first time, Major League Baseball did not hold their draft in June. Instead it was moved to All-Star weekend set up in a ballroom in downtown Denver where for fans could actually attend the draft (before it was a closed event where only team representatives could attend).

The draft will last 20 rounds spread over three days. If a team has done their homework and things come together at just the right way it could set a franchise up for success for an extended period of time.

As a Diamondbacks fan I am glued to the television watching the draft moving players around on my own draft board pretending I was in the “war room” evaluating talent and trying to decide what direction I would take the team.

Last year the Dbacks didn’t play well in the abbreviated season meaning this year they had the sixth overall pick in the draft. As the draft started, players I thought would be taken weren’t. When it got to Arizona’s pick there were still several incredible players available. With their pick the Diamondbacks selected shortstop Jordan Lawlar. I was ecstatic.

Lawlar is one of those special players that don’t come around very often and has the ceiling of being a perennial all-star, something the Diamondbacks have not had for a long time. I couldn’t believe the luck to have him fall into the Dbacks lap.

My excitement was tempered slightly as the question of sign ability came up. Lawlar has a commitment to Vanderbilt University to play baseball, so it is possible that he was bypass the opportunity to start his professional baseball career to get his education. As a father who has sent all of his kids to college, I understand that and would be hard pressed to fault anyone who put their education behind playing ball. Hopefully the Diamondbacks will take that into consideration and include a college education in the deal they offer him to make sure he has the ability to go to school and get a degree.

The signing window for draft picks ends on August 1st. For the next three weeks like every other Diamondbacks fan, I will be pacing the floor and praying to the baseball gods that the Dbacks will be able to sign Jordan Lawlar along with their other draft picks to hopefully bring success back to this franchise. And when that day comes, I will be in the stands cheering for them, remembering this day when the Diamondbacks fortunes took a turn for the better.