The 2001 Major League Baseball draft, was held on June 5 and 6.
| 2001 Major League Baseball draft | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Date(s) | June 5–6, 2001 |
| Location | New York, New York |
| Overview | |
| First selection | Joe Mauer Minnesota Twins |
| Hall of Famers | 1 |
← 2000
2002 →
| |
| = All-Star | = Hall of Fame |
On June 1, 2001, Rolando Viera, a Cuban baseball pitcher who had recently left Cuba, attempted to enjoin Major League Baseball from including him in the 2001 draft so that he could instead sign as a free agent.[1] Viera, represented by attorney Alan Gura and agent Joe Kehoskie, claimed that the MLB draft was discriminatory because it had different signing rules for Cubans than for other foreign players.[1] On June 4, federal judge James D. Whittemore ruled that whatever financial loss Viera suffered from being subject to the draft did not satisfy the federal injunction requirement of irreparable harm.[2] Viera was picked by the Boston Red Sox that same week in the seventh round of the draft.[2]
The Minnesota Twins selected St. Paul, MN native Joe Mauer with the number one pick in the 2001 draft. The 18-year-old Mauer, a catcher from Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, became the seventh Minnesotan to be selected in the first round and the first to be chosen number one overall. The back-stop was a member of the USA Junior National Team and won a gold medal at the world tournament in Taiwan in 1999. He was also a High School football standout as a quarterback and signed a letter of intent to play football at Florida State University before being drafted.
Right-handed pitcher Mark Prior of the University of Southern California was selected by the Chicago Cubs with the second overall pick in the draft. Prior, who was previously selected in the supplemental first round of the 1998 draft by the Yankees, was the first college player chosen in the 2001 draft. Prior won numerous National Player of the Year awards after going 15–1 with a 1.69 ERA and 202 strikeouts to lead the Trojans to a College World Series berth in his junior year.[3]
| Preceded by | 1st Overall Picks Joe Mauer |
Succeeded by |