It’s no coincidence that MLB chose this weekend for its HOF inductions and that the draft was last week. I’m pretty sure most baseball fans have already forgotten who Travis Bazzana is. I had pretty much forgotten that Adrian Beltre, Jim Leyland, Todd Helton and Joe Mauer are this year’s honorees, but that might be due to a lack of a Sox/Cubs connection. That’s how bigger markets operate.

Back to the draft for a moment. Even in Cleveland where they selected Bazzana with the #1 overall pick, I’m sure they’re not likening it to the arrival of Lebron James two decades ago. I can’t think of any city that focuses that much on the MLB draft, the way they do with the NFL and NBA to a lesser extent.

The two sports columnists in one of the local papers opined about Caleb Williams and other Chicago professional athletes with unreasonable expectations. While I don’t think they discussed their subjects, they were both well written and complementary.

I don’t think I heard or read anything from the recent baseball picks about eventually making the HOF, but I have heard some of that chatter from recent NFL picks. I think football players might be a little cockier than their baseball counterparts.

Elite athletes always talk about the pressure they place on themselves as being greater than that from the outside. I believe that to an extent as numerous top picks have fallen way short, sooner than not.

In the next few weeks, most ML teams will bring in their newest employees for a quick visit, a few swings in b.p and some pictures with the fans. It’s an exciting time and in the case of lousy organizations, a highlight of the summer.

For minor league fans like me, this stretch of the season is often a chance to get a look at the next big thing. The Cubs have recently done an excellent job of promoting their youngest players, without having to promote them for a couple years. Promoting in the first case means marketing and in the second case, moving them through the organization.

Long before the Cubs rushed Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Albert Almora and Javier Baez through the minors on their way to Wrigley, the A’s expeditated Huston Street’s ML debut.

Oakland took Street with the 40th overall pick in the 2004 draft out of the University of Texas and 59 innings that season. Street’s pro debut was with (then) low-A, Kane County, but he was only there for a minute before moving to AA Midland and AAA Sacramento before the season ended. With only 26 innings of minor league ball. he made his ML debut in 2005. That first season he saved 23 games on the way to a 13-year, 324 save career.

I’ll definitely be in the minority, but I’ll spending more energy on the recent ML draftees than Caleb Williams.