Tampa Bay selects Vanderbilt pitcher with top overall pick

David Price is bringing his blazing fastball to Tampa Bay.

The hard-throwing left-hander out of Vanderbilt was selected by the Devil Rays with the No. 1 pick in the baseball draft Thursday.

"I knew that I had the talent to be that type of player," Price said. "So, I just had to put the talent and the mental game together."

He certainly did that, and then some. Price went 11-1 with a 2.63 ERA and Division I-leading 194 strikeouts in his junior season for the Commodores.

"We think this guy has all the ability to be a front of the rotation-type pitcher," scouting director R.J. Harrison said. "Now it's just a matter of getting him signed, getting him in a uniform and getting him along that developmental process."

Price is the fourth left-hander taken with the top pick, and first since Brien Taylor went to the New York Yankees in 1991.

The first round of the draft was televised live from an actual site for the first time after being held strictly by conference call in previous years. About 400-500 fans were at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex outside of Orlando, Fla.

With the second pick, Kansas City took power-hitting California high school infielder Mike Moustakas.

Moustakas, California's career high school home run leader with 52, hit a state-record 24 this season while leading Chatsworth High to the city title at Dodger Stadium.

The Chicago Cubs went with California high school third baseman Josh Vitters at No. 3; Clemson lefty Daniel Moskos went to Pittsburgh; and Baltimore selected Georgia Tech catcher Matt Wieters with the fifth pick.

Vitters hit .360 with nine HRs and 29 RBIs for Cypress High School, despite missing two weeks with pneumonia.

Each team had 5 minutes to make its first-round pick.

Moskos, who moved from his role as closer to starter midway through the season. He was just 3-5 with a 2.91 ERA heading into the super regionals, but has three potentially dominant pitches.

Wieters, a 6-foot-5 catcher, is outstanding defensively and hit .358 with 10 homers and 59 RBIs this season.

The New York Yankees capped the first round by selecting 6-foot-10 North Carolina State right-hander Andrew Brackman, who quit the basketball team after his sophomore season to focus on pitching.

In addition to being televised, this year's draft brings about one major rule change that's sure to affect contract negotiations. There's an Aug. 15 deadline for signing players under terms of the new collective bargaining agreement. If a player selected in the early rounds fails to sign, the team that drafted him will receive a comparable pick in 2008.