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The St. Louis Cardinals are busy defending their 2011 World Series Championship, but they have plenty to be excited about heading into the future as well. Major League Baseball announced details regarding the 2012 First-Year Player Draft in a press release on Tuesday, and the Cardinals join the Toronto Blue Jays as the only two MLB teams with five picks in the top 60 selections. According to Baseball America, St. Louis owns picks: No. 19 (from Angels for Albert Pujols, Type A), No. 23, No. 36 (Pujols compensation), No. 52 (for Octavio Dotel, Type B, from Tigers) and No. 59 (for Edwin Jackson, Type B, from Nationals).
Here is some additional information about the 2012 MLB Draft from the official press release:
The intervals between selections will last five minutes during the first round and one minute during the compensation round. The Draft will resume at 12:00 p.m. (ET) on both Tuesday, June 5th and Wednesday, June 6th via conference call from MLB headquarters in New York City. Tuesday, June 5th will cover rounds two through 15, and Wednesday, June 6th will cover rounds 16 through 40. Rounds two through 10 will have one minute between selections, and the remainder of the selections will be made without delays.
Continuing coverage at the start of day two, MLB.com will deliver exclusive live programming of the Draft's final two days, including a live pick-by-pick stream, draft and scouting expert commentary and DraftCaster, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of every draft-eligible player supplemented by statistics, scouting reports and video highlights.
The 2012 Draft will have 40 rounds instead of 50, and the first round and compensatory round will both be broadcast live on MLB Network on June 4 at 6 p.m. CT. Here is a complete list of picks, courtesy of Baseball America.
For more on the Cardinals, stick with SB Nation St. Louis. For more news, notes and analysis head over to Viva El Birdos. For more from around the league, check out Baseball Nation with Rob Neyer.