Though college football is close, baseball remains my favourite sport, but I have absolutely no interest in watching the MLB draft. The biggest difference between MLB and the NFL and NBA drafts -- and it's a really, really, big gap, kinda like the one between Johan Santana and Sidney Ponson's ability -- is that all of the players drafted in football and basketball have had major media exposure. Not so for baseball. "And with the seventh pick in the draft, the Rockies take Martin Timlinson, a HS shortstop from Midland, TX." Cue the collective "Who?" from the in-studio audience. Of course I am making that up, but I may as well not have been, given the obscurity of almost all the players. Judging from the (non-scientific) poll on ESPN, for once I am in the majority: 86 percent said "no" in response to "Will you watch the MLB draft?"

Can the average/casual baseball fan even name you 5 draft prospects? No
Heck I consider myself a hardcore baseball fan and I can't even name 10 draft prospects.

Unlike the other sport leagues, picks can't be traded. And we all know top 10 talents can slide way back into the draft because of bonus demands. I'm interested to see if a handful of top players will be brought in ala the NFL Draft. I wonder if Sportsnet or TSN will pick this up?

For what it's worth, traffic here at Da Box is at its highest on the day of the draft.  The only other days that are comparable are the days when the Jays make a major trade or free agent signing.

the players drafted in football and basketball have had major media exposure

Here's 6 of the top 10 NFL picks a couple weeks ago:

Joe Thomas
Gaines Adams
Levi Brown
LaRon Landry
Jamaal Anderson
Amobi Okoye

Do you think the casual fan has any idea about these players besides what Mel Kiper tells them?

And really, if the draft is going to be shown on a Thursday afternoon they really aren't catering to the casual fan anyway.

Will it be on in Canada?

all of the players drafted in football and basketball have had major media exposure

That argument can go both ways though.  The networks carry all the other drafts live, so they have more incentive to create interest around those individuals and, as a result, those prospects get more media exposure.

A way that I'd look at it is to take a look at ABC and all the "shows" they sometimes end up running about Disney's upcoming animation flicks (i.e. ABC ran a bunch of specials on The Hunchback of Notre Dame).  They didn't do those specials because Hunchback was doing great in the box office - to the contrary, they ran those specials because the Hunchback was doing poorly and Disney needed to drum up interest in it (Disney owns ABC).  I think it's a similar question that ESPN (also Disney) now faces - even if football and baseball amateurs draw equal audiences, they're going to pump more air time towards the football amateurs because it will also drum up interest for their draft day coverage.

Personally, I hope that in televising it, they follow the current tradition of efficiency (since picks can't be traded, I don't see the reason for them to take longer).  I check the NFL draft every 10 minutes or so because that's usually when interesting stuff happens and I have no interest in having the commentators repeating stuff that I already know about most of the players.