2001 Major League Baseball draft

[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.

[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.

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.