It may seem strange to say, but when I look at Major League Baseball from a fan’s perspective, something seems to be missing from the overall experience.

This is at a time when the league is thriving, raking in the dough hand over fist, and riding the wave of an exciting new talent surge that’s brought players like Tim Lincecum of the Giants, Jay Bruce and Edinson Volquez of the Reds, Josh Hamilton of the Rangers, Evan Longoria of the Rays, Carlos Quentin of the White Sox and Justin Upton of the Diamondbacks into the national spotlight in just the past couple of years. And while all these players have had varying levels of success and varying amounts of time at the big league level in which to prove themselves so far, none look like one year, or one month, wonders.

In short, if the signs, scouting reports and statistics are to be believed, it is these young players among others who will be the headliners for baseball over the next decade. And that’s never been more important given the economic trends that have been developing of late, as franchises have one by one come to the conclusion that young talent is the currency of MLB.

The truly clinching evidence is hard to find, but the circumstantial is everywhere. League-wide, it’s become more and more difficult for teams to pry young, promising prospects from their rivals in exchange for more proven veterans. Consider that the Boston Red Sox could have had Johan Santana last offseason, widely considered perhaps the most dominant starter in either league at the time, for a package of three youngsters who had yet to prove themselves at the big league level.

And they turned it down. The Boston Red Sox. Not a team building for a championship three or four or five years down the line, but a team whose objective is to win early and win often. The time is now for these Red Sox, and given the chance to add one of the best pitchers in the game to their roster, they turned it down because they didn’t want to diminish their stockpile of young talent.

Now, that decision looks incredibly smart in retrospect, as Santana has failed to dominate early with the Mets, and youngsters like Jed Lowrie, Jon Lester (who threw a no-hitter on May 19) and Jacoby Ellsbury have all shown signs of fulfilling their promise. But at the time, there were certainly some in Boston and around the country who wondered why one of the leading contenders for the 2008 World Series hadn’t leapt at the chance to bolster their rotation with Santana.

The reasoning behind this young revolution sweeping the major leagues is largely economic in nature. Young players have their salaries largely controlled for a handful of years to start their careers, and if a team scores a hit on a young star they will have him locked up at a tremendous value to their club. And if they miss? Well, young players who don’t perform well are much cheaper mistakes than proven veterans who don’t. Just ask outgoing San Francisco Giants Managing General Partner Peter Magowan about that Barry Zito signing if you need proof.

So, with the youth movement fully underway across major league baseball, it’s time for the draft to rise to prominence. This year’s incarnation of the Annual First Year Player Draft is set to begin Thursday, with players mostly being picked in anonymity. But in subsequent years, expect that to change. As fans catch on to the rising importance of young players, expect the Draft to be covered more and more heavily. In the future, young players like Georgia high school product Tim Beckham, Vanderbilt third baseman Pedro Alvarez, and even mid first-round possibilities like Stanford’s own Jason Castro may be household names before they’re even selected. Well, at least among sports loving households.

The key factor here, really, is that the MLB is truly missing an opportunity to shine. With the national attention the rival NBA and NFL Drafts have drawn year after year in recent decades, sooner or later, the MLB will too want to cash in. And along the way, they may even realize that it’s in their best interests to correct the most glaring flaw in the college game: aluminum bats.

If baseball could pressure the NCAA to allow only wood bats in their games, it’s likely more fans would be drawn to the games, both because of better aesthetics and because suddenly the biggest hurdle to their evaluation of college players as potential future big leaguers would be eliminated. Such a move would ultimately benefit both MLB and baseball programs’ bottom lines, making the switch seem inevitable down the line.

So, if you find yourself, like me, following the MLB Draft Thursday and wondering if you’re alone, fear not. Aside from the chance to learn where possible Stanford draftees such as Erik Davis, Jeremy Bleich, Cord Phelps, Sean Ratliff, Brent Milleville and Randy Molina, among others, will land, you’ll be riding the wave of the future of MLB. It’s only a matter of time before everyone else catches on.