Comments on: Discussion: Future of the Draft

By: SABR Matt

SABR Matt — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:29:16 +0000

Seattle is doing OK with longshot 16 year olds but I don’t want to build my franchise around that kind of prospect development…there’s very little early-impact upside there, but they’re losing their grip (have already lost their grip actually) on the Pacific Rim entirely and they’d get destroyed in the domestic market. Utterly cremated. Under the free agent system, we would become Pittsburgh. Bank it.

By: Jon Shields

Jon Shields — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:43:37 +0000

While I mentioned that teams with more prestige would have an advantage, I think likening amateurs to MLB veterans is a little unfair. International amateur free agents care very little about the prestige, nor do they know where these cities are. Seattle has had no trouble in the international market.

But yes, it could be tough in the domestic market. Even if amateurs don’t know much about Seattle or could care less about prestige, Seattle is just a long way away from home for just about everyone.

There hasn’t been an idea proposed yet that I can fully get behind. I think baseball needs to just keep making small tweaks instead of going for a complete overhaul, at least until some better ideas come about.

By: Dustin Shires

Dustin Shires — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:43:09 +0000

Yeah, the more and more I read the idea of global free agency, the more and more I didn’t like it. I do like the NHL style draft, though.

By: SABR Matt

SABR Matt — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:51:13 +0000

I really REALLY dislike the idea of global free agency for prospects. Seattle would never win 60 games, let alone 100 and a WS. Most good players hate the Pacific NW because of the travel schedule, the lack of notoriety, and the lack of a “big city” mentality. There are exceptions, but I still do not like it.

By: Jon Shields

Jon Shields — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:15:39 +0000

Dave Cameron just wrote a post at FanGraphs about a scenario that would put all players in a free agent pool with capped spending. Seems like a decent idea at first read through..

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/abolish-the-draft/

Commenters list some valid concerns. It punishes good teams far too harshly, and would make it hard for anything close to a dynasty to come about. Also, top talents may not always go to the highest bidder, but rather teams with more prestige (see: Tazawa, Junichi). And not to mention the headache of having open negotiations for what… 1800 players. But it’s an intriguing baseline.

By: Mariners121212

Mariners121212 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:53:18 +0000

I say make a salary cap and have every player put into a big draft like the NHL. Could you imagine the team that Jack Z could come up with!!

By: SABR Matt

SABR Matt — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:20:10 +0000

The only way I can think of to ensure that the draft allows the bad teams to get the best young talent is to enforce strict slot cap guidelines that are set by some percentage of the total amount of shared revenue in the game (a dynamic system that allows draft cap prices to rise as the game becomes more profitable and that automatically adjusts for inflation). Yes, this would have the affect of driving some kids out of the game and into college (boohoo…we lose the first three years of some careers and they get some horrible thing called an education).

I am also *NOT* against the international draft. There’s a simple solution to the Puerto Rican example. Teams shouldn’t be the ones building the academies and spending money to train young foreign talents. Major League Baseball should. All of those team-run academies have different standards and those players develop differently as a result. I would propose that MLB takes over all of the academies and is required to spend some percentage of the shared revenue budget to maintain and staff them.