04/19/24
August 20, 2009
Baseball Will Rein In Draft Pick Salaries in 2011: Faced with increasing contractual costs (Stephen Strasburg) and unsigned first-rounders (Matthew Purke, LeVon Washington), Major League Baseball is likely to seek an NBA-style system for draft contracts when the current collective bargaining agreement expires in 2011. "The purpose of the draft is to make sure the weakest team gets the best player," said Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations. "If you have a system like the N.B.A. or the N.F.L. has, where you know what a draft choice is going to be paid, it takes away any temptation on the part of the club to take signability into account." (As a side note, Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Randy Galloway claims the Rangers didn't sign Burke because they're being financed by the league and Bud Selig cut off bidding.)
I'll believe it when I see it.
posted by dbt302 at 12:09 PM on August 20, 2009
This proposal at Fangraphs would be awesome, but it's too smart and too fair to ever get voted in.
posted by yerfatma at 02:24 PM on August 20, 2009
While I am intrigued by the Fangraph idea, I don't think you can hamstring the winning teams that much.
Their plan also doesn't address the advantages that some of the larger markets would have in their marketing abilities. Every year we hear about how Scott Boras creates the slick biographical glossy covered books on his players to that is customized to each team. A team like the Yankees with their endless budget would still have an advantage when it comes to the little things. If anything, this would also give an advantage to the larger market teams because they would be able to offer more non-baseball related marketing opportunities where the players would be able to make up more money that they didn't get from the signing bonuses.
My fear with the idea of waiting for the players to put pressure on the union is that you will see the agents putting pressure on the players to not change the system. While the players may not have a vested interest in protecting the future income of non-union member, the agents do and they have a lot of influence on their current clients who may not feel strongly enough to want to ruin the goose that got them their golden egg.
posted by Demophon at 09:51 AM on August 21, 2009
Hmm.. Does this mean teams will suck more on purpose so they get the 1st pick, like the NBA? Or will owners push them like crazy so they finish in 2nd to last, so they don't have to pay for the 1st pick?