Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 15, 2008
Abolish the Draft

Via BBTF, The Fantasy Baseball Generals discuss how the draft killed amateur baseball in Puerto Rico. They also get into how the draft hurts the US:

What if we abolish the MLB amateur draft and make everyone a free agent to start their careers? Would the promise of a multi-million dollar contract right off the bat help MLB compete with the NBA and NFL for the country's top athletes? I believe that it would.

However, I am also not so naïve to think there is any way on this earth that MLB owners would approve such a plan. The party line would be that this would increase the large-market advantage that teams in New York and Los Angeles currently enjoy. But the real reason would be that teams would have to pay market rates, or considerably more than they are paying now, to get top players signed. And no owner would sign off on that.

Instead we will be stuck with the MLB amateur draft. And that means top athletes in this country choose other sports. It means the destruction of Puerto Rico as a baseball hot spot. And ultimately, for premier athletes, it means it is better to be born in the Dominican Republic than the United States, because you have more freedom to pick and choose where you ply your craft.

Baseball may be our national pastime but the way it treats amateur players in this country (and Canada and Puerto Rico) is downright un-American. It is time to end the MLB amateur draft.

I wrote a piece on the increase in foreign born players and the draft for Baseball Prospectus last year (subscription required). The gist was that the surge in foreign players happened after the draft was put in place. Every year we have to put up with Richard Lapchick complain about the lack of African-Americans in baseball, but he never comes to the obvious conclusion that the draft is what's keeping them out. The reason African American representation was so high forty years ago was that it was cheaper to sign black players. Once the draft came into being, that advantage went to foreign players, and it stayed there ever since. Let major league scouts sign 16-year-old kids to big contracts, and you'll see all kinds of Americans returning to play the game.


Posted by David Pinto at 05:34 PM | Draft | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Interesting. The readers here should also know that baseball in Puerto Rico is now in competition with basketball and even, yes, volleyball. What's more, baseball is at odds with tremendous rates of crime and their profound effects, population flight from the island, and awful nutrition levels. Certainly talent will continue to grow from Puerto Rico, I wouldn't say otherwise. But, having lived there for five years (01-06), I did not see, read about in the papers, follow, see on tv, hear about, etc, baseball on any type of scale vis-a-vis The DR. I even went to some winter league games; not the best of baseball playing.

Posted by: Kent at April 15, 2008 07:14 PM

The reason there are more players from the DR and Venezuela is that the players are better. The reason is they play all the time. The reason there are relatively fewer US baseball players is because of the US culture and the nature of organized baseball in the US. Go by any park or playground in the US and see an empty ball field then go to a LL or Babe Ruth game and see the parents hovering over the kids. If you think changing the draft is going to change this you're riding the crazy train.

Posted by: Bandit at April 16, 2008 09:30 AM

You cant give 16 year olds multi million dollar contracts. Period. Not in any sport. Even 18, 19, 20, 21 year olds, it doesnt make much sense to sign them to multi million dollar contracts, because an 18 year old phenom is just as likely to to blow out his (insert body part here) and end up a 25 year old high school baseball coach as he is to end up a 25 year old cole hamels and justify his salary. The phenoms from the Dominican Republic and Japan that get signed to huge "rookie" contracts are 27 year old with 3 or 4 years of dominating AAA+ quality baseball already under their belt.

When a major league team signs a young player to a rookie contract, they are making an investment in him. They are giving him a space limited slot in their farm system, and they are giving him several years of tutelege and training, and hoping he can become a big league star. Most don't make it. Unlike the NBA where 18 year old LeBron James can have an impact the same year he is drafted.

That is why MLB rookie contracts are smaller.

Posted by: micah at April 16, 2008 12:52 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?