August 11, 2008
Broken Slot Machine
The Nationals took a week to think about it, but agree to pay above slot for catcher Adrian Nieto. If teams don't want to be held up for money by fifth round picks, abolish the draft and let everyone be an amatuer free agent. That way, there's lots more supply at that end of the talent scale. If a catcher wants too much money, you move on to someone else.
Posted by David Pinto at
08:24 AM
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Draft
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Can baseball institute a hard money slot? Don't other sports, with less of an anti-trust exemption, do that? Seems to me that many teams (not named Yankees) would like that.
The Yanks would LOVE to have the draft abolished. Imagine all the money they'd start throwing at all those top talents.
I don't think the union would allow a hard money slot. I'd really like to see their reaction to a proposal to make all amatuers free agents.
The union would love to see all amateurs to be free agents -- but wasn't the draft put in place to stop the Yankees specifically from buying up all the best amateurs?
And would the union be able to stop a hard money slot, as the amateurs & even the non 40 man roster players aren't part of the union (if I have that right)?
What about limiting the draft to four or five rounds? That way you could still limit the bargaining power of the top picks...oops, I mean, ensure a fair distribution of the top picks, but give teams more options if they can't sign their picks. It would also keep the Yankees and Red Sox from signing everybody.
rbj,
The draft was instituted to limit the amount of money amateur players would get from teams. Stopping the Yankees from signing all the best players was not purpose of the draft (just a happy side effect).
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLB_Draft or Baseball America's draft history book.