Stephen Strasburg struck out 15 of the 25 batters he faced last night, and his season line now stands at 34 1/3 IP, 7 BB, 74 K. That’s a 19.4 K/9. But you probably already know he’s just too good for NCAA hitters right now.
Peter Gammons, however, tosses out this nugget – Scott Boras is floating the idea that he might ask for a major league contract worth – get ready for it – $50 million for Strasburg.
Boras doesn’t think small. He won’t get that, as the team that drafts him can give him a take it or leave it offer. The only leverage Strasburg owns at that point is the team wasting their pick by not signing him.
It’s just another example of how the draft is broken. Teams that need a pitcher of this quality probably won’t draft him because they don’t feel they can afford the huge amount of money he will command. There are lots of ways to fix this, allowing teams to trade for picks probably the easiest. I still like to see the draft go, and all amateurs sign as free agents. For some reason, having the rest of world’s players doesn’t seem to hurt competitive balance, why give the same freedom to American and Canadian players and let them make some money before they go into their six years of servitude.
Everyone as a FA? No freaking way!! Wouldn’t the Yankees or Red Sox have Strasburg, Weiters, and Price right now?
Major League Baseball needs to penalize teams who go over slot. There shouldn’t be signability picks.
Why should there be slotting Josh? Unless you were starting your first job in civil service did you have a price cap set for what you could earn when you left school?
Plus you would only be able to work for the company “drafting you” even if you didn’t want to live in that area.
No thanks.
Josh is right… the draft needs to remain. I mean, would the Rays have been able to stockpile the talent they did without the draft?
I think this issue should be that the players from outside N. America should have to enter the draft, just like the others. Yeah, it would be silly and probably unprofitable to see a guy like (for example) Hideki Matsui enter the draft after being a “legend” in Japan… perhaps there is no way to “fix” this problem. It works now… kinda…. so leave it be.
In what world does 6 years of servitude to the team that ‘drafts you’ make sense?
Baseball should lose it’s anti-trust exemption if it allows the draft to continue as is.
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They could keep the 6 years service time, but start it the day they sign after they are drafted