Scott Boras "Fixes" the MLB Draft

[bball123h]

The elite players in the draft, a consensus top 40 chosen by scouting

directors, would be granted free agency, just like the international

players. There would be no worldwide draft, but the disparity between

American and foreign players would be greatly narrowed.

The rest of the players would go into two eight-round drafts — one for

collegiate players, one for high school players. The worst team would

get the No. 1 collegian and the No. 1 high schooler. Players drafted

would not receive a signing bonus but a three-year contract for $30,000

a season. If clubs want to retain the player after three years, they

would pay $150,000 for the following season and $250,000 apiece for the

next two years.

Mr. Boras, the only thing that will fix is your checking account. This way, the big market teams can have access to the top 40 amateur players, and the rest of the league can pick from the swill. Perfect!

 

LINK TO BAD IDEA

[Mr QL]

what is up with all the terrible ideas to "fix" baseball lately?

[DSFastball55]

I read through this, and some parts of the plan I like very much, but I think having the top 40 prospects available to the highest bidder defeats the purpose of the draft. I suppose you could regulate it a bit by saying each team can sign only one player or something like that. This is essentially the polar opposite of what many would consider the best solution - a worldwide draft. I do like the idea of fewer players drafted overall and players receiving money for college if they don't make it to the majors.

[TooLiveBrew]

I wonder if any top prospect will ever go the Brandon Jennings route... go play in, say, Japan for a year. I wonder if Boras (or any other agent) has ever tried to convince any prospect to do that.

[berniebrewer4life]

I always used to justify Boras as just someone doing his job extremely well. Comments like these cause me to believe he doesn't care about the game of baseball at all, and is just in it for himself.

[endaround]

I wonder if any top prospect will ever go the Brandon Jennings route... go play in, say, Japan for a year. I wonder if Boras (or any other agent) has ever tried to convince any prospect to do that.

Never would happen for Japan. MLB and the Japanese leagues have an understanding that MLB doesn't poach their talent and in exchange Japanese leagues won't do anything to upset that. Now there have been some instances where they've tried to get American players classified as international players but it tends to break down.

Again this is an issue that's all about big market versus small market. The MLBPA singed off on MLB doing basically anything with the draft in the last CBA and nothing got done because the owners don't agree.

[Invader3K]

This idea is so blatantly self-serving that I can't believe he bothered to put it out for public discussion.

[trwi7]

Not only is that a horrible idea, but the top 40 prospects in any given draft is subjective. Who is going to determine the top 40 players in the draft? All the scouting directors?

[jakesdaddio]

So, Stephen Strassburg would be a Yankee...yeah, that makes a hell of a lot of sense. You could kiss the sport goodbye. I think the way to fix the draft is to be able to trade draft picks.

[sveumrules]

I don't think being able to trade draft picks would help anything. At the point these players are being drafted there is so little information out there from which to draw a reliable conclusion. Just look at the bust rate for first round picks.

[joepepsi]

I'm not in favor of a salary cap, but I think you "fix" the draft by capping contracts and eliminating signing bonuses.

[GAME05]

we've all been in those situations where we want to avoid the painful-but-obvious solution to a problem. but right before submitting we throw out alternatives as fast as we possibly can, whether they're crazy or not. the recent propensity realignment and draft ideas seem to me to be a desperate flailing to avoid the obvious answer of revenue sharing.

 

the only thing sticking to Major League Baseball is that tiny little sliver of a hope that all things magical will come together and the Brewers have some small shot at winning a World Series. a significant change like this would crush that slim hope and I'd probably never watch baseball again. i'll root for the underdog, but not when there's zero chance.

 

why not no draft at all, then? everyone just becomes a FA at 18 American years of age (15 Dominican).

[Oldcity]

Plus, why would scouting directors for small market teams even vote honestly? "I really like this player. Let's vote him into the top 40 so he prices himself out of our range!"

[Invader3K]

Exactly. The more I think about this "proposal," the more infuriated I get. How could Boras even talk about this garbage idea with a straight face?

[GAME05]

Boras set up the scouting-director thing that way so that he would then easily be able to yell "collusion!" and have that player also declared a free agent. sneaky.

[BrewCrewForever]

This would be one of the worst ideas in the history of ideas. I do think they should be able to trade draft picks though, that is a good idea.

[snyttri]

"Boras set up the scouting-director thing that way so that he would then easily be able to yell "collusion!" and have that player also declared a free agent. sneaky."

Anything that increases the number of free agents is good for the business of player agents and makes it more difficult to reign in the budgets of the big spending teams. But since player salaries have decreased from a high of 67% of revenues to 51% in recent years IIRC it would not be surprising if MLB lost yet another collusion action in the future.

[And That]

The only way Boras could have made this more self serving would be to declare that if you sign with Scott Boras, you'll be excluded from the draft. OTHERWISE...

[JohnBriggs12]

Great proposal if you also brought back baseball's reserve clause too. Now that would bring back the pre 1966 era essentially (pre draft), with less expense for all the scouts they had to pay back then.

 

Obviously, not going to happen.

[joepepsi]

This would be one of the worst ideas in the history of ideas.

You've coined a brilliant phrase there, my friend. Is it all right if use this going forward in every aspect of my life?

[HiAndTight]

Not only is that a horrible idea, but the top 40 prospects in any given draft is subjective. Who is going to determine the top 40 players in the draft? All the scouting directors?

I think what he's saying is you would vote on it. All the scouting directors. The top 25 best basketball teams is subjective, but all the coaches vote on it.

 

That's not to defend this asinine idea in any way. It's about as bad an idea as I've ever heard.

 

[BrewCrewForever]

This would be one of the worst ideas in the history of ideas.

You've coined a brilliant phrase there, my friend. Is it all right if use this going forward in every aspect of my life?

Yeah go for it.