MLB Draft

On June 9th over a thousand college and high school players had their named called in Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft. This however was the first year in which you could see television coverage of the draft making the MLB the last of the four major sports to have their draft televised. Why didn't you know this was on? Maybe because every team in baseball had a game that night as well as the fact that it was Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals or Game 3 of the NBA Finals. I understand that it may have been out of Bud Selig's control to have the NHL and NBA play on the same night but he certainly could have made sure his own league didn’t have a full schedule. I mean the night before there were only 2 or 3 games. The real question is would that have even helped? Other than Stephen Strasburg who has drawn every major sports media outlet to San Diego State University to see his 103 mph fastball and devastating slider there were not many known players that went this year. Out of the hand full of people who read this post I am willing to be that a very high percentage of you did not even know who the #2 overall pick was or you still may not even know as you read this today. Sure you have the local guy that were drafted that a friend of yours may have played with once or goes to the same school as that player but did you follow him? Doubtful. Moving forward into drafts in the future Major League Baseball should look into the following:

Trading Draft Picks: Every other major sport allows you to trade draft picks, why not baseball? Some say that there are too many rounds it would prolong the process of the draft. Still though maybe limit the trading to the first few rounds or the picks have to be traded before the draft. For example say the Nationals can not afford to sign Stephen Strasburg, should they not be able to trade him for players that will be cheaper and will help them now? Or the Red Sox who tend to pick in the later first round want to move up to take that can’t miss catcher or prospect that they think would help them, should they not be able to make the move up.

Slot Draft Pick Salaries: This is something that according to some sources is actually being looked into. I again bring up the Stephen Strasburg situation in which the Washington Nationals may not be able to sign him and will be forced to lose out on this "can’t miss" prospect. As it stand Major League Baseball gives all of the power to the player’s agent and leaves the teams no choice but to cooperate with the demands of agents such as Scott Boras, Arn Tellem and other negotiators. Why not slot picks like the NFL does and only allow the agents to negotiate incentives and other minute things other than the increasingly high signing bonus and year to year salary. Especially when they are hamstrung by the August 17th deadline.

Pick a Better Time: This is the only league in which the draft takes place in the middle of the season, this is actually something I agree with because it allows underclassmen to let their future or present coaches know whether or not they can expect them to be on their upcoming roster. Under this heading I would also bring up the aforementioned point of having the draft take place on a less busy night, or on the weekend for that matter. Maybe have some build up about more than one player, provide some more in depth coverage like the NFL Draft which has analysts working around the year scouting and mock drafting players.

Lastly I would like to say congratulations to Kyle Vasquez who was drafted in the 15th round by the San Francisco Giants. I have had the distinct pleasure of watching Kyle pitch for the Franklin Pierce Ravens for the past two years. I wish him the best of luck