By - Mack Ade
The
name of the process that allows both high school and college baseball players
to become part of major league baseball is named The Rule 4 Draft. We have no
idea what happened to the other three.
The
current draft system began in 1965. Before that, you could sign anywhere you
wanted, which surprised no one when the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals.
Los Angeles Dodgers, and the New York Mets voted against it.
Others
of us have always called this the Reichardt
Draft.
Rick Reichardt was a highly sort after prospect and an
enormous bidding war broke out prior to the 1964 season. The Los Angeles Angels
won the prize and Reichardt was paid a $200,000 bonus, a figure unheard of in
those days. The baseball lords had
enough and created a draft system in which the team with the worst win-loss
record the year before would receive the first pick.
The
draft includes high school seniors, eligible college players and “other amateur
ballplayers” from the United States, Canada, and America properties like Puerto
Rico. We’re not sure what “other amateur ballplayers” represent. Is
barn-storming coming back, or maybe this includes you and me?
As
we have discussed before, it currently does not include amateur players from
Latin American countries, but baseball is currently working on a solution to
that.
The
first ballplayer ever drafted was OF Rick Monday. He was chosen by the Kansas City
Athletics and went on to a 19-year career with KC, Oakland, the Cubs, and the
Dodgers.
The
second ever pick in the draft was made by the New York Mets. They picked
someone named Les
Rohr. No one ever said that the system wasn’t flawed with human
limitations. I always found it amusing that it took the Mets 12 rounds that
year to draft Nolan
Ryan. What were the other teams thinking?
The
new labor agreement that was finalized in November 2011 includes some sweeping
changes to the draft system that will virtually eliminate the rampant
overspending of bonus money to incoming prospects.
The
new agreement will designate an aggregate bonus pool for the first ten rounds
of each team. The value of each pick will be assigned, but only the pool number
will be enforced. Teams that exceed the
pool number will have to pay an additional tax on the overage handed out. Only
history will see how teams like the Yankees approach this.
Some
remain critical of this new rule. There will never be another “steal” like the
Mets did when they drafted SS Phillip Evans last
year in the 15th round. The “pool” money does have some individual
flexibility, but only for players picked in the top ten rounds. There doesn’t
seem to be much of an incentive for high school players to
sign if they are
picked in the 11th round, or later. A decent three-year college
stint would give them the opportunity to again be drafted, and hopefully be
offered big bonus money. Others see players affected as early as the third and
fourth round.
Even
the biggest supports of the old system though that the bonus figures were
getting out-of-hand. Sure, you can go
over the pool number, but it is going to cost you. In fact, if you exceed the
pool number by 15%, you will be charged a one hundred per cent tax on the
overage plus you will lose your first round picks in the next two drafts.
The
first test will be when another Bryce Harper comes
along. That player would obviously be picked first and offered a ton of money.
Going to college wouldn’t change that number much. In addition, there will be
no major league deals allowed so that option is out the door also.
What
isn’t in this deal is a “hard slotting system” that other major sports have
implemented. Football and basketball don’t have these problems anymore. In
addition, baseball continued to not allow teams to trade their draft picks to
other teams.
I
have always been a proponent of allowing draft picks to be traded. There is no
reason why baseball should operate differently than the other major sports
leagues. I can’t think of any quicker way for a weak team to become competitive
overnight.
Imagine
if the Washington Nationals were allowed to trade the picks that got them Stephen
Strasburg and Bryce Harper?
Do you have any idea how many quality ballplayers would already be playing in
the nation’s capital for those picks? I’m sure the Nats would think twice
before trading either one of these future stars, but what if a team offered a
package that included three established stars that were still arbitration
eligible?
For
reasons basically undefined, baseball feels that a competitive imbalance would
be created if they let teams operate like every other professional sport. I
can’t defend the current policy. Last year’s playoff teams would run to scoop
up a top pick in the draft, but, at the same time, they would have to offer the
team with early picks a package of players that could immediately turn their
fate around.
Let’s
use the 2012 Mets as an example.
Currently,
the Mets have the 12th pick overall in the 2012 draft. Teams like the Yankees would die for this pick
and there would be a good chance that the Mets could pry away one of the
Yankees catcher prospects for this pick. Both teams would win here. The Yankees
get an early pick and the Mets get a much needed catching prospect on the brink
of being ready for the big leagues.
But,
this isn’t the only direction the Mets could go with this pick. They could want
to solidify the future of their rotation with having one of the top three picks
in the draft, thus guaranteeing them getting either Luc Giolito, Mark Appel,
or Kevin
Gausman.
All
the Mets have to do is offer David Wright, and the 12th pick
overall and you potentially have the best rotation in 2015.
I
don’t know if this is too hard for baseball to figure out, but it still takes
two to tango. No one team could upset the applecart without finding a dancing
partner. And, you couldn’t criticize the team that trades away a draft pick for
not picking the player the other team winds up with because you would never
find out who they were going to pick anyway.
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