Michael Bourn, HOF Voting, 2014 HOF Crunch, Travis d-Arnaud

 Pete Dymeck writes:

First and foremost, the obvious reason Bourn has yet to find a gig has to do with something called draft-pick compensation. As Anthony Witrado reported, Bourn is hitched to draft-pick compensation because he declined a qualifying offer of $13.3 million from the Atlanta Braves. The club that signs Bourn will forfeit its first-round draft pick in next year’s MLB draft while also paying Bourn a salary of extravagant proportions. Revolutionary changes in MLB’s amateur draft have had unintended consequences, and several players, such as Bourn, are reeling from the side effects. Because of the draft-pick compensation rule, it is plausible that Bourn might not find a home until February, days before spring training opens for position players. Then again, with the breaking news of fellow qualifying offer denier Adam LaRoche coming to terms with the Washington Nationals, the dominoes may begin to fall, and teams may be more prepared to deal with the loss of a first-round draft pick by signing Bourn.

Bourn would easily be signed with someone if it wasn’t for the loss of the draft pick. How valuable are draft picks? Well, just look at two ex-ones, now with the Mets… C Travis d-Arnaud and SP Noah Syndergaard. One is about to make the majors while the other will finish the year in AA ball; however, both still have six more years of control my the Mets.  Go ahead and add up how much any catcher named Molina would cost you over the next six seasons vs. the minimum salary or arbitration figures and you can see the cost effectiveness of growing your own on the farm.

Colin Wyers points out what’s down the road for the HOF vote process:

And the ballot crunch is only going to get worse over time. In 2014, the ballot will grow to include Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas, Mike Mussina, and Tom Glavine. In 2015, they’ll be joined by Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Gary Sheffield, and John Smoltz. In 2016, throw Ken Griffey and Jim Edmonds on the pile. That’s potentially an entire ballot’s worth of players coming onto the ballot in the next three years. Already, nearly a quarter of voters who have published their ballots individually are using the full 10 votes (according to this invaluable guide), and many of them are saying even 10 votes were not enough for this year’s ballot. And yet only two players receiving significant vote percentages (Jack Morris and Alan Trammell) are set to come off the ballot during that time period. If the writers do not begin electing a significant number of players, they will quickly encounter a flood that threatens to overwhelm them.

Look, PEDs or no PEDs…  you just can’t get all these people in if you’re only going to vote on 10 each year. The system needs to be revamped.

Jayson Stark wrote one of the best HOF stories. Here’s part of it, but link on his name for the complete gem:

The '90s happened. The first few years of the 21st century happened. I saw it with my very own eyeballs. So did you. It all happened, on the lush green fields of North America, as crowds roared and cash registers rung. It … all … happened. And how did it happen? The sport let it happen. That's how. Bud Selig let it happen. The union let it happen. The owners let it happen. The managers let it happen. The agents let it happen. The media let it happen. Front offices across the continent let it happen. And the players never stepped up to stop it from happening. It … all … happened. And no one in baseball has ever done anything, even after all these years, to make it un-happen, if you know what I mean. No records have been stripped. No championships have been stricken from anyone's permanent record. No numbers have been changed. No asterisks have been stamped in any record book. It … all … happened.

 Kevin Kernan wrote about Travis d-Armaud:

Spring training will be here before you know it and from the look of his swing yesterday, so will Mets’ premier catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud. The confident — but not boastful — d’Arnaud plans on winning a job with the Mets in spring training. “I believe in myself, that’s pretty much it,’’ d’Arnaud told me in his no-nonsense way after his impressive batting practice at his alma mater, Lakewood High School. “I can’t wait. I am going to play as hard as I can every day, do everything I can to help the team win. “Hopefully, I can make it.’’

                

Okay, so d’Arnaud isn’t signing off on my “stay off the radar and spend some time in Las Vegas: theory.