Mack – Sunday Thoughts: Cape Cod League, Re-Opening, Steve Dalkowski, The 2020 Draft, Endorsement Money

Good morning.

The premier summer league baseball league, the Cape Cod League, announced this past week that they were cancelling the entire 2020 season due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

Those of us that consider ourselves draft junkies always turned to this league for the last word on the top prospects. It’s a league that pits the best against the best.

Here is the sad part of this… the season was supposed to start June 13^th.

You want baseball back in the majors by June and they are still cancelling leagues.

America started waking up on Monday.

People returned to the beaches, restaurants started to open, you could get your nails done, have a new tat inked on your body, and return to state parks.

Even the National Basketball Association was thinking of opening training camps in states that have loosening up their rules, though the Player’s Union is saying that there is major push back by the players that would be affected by this decision.

Is this time to let all the baseball teams return to either Florida or Arizona and have a 30-day spring training lead up to a limited 2020 season?

My vote would still be to wait and not return at all this year. One player or one fan that dies because of early action here would be, in my opinion, one too many.

Mack Rule:  If you can’t send my kids to school, you can’t play baseball.

You youngins’ probably never heard of Steve Dalkowski . He was the fastest pitcher ever, hitting over 130 mph.

Ted Williams said this about him:

After a few minutes Williams picked up a bat and stepped into the cage. Reporters and players moved quickly closer to see this classic confrontation. Williams took three level, disciplined practice swings, cocked his bat, and motioned with his head for Dalkowski to deliver the ball. Dalkowski went into his spare pump, his right leg rising a few inches off the ground, his left arm pulling back and then flicking out from the side of his body like an attacking cobra. The ball did not rip through the air like most fastballs, but seemed to appear suddenly and silently in the catcher’s glove.

The catcher held the ball for a few seconds a few inches under Williams’ chin. Williams looked back at it, then at Dalkowski, squinting at him from the mound, and then he dropped his bat and stepped out of the cage. The writers immediately asked Williams how fast Steve Dalkowski really was. Williams, whose eyes were said to be so sharp that he could count the stitches on a baseball as it rotated toward the plate, told them he had not seen the pitch, that Steve Dalkowski was the fastest pitcher he ever faced and that he would be damned if he would ever face him again if he could help it.

Dalkowski dies this week from complications of the covid-19 virus. He was 80 years old.

Baseball is now saying that there WILL be a June 10^th baseball draft this year, even though the last report has the Player's Union turning down a 10 round version of this classic event.

We talked about this before. Less rounds means more undrafted free agents teams can go after the nanosecond the draft ends. My guess, if something like this goes through,  is the early bird gets the worm here but how do you recruit these kids? Do you call then up and ask them if they would sign with you if they are undrafted? Do that to me and I would tell you on the phone that, if you want me, draft me.

As much as I am against the proposed elimination of two Mets affiliates, this would be a good time to coordinate these two events into one. Two less teams mean the need of far less filler players needed.

Lastly, the NCAA is now about to change the rules on college players being able to paid for their endorsements prior to graduation or jumping to the pros after their junior season.

What would this look like in cold hard cash?

Zach Soskin of Voltage Management said this could easily translate into over one million dollars, per year, per player.

Soskin used Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence as an example. TL has nearly 500,000 Instagram followers and 81,000 on Twitter. This could translate to $16,000 per an Instagram post and $1,100 for one on Twitter.

These dollars would easily translate to the top 10 baseball players coming out of college.

Is this good for sports? Well, it is good for the player.

Is it a coincidence that it will come at the same time there is less draft picks and limited signing bonuses?

You can do that math.