3/29/20

Mack – A Draft Editorial




I am known as that draft guy on this site. Every year, I feature posts on Sunday about high school and college highlights and I offer up bio’s on certain top prospects that the Mets might get their hands on in the draft.

Lack of readership show they have a limited appeal, but I still offer them up because, one, it is an area that no other writer here covers, and two, I love doing it.

I threaten every year of not doing it again, but, like Al Pacino, it keeps drawing me back.

On Friday, I woke up that my favorite subject has become the talk of the industry. Reese Kaplan blogged earlier this week the details of this new agreement that the league and player’s association have agreed to, but they still make no sense to me.

Five rounds in the draft?

Really?  REALLY?

This couldn't be happening at a worst time in the history of the draft. There is more talent depth in this draft than 150 players.

The coronavirus (there really is a word for this now and spellcheck doesn’t kick in when you write this word… amazing) has made many of us, or people we know, sick.

The lack of baseball being played right now adds to this sickness. And the loss of maybe 1000 draft prospects being denied a chance to play organized ball just sets me over the top.

And what happens after five rounds? Do teams take all their scouts and front office personnel and put them on a phone ready to instantly call an undrafted person the micro-second the last pick is made in the draft?

In a morose sense, this could turn the rest into a "first come, first serve" availability like the International draft is each year.

You know we won't win at this. The Yankees will eat this up.

And another question. If there are only 5 picks per team, how many do the Astros get?

Is this baseball’s equivalent to running to the toilet paper isle when your local store opens?

I am not sure how I am going to handle this on the blog this season. My hopes remain that all of baseball takes a 1-year push here. The stars would align so much easier this way.

For now, I will sit back and concentrate on my family during this mess; however, I will post a Sunday 8 AM weekly post on my thoughts and research on the next draft, whenever that will be and whatever form it will take.

I invite your readership.

Mack

11 comments:

TexasGusCC said...

Don’t mean to be a wise guy, but there will be several more than just 150 picks in the five rounds. We have compensatory picks for which another team loses a pick, but we also have competitive balance picks. Further, I saw an ad on Fangraphs that teams are looking to hire scouts. Seems like there is an urgency. Also, the five rounds is being discussed mostly to save some money. By not making those unnecessary picks and just using fillers an extra year, teams will save some cash, but I can’t see it being that much.

Mack Ade said...

Texas -

You are right about the compensatory and competitive balance picks. I was using the 150 number as a general one.

Not being a wise guy at all.

The important thing is you got up and read through my spell-chek ridden errors and added an intelligent comment.

By the way, feel free to suggest areas of the draft you would like be to write about in the future.

Tom Brennan said...

They should do 10 rounds. Too many guys in rounds 6-10 that make the majors.

Jake was a 9th rounder, McNeil a 12th. Both would have missed a 5 round draft.

Mack Ade said...

Tom

Great point.

None of this makes any sense.

I don't know how anyone can project when baseball is going to come back. We still can't determine the day this virus reaches the top of the peak. And no one is even discussing the climb down.

FACT - More people die coming down from Mt. Everest than going up.

Do the experts out there think there will come a day when someone says okay... this is over... come out of your house and return to normal. Do they expect 14,000 people to pack into MSG that night for a Knick game.

Take a push for 2020. If we truly are at war, handle this like we did in World War Two.

Do the right thing.

Zozo said...

So if they do five rounds are the rest of the eligible players a free for all? Will the Yankees sign all the round 6 and 7 players because they are free agents? That would suck and load up whoever wants to spend money for years to come on players that could fall through the cracks. Especially this year player not drafted will fall through the cracks because a senior didn’t finish his last year of high school or college player as well?

Mack Ade said...

Zozo -

All of the details of this are not etched in stone yet, but, yes, it could be as you described.

The one thing that guarantees us a decent poopl of players is the draft. None of the players, not their agents, can turn their back to the Wilpon owned mess like they have done at free agent time.

A 5 round draft is an agent's wet dream. And we don't have much history with them either.

Zozo said...

Well that sucks for us Mets fans because the Wilpkns won’t spend anymore money than they have to. Especially since they aren’t generating any money. Are the MLB players being paid their full salaries even though on lock down?

Mack Ade said...

Zozo

As I understand, they are.

But the Wilpons will not spend near the amount they did this year. They are out of operating cash and we would basically not participate in the free agent market come late this year.

Reese Kaplan said...

It's time for the Wilpons to hang a going-out-of-business sign on Citifield and let a real owner take over.

Mack Ade said...

Reese

I actually think they have.

TexasGusCC said...

To Zozo’s comment, I believe that’s exactly the situation, and that’s why all teams are trying to hire more scouts so they can take advantage of the situation. We know the teams that will excel: Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs, Braves, Blue Jays, Phillies, Rays, Astros, and we know the teams that won’t.