Running MLB First-Year Player Draft thread

Obviously, it hasn't yet mustard becuase a kid like the pitcher Porcello from NJ was projected top 5, maybe even No. 2 to KC and fell to the Tigers at 27 because Boras was making outrageous demands.

Boras will not back off those demands (even tho he is just an advisor, not the kid's agent :) so the Tigers will end up with pick No. 27a next year and Rick Porcello will spend three years at Chapel Hill. Why some team wouldn't rather have pick 4a next year is beyond me.

 

Oh, I'm with you in the sense that teams aren't taking advantage of the new rule (if it works the way I think it does).

Considering how long it generally takes players to reach the bigs, I just don't see why teams wouldn't be willing to take a chance at losing a pick this year when they know they'll be getting damn near the same pick next year.

Hell, if there's ever a shitty draft, I'd tell a team to draft an "unsignable" guy and then make no attempt whatsoever to sign him just to put off the pick for a year.

 

Why, in the name of God, would you throw big-time cash at a kid from this talent pool when you know it's no better than a 50 percent chance he's going to contribute to your big club even modestly, and the chances are less than 10 percent he'll become an All-Star?

I know the idea of a salary cap is obscene to the players and there is no motivation for them to accept one, but this is really a situation that cries out for an NBA-style rookie structure. I know the same model would not work, but as was said about Porcello, it would help competitive balance. I agree that signability is a fun part of the process, but it's becoming kind of a joke. The worst teams should get the best players without fear of being held hostage by some douchebag like Boras. The small-market clubs already are Royally fucked when it comes to free agents and the Japanese market. The only place, it seems, they can find level ground is in Latin America.

Can you imagine the Houston Texans having the first pick in the draft and passing on Reggie Bush?

 

Ha! Nice!

Seriously, the problem is the player's union won't allow it. Why should they?

If these draft picks are getting big money, that is just more ammunition to use in their own contract negotiations. The union isn't going to give an inch on ANYTHING, no matter how much sense it makes.

 

Seriously, have you ever seen Prince Fielder play? He's a little more athletic than you might think, not to mention the Brewers hold his rights for years to come and have been doling out long-term contracts to key members of the club. Oh, and the Brewers' front office said they envisioned LaPorta as a left fielder.

That all being said, ESPN still sucks.

 

I've seen Prince Fielder plenty, and he has no business playing first base.

He'll be a DH eventually.

 

Not to get off subject, but does anyone here PERSONALLY know anyone that got drafted over the last two days? Two of my old teammates from La Salle got picked in the 22nd & 23rd rounds by the Cubs & Phils, respectively. The latter guy was born & raised in the Philly area, so this is a dream come true for him. He couldn't even describe how happy he was when he got the call.

Anyone else have a similar story?

 

The players have no problem with slotting. Let the punks earn their way to 10-figure salaries is their way of thinking.

I understand the odds are against kids making it and that makes teams reluctant to spend big money in the draft. But the same teams that are crying poverty in the draft are the same cheap bastards who are running their teams into the ground and blaming the market. Same excuse, different spin.

So in other words, boo fucking hoo. Every team has millions upon millions to spend. If you're a fan of the Pirates, would you rather they spend several million on a kid they drafted fourth overall, or blow 10 million over the winter signing six shitty free agents to one-year deals?

 

Yup, that's it and outofplace also is correct in that the players will never let it happen ... they've got the Stalin strategy ... "not a single inch." They're essentially paying the owners back for years of abuse prior to the collusion ruling. The thing is, the pendulum has swung back so far in the players favor that you can <i>almost</i> conjure up something resembling sympathy for the bastard owners.

I think you are right, BYH, that the players as a whole would say "fuck it, earn your money," as the vast majority of them were not the bonus babies. A rookie structure will always be fought by the players, however, because the agents speak for them and it's the agents who essentially run the union. Boras and lickspittle would never let one of their fastest growing markets dry up. They've set up shop on prime real estate, selling pigs in pokes to the owners who are falling over themselves to buy.

 

Without having gone through 4 pages, did Casey Harman from South Burlington, Vermont, get drafted?

 

had two local kids drafted, one in 39th and one in 43rd. i believe both will not be signing.

 

No.