Why is there a Baseball draft?

Right, because it's not like the Yankees or Sox have anyone on their roster who they bought from Japan.

 

Except for Matsui and El Duque, the Yankees haven't really had much success with Japanese or Cuban players in the last couple of decades, unless you want to count Kei Igawa becoming one of the leading pitchers in Scranton Yankees history.

 

You could even argue the Red Sox have had middling success.

You have Matzusaka, who has been over 4.40 ERA every year except one. Okajima's ERA has gone up each of his four years (from 2.22 to 2.61 to 3.39 to 4.50).

 

You're obviously forgetting Hideki Irabu.

 

"We all" want that?
Did you just land on this planet?

 

Well, the effect was that it did both. Owners saved money on prospects and a greater variety of teams won championships.

 

There is no empirical evidence that distributing one potential impact player to each team in sports with large rosters (baseball and football) results in increases competitive balance in any significant way. It's a mechanism designed to save money.

It creates what economists call a monopsony -- a single buyer of an input, in this case labor services of players. League monopsonies restricts the number of jobs offered (market) so that job seekers become willing to accept lower compensation.

 

Those players having success in the US isn't the point. The point is that a bidding war is a lot different from a draft, which is the only fair way to distribute new talent.

 

not the Japanese as much as the Domincans and other Latin American players. Still benefits the Yankees. Rivera and Cano are just of the amateur free agents the Yanks signed. The big money clubs can afford to take chances on Latin teenagers

 

Exactly. If you want to play baseball in the US it should be required that you enter the draft. It seems to work in the NFL, NHL and NBA.

 

The NBA draft is a joke, after the 10 picks, max, it's a crap shoot. And even within the top 10 half of them will be bench players in 4 years.

 

All drafts are crapshoots. Just ask Tim Couch, Kwame Brown, Pervis Ellison, Alex Smith, Brien Taylor, Eric Lindros and JaMarcus Russell.

It's also the only fair way to distribute new talent.