“With the number one pick in the 2002 Major League Baseball Entry Draft…”
Suggestions for a boring draft

(Author’s note: This article originally appeared in the June 14, 2002 edition (Issue X) of NationalPastimes.net)

Bud Selig struts up to the podium, with his Beatles haircut, and bellows, “With the number one draft choice, the Pittsburgh Pirates select. . . Bryan Bullington, pitcher, Ball State University.”

And with that, the 2002 Major League Baseball (MLB) Entry Draft began before a frenzied audience.

“The Tampa Devil Rays are now on the clock!”

Baseball Fever: Catch it!

Well, it didn’t quite go that way.

They do it by conference call.

No television coverage on ESPN. No bellowing Chris Berman sitting with Peter Gammons dissecting the pick. No Mel Kiper, Jr. to criticize the Pirates for making a horrible choice.

Okay, maybe not Mel Kiper, Jr., but you get the idea.

MLB needs to re-tool its idea for the draft. On draft day, there isn’t the usual hoopla that accompanies other major sports drafts. The National Football League (NFL) was the first one to get it right. Then, the National Basketball Association (NBA) followed, with the National Hockey League (NHL) chiming in shortly thereafter.

MLB has rigid standards for their drafts.

Sure, you can draft high-school seniors and give them a chance to jump straight into pro ball, but you only hold their immediate rights until they go to college in the fall or sign them. All a team can do is throw money at him to try and pry him away from college.

What incentive is that?

Not much, considering MLB has a wonderfully structured minor league system, something the NFL, and to some extent, the NBA, sorely lack. One would think they would have some rule in place for a player to go to college, play for a year and have the player re-evaluate their choice on a yearly basis for two years. Instead, a team has the right to re-sign a player until a week before the following year’s draft (see one David John Drew, aka J.D.)

They don’t, but it would be smart, eh?

For those who don’t know, here’s a quick listing of the generalized rules:

• High school players, if they have graduated from high school and have not yet attended college or junior college;
• College players, from four-year colleges who have either completed their junior or senior years or are at least 21 years old;
• Junior college players, regardless of how many years of school they have completed; and
• 21-year-old players.
So, without further ado, here are my suggestions for MLB’s Entry Draft (read at your own risk!!)

Step One: Draft lottery

Currently, major league clubs select in reverse order of their league standing at the close of the preceding season. The club with the worst record selects first with the teams alternating selections to form the rotation. The National League selects first in even years.

Well, that’s rather staid. Let’s spice it up a bit like their fellow sports brethren and have a draft lottery.

Here’s how it would work: the teams last in each division (there are six divisions) will get ‘weighted’ ping-pong balls, meaning extra balls in the selection hopper. Obviously, a team with a horrible record and in last place in their division would get more balls. Furthermore, the team with the worst record in baseball (last year, Pittsburgh) would have the most balls in the hopper, thus, having an advantage over their counterparts.

Then, have a nationally televised lottery selection show for the worst ten teams in baseball. Line them up on a dais and have Bud Selig emcee the show telecast from a studio somewhere, have the hopper, the drawing, the whole nine yards.

After the lottery picks are taken, the order of the draft will follow based upon records in their respective leagues. The tiebreaker shall be their interleague record (hey, why not add even more emphasis to those games!).

Step Two: Allow trading of draft picks

In every major sport, the trading of draft picks is commonplace. In hockey, it’s often present in deals. In football, it’s a key to any big deal. Same goes for basketball.

Not so in baseball.

MLB doesn’t allow for a team to deal any of its picks.

Why’s that?

Who knows, but it’s something that needs to change.

Let’s take this year’s number one draft choice holder, the Pittsburgh Pirates. They had the pick of the litter. The Buccos could’ve chosen whatever player they felt like. Too bad, though, they had money constrictions or they might’ve picked a different player. In the draft, the small-market teams (the one’s who usually place in the bottom of the standings, coincidentally) can’t afford to sign some of the players for fear of either a holdout or someone who won’t sign at all, like J.D. Drew did a number of years back.

It’s all about being able to sign the player.

So, let’s help out these small-market teams and allow them to deal their choice and not be stuck with it like an albatross.

Or any team for that matter. It helps out the teams who don’t want to spend the high exorbitant cost of a greedy draft pick or an undesired slot. This would be quite the way to re-build and strategize, eh? Or get a player by throwing in, say, a third rounder for a player that’s a must have for a stretch run.

Step Three: Rookie Salary Cap

Remember the signability issue?

Well, it rears its ugly head again with this touchy issue. There should be a prorated salary standard for their first few years that lead to arbitration with the draft position determining what the ceiling is. That gives the small market or losing teams an even easier means to sign a player that’s hard to ink to the dotted line (which would be any Scott Boras client).

Don’t expect Donald Fehr, Player’s Association chief, to bend over backwards on this issue. It’s his job as head of the union to see to it that players get what they feel they deserve. There’s nothing wrong with that because it’s a free enterprise, but why not shows some financial responsibility and at least address the issue. It worked for the NBA, why couldn’t it work for MLB?

It makes sense for both sides of the aisle to have some financial sanity and keep newly minted pro ballplayer’s salaries reasonable. It gives teams some ‘insurance’ if a trumpeted player doesn’t pan out (see Rick Ankiel). For baseball to get a true number, have an independent arbiter set the salary ceiling for first year players. That way, the finger should not be pointed in the direction of either side. Of course, you would need to get both sides to agree to an arbiter. . .

Step Four: Inclusion of International Players

To even the playing field, allow baseball team’s to draft players that live outside of North America.

Other sports allow for such procedures, why not baseball?

There are a number of issues that may arise by doing this, but those issues could easily be hammered out by discussing it. In the current system, the teams with the deepest scouting departments get to sign the better international players.

The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers make it a high-priority to have numerous scouts in the Dominican Republic and Central America, scouring diamonds in the rough that they can sign without much consequence other then spending money.

Of course, they could run into an ‘age discrepancy’ roadblock and sign a player who is not of signing age. Case in point: the Dodgers signed a promising infielder from Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico who claimed he was 18 years old. Fast-forward some two years and a little snooping later, Beltre turned out to be 16 at the time he signed his contract, a big no-no. The Dodgers were fined and had to forfeit privileges of signing Latin American players for two years.

The whole point: include international players as part of the draft to give all team’s equal chance of getting a blue-chip global prospect. In an ideal world, this would work. Too bad that team’s don’t have the same scouting budgets, but it’s a solid inclusion to spice up the draft.

Step Five: Shorten the Draft

If you hadn’t heard, the baseball has the longest total draft round in any professional sport.

Anyone care to guess?

15? Nope.

25? Try again.

Forget it; the total amount of rounds is 50. And it used to be longer.

Why in the world do we need 50 rounds to select players? In this year’s draft alone, 1,482 players were selected (I’m still waiting for my phone call). To have this many rounds is overkill. I suggest that it would behoove baseball to shorten the draft to say, 20 rounds, unless each major league team agrees to end it earlier. In all honesty, I’d lean towards 15 rounds, but cutting it in half is drastic enough.

One wouldn’t think that a gem could be found so late, but in some instances, it does happen.

Two examples: the Los Angeles Dodgers drafted a young catcher as a favor for then-Dodger manager Tom Lasorda in the 62d round. His name was Mike Piazza, arguably the most prolific offensive player at the catching position ever. In 1971, the St. Louis Cardinals drafted a little known infielder from San Francisco, California in the 42d round. Keith Hernandez went on to win a co-MVP (with Willie Stargell of the Pirates) in 1979 and is arguably the best defensive first baseman of his era.

Step Six: Television

After doing the preceding steps, you can come to some logical conclusion at what’s going to come next.

Television!

Hey, why not? The NFL can broadcast its two-day draft on ESPN and ESPN2, why couldn’t baseball broadcast the first round. Personally, they only need to show the first round. Let’s face it, how many of us knew Jeremy Hermida, the 11th overall selection of the Florida Marlins? Unless you go to Wheeler High School (wherever that is) or Mel Kiper, Jr. of the baseball world, you have no idea who that young man is (If you are reading this Jeremy: no offense).

They round up the folks at a national sports network and put this package together. After all, they did show the Expansion Draft, albeit we knew whom the players were. Seeing the first round at least can build up excitement for a game that sorely needs it.

Most programs have a twelve-step program to make things better. But, in true baseball fashion, they do happen to cut corners, so my suggestion is half the steps to a better draft.

Besides, I did say read at your own risk.