Immediate Reactions to New CBA

It just lowers the margins for the Rays, but I see it being a worse deal for small market teams with high yearly draft picks (think Pirates, Royals).

Not sure how the Rays can manipulate that, but more choice should play in their favor.

see Maury’s article linked above. Teams can go over & pay a tax, or go over and give up a 1st rd pick, or two.

The sucky part is everyone has to register in a central draft database now so you can’t sneak anyone through

Gee, do people really think this?

(Not a serious comment. Just pushing rglass’s button.)

if a player comes out of high school and decides to play College Football that’s a choice.

But so few college football players go to play pro and there is no minor league system to make a living off of.

So, even if you have attrition of some athletes to college FB or Basketball my guess is they will still play baseball and will return to the draft as college juniors/seniors once it is obvious that they aren’t going to make it in the NFL/NBA.

All sports are very difficult to reach the professional level but you can still make a nice little living in minor league baseball. Of course, the wages could be paltry for most, but if you can get a decent signing bonus of around 150K you’ve at least bought yourself the opportunity to chase a dream.

At the top of the draft. Was $3M (for instance) not enough to lure Starling away from Nebraska football, rather than the $7M he got (IIRC)? What if he knew that he would still only get $3M after three years when he graduated? (Assuming he doesn’t believe he’s in the less than 1% of 1% who make that as an NFL pro.)

And at the bottom of the draft, it’s more grey. But you can still make a living (sort of) in the minors plus an education (free?) after. Is a football/basketball scholarship really going to pull players away from baseball just b/c fewer guys get $50k MiLB signing bonuses?

Many JC kids may elect to get into the system immediately rather than transferring to Div 1.

Why transfer when you’re $ is basically capped.

A lot of high school kids may just go the JUCO route and then be satisfied with their draft level?

where 99% of the guys there have a 0% chance of making the majors.

on the CBA last year an interesting story came up about Bonus Babies. These drafted players who were paid a certain $ bonus had to be on a MLB roster immediately and stay there for 2 years before you could send them down.

The maneuvering among teams was often questioned but none more than the relationship with the K.C. Athletics and the Yankees. The Athletics drafted Clete Boyer and after his 2 years was up traded him to the Yankees as a player to be named later in a deal from the previous winter. A lot of owners felt the Yankees were just using the A’s as a farm system to season players.

Funny if players are drafted and signed and 1 year later included in trades from one org to another in a clever way to avoid a tax. Probably never happen but I’m certain that conspirators will call on the Ole Clete Boyer story as an example of how to get around a rule.

The Rays probably have a .00001% chance of winning.

To make quota. the Rays should sign, say, David Price to a front loaded contract?