International Draft

[Stotle]

We're obviously in crazy world here, so I don't know what is more on the "plausibly implementable without magic" side of the scale. I'd love to go back in time and have open leagues and independent competing leagues to natually balance revenues to a much greater extent than today. I'd like to eliminate territorial rights and encourage expansion into NYC, LA, Chicago, etc (probably coupled with dividing up into several leagues). I'd be okay with much bigger revenue sharing.

Yes, teams balk at having "their" revenue taken away. It's difficult to convince a Steinbrenner that he's unjustly benefitting from a monopoly. But players chafe at having things taken from them, and fans chafe at prices, too. We can't all get what we want.

I'm glad there aren't five baseball leagues -- I enjoy seeing one league with the best talent. I don't see big issues with the sport. I don't see the need for huge overhauls. Tweaking here and there is fine. Ownership across the game is doing fine. Fans are generally happy. The sport is in good shape.

[Stotle]

It may be better today, as teams like the Browns and Phils probably had many moments of near-insolvancy while the Yanks were pretty much always lighting cigars with $100 bills.

You could also limit teams to, say, 40 protected players and everyone else was a free agent every year. The 41st best player from the Yanks' mega signings would just go to the team that had the best spot for him.

The problem with the "everyone else is a free agent" approach is that there is no incentive for teams to expend resources on acquiring and developing talent. So, you'd be talking about essentially siloing the minor leagues from the majors and trusting the owners in that league to develop players well enough for your purposes, then swooping in and trying to sign them. Maybe that works. But the margins for profitability are pretty tight at that level, and I'm not sure there's enough excess profitability for those minor league teams to pour tons of resources into player development.

Maybe I am overthinking it...or underthinking it...or not thinking at all...I don't know.

[DrungoHazewood]

I'm glad there aren't five baseball leagues -- I enjoy seeing one league with the best talent. I don't see big issues with the sport. I don't see the need for huge overhauls. Tweaking here and there is fine. Ownership across the game is doing fine. Fans are generally happy. The sport is in good shape.

I generally agree. I just like thinking about alternate realities.

[Can_of_corn]

I'm glad there aren't five baseball leagues -- I enjoy seeing one league with the best talent. I don't see big issues with the sport. I don't see the need for huge overhauls. Tweaking here and there is fine. Ownership across the game is doing fine. Fans are generally happy. The sport is in good shape.

Would the average fan even notice if the overall talent level went down? It might even be a good thing as the best players could have historic seasons.

[Stotle]

Would the average fan even notice if the overall talent level went down? It might even be a good thing as the best players could have historic seasons.

Fans would notice their were standout players that were fun to watch spread across three or four league, sure.

[Can_of_corn]

Fans would notice their were standout players that were fun to watch spread across three or four league, sure.

I'm not so sure. You could replace the entire NFL with new players next season and I don't think anyone would notice much of a difference in level of play.

When I have watched minor league ball I have not had issue with the talent distribution.

[Stotle]

I'm not so sure. You could replace the entire NFL with new players next season and I don't think anyone would notice much of a difference in level of play.

When I have watched minor league ball I have not had issue with the talent distribution.

So Kershaw, Trout, Harper, Machado, Correa, Cabrera, Donaldson, Chapman, etc. all spread out across four leagues and no one would notice that by following one or two leagues they are missing out on seeing some of the best players on the planet? You don't notice a fall-off seeing minor leaguers play against comparable talent. How about Kershaw throwing to line-ups that are made-up 1/3 of AA/AAA players?

[Can_of_corn]

So Kershaw, Trout, Harper, Machado, Correa, Cabrera, Donaldson, Chapman, etc. all spread out across four leagues and no one would notice that by following one or two leagues they are missing out on seeing some of the best players on the planet? You don't notice a fall-off seeing minor leaguers play against comparable talent. How about Kershaw throwing to line-ups that are made-up 1/3 of AA/AAA players?

Could be pretty exciting. It would be like baseball was in the 40's and 50's. Guys would hit .400, someone might knock in 200 runs. I am not at all sure it would be a bad thing.

[Stotle]

Could be pretty exciting. It would be like baseball was in the 40's and 50's. Guys would hit .400, someone might knock in 200 runs. I am not at all sure it would be a bad thing.

I think it's likely competitive balance would be horrible across the leagues and many fans would be deprived of following great players with the same closeness. Am I sure it would be a bad thing? No. Who knows how it would shake out. But conceptually it isn't appealing to me.

[Ruzious]

The Braves have been strategerizing for this particular draft for the last 2 years - focusing mainly on a 16 year old SS named Kevin Maitan who's been compared to probably a dozen HOFers already - and a 16 year old catcher named Abrahan Guitierrez - whose been compared to Mike Piazza. In 10 years, the Braves could be good!

[DrungoHazewood]

Fans would notice their were standout players that were fun to watch spread across three or four league, sure.

But would that necessarily be a bad thing? If, for example, the leagues were geographically aligned and expanded from MLB's current footprint? What if the Japanese League got stronger, and North American split and expanded to include the Caribbean and Mexico and parts of Central America? Bring in new revenues, maybe new talent sources, new and different fanbases with different ways of experiencing the game. Is it good or bad that maybe 30% of MLB is foreign-born and will never play a meaningful game on home soil?

Compare and contrast with soccer. There are many, many high level leagues with the best players in the world spread amongst maybe five or six of them. Would soccer be more popular with one top league? I don't know, I kind of doubt it. Each country has a tremendous amount of pride in having their own national soccer structure. Part of the reason that baseball is not like that is a fluke of geography. Baseball is mostly popular in North America, and the demographics and economics don't really support high-level leagues in Canada and Mexico. We do see that in Asia, where the #2, 3, and 4 leagues in the world are probably Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. I doubt that the Asian game would be stronger if someone tried to merge those three national leagues.

[DrungoHazewood]

I think it's likely competitive balance would be horrible across the leagues and many fans would be deprived of following great players with the same closeness. Am I sure it would be a bad thing? No. Who knows how it would shake out. But conceptually it isn't appealing to me.

Is competitive balance everything? We've been trained that way, mainly because we have leagues that are set up to focus solely on winning the one championship. Soccer has relatively less parity, but a much wider, deeper fanbase than MLB because of promotion, relegation, and multiple competitions outside of one set league structure.

[Stotle]

But would that necessarily be a bad thing? If, for example, the leagues were geographically aligned and expanded from MLB's current footprint? What if the Japanese League got stronger, and North American split and expanded to include the Caribbean and Mexico and parts of Central America? Bring in new revenues, maybe new talent sources, new and different fanbases with different ways of experiencing the game. Is it good or bad that maybe 30% of MLB is foreign-born and will never play a meaningful game on home soil?

Compare and contrast with soccer. There are many, many high level leagues with the best players in the world spread amongst maybe five or six of them. Would soccer be more popular with one top league? I don't know, I kind of doubt it. Each country has a tremendous amount of pride in having their own national soccer structure. Part of the reason that baseball is not like that is a fluke of geography. Baseball is mostly popular in North America, and the demographics and economics don't really support high-level leagues in Canada and Mexico. We do see that in Asia, where the #2, 3, and 4 leagues in the world are probably Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. I doubt that the Asian game would be stronger if someone tried to merge those three national leagues.

It's a completely different animal. The best male athletes in Europe play soccer. That's the only way those leagues work, and even then there are players from elsewhere in the globe imported in to participate. You also have a captive fanbase in these countries with this being far and away *the* sport to follow.

Baseball competes with several other major sports leagues already, both for fan attention and for the top athletes in the country. As you rightly point out, the discrepancy between what fans in the US can pay to follow their team versus what fans in Cuba or the DR or PR or Venezuela can pay is huge. The top athletes in Colombia aren't going to start playing baseball over soccer simply because there is a south american version of MLB, nor will Canada become a baseball haven at the expense of hockey.

[Stotle]

Is competitive balance everything? We've been trained that way, mainly because we have leagues that are set up to focus solely on winning the one championship. Soccer has relatively less parity, but a much wider, deeper fanbase than MLB because of promotion, relegation, and multiple competitions outside of one set league structure.

Competitive balance matters when winning a championship matters. US sports fans care about championships.

[DrungoHazewood]

Competitive balance matters when winning a championship matters. US sports fans care about championships.

Sure, now. There isn't anything else. It doesn't have to be that way. It's not like fans got together in 1905 and demanded only sports leagues organized this way.