Abolish The Draft

[Crazysilver03]

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My proposal would take $200 million from the revenue sharing pool and redistribute it for the purpose of creating budgets for yearly amateur talent acquisition. The draft is eliminated all together, and instead, a worldwide unsigned player auction would be held each summer. College kids, high school kids, international kids – all of them would be eligible for open bidding, where agents could negotiate the best deal they could get for their client with any team that is interested.

Each team would be capped at spending no more than allotted through the revenue sharing pool, which would be based on a two year moving average of their ranking in winning percentage. So, for example, the $200 million could be split up like this.

Average Win% over last two years, descending order.

Teams 1-5: $2 million each

Teams 6-10: $3 million each

Teams 11-15: $5 million each

Teams 16-20: $8 million each

Teams 21-25: $10 million each

Teams 26-30: $12 million each

The top tier teams who have been winning recently would receive small sums of money that would essentially take them out of the running for the premium talents. Given that the teams that finished in the bottom half would likely be willing to bid ~60-70% of their budgets on the top guys available, the Strasburgs of the world would probably command bonuses in the $7 or $8 million range, which the winning teams would not be able to match.

This is a really interesting concept. In following paragraphs, he states you could focus on college pitching if you really wanted to.

Of course, the only problem is how do you go about filling out the minor league teams. How would undrafted free agents fit into this model.

[crawdad]

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This is a really interesting concept. In following paragraphs, he states you could focus on college pitching if you really wanted to.

Of course, the only problem is how do you go about filling out the minor league teams. How would undrafted free agents fit into this model.

Yeah, basically what I was telling Stotle, except I graded it out instead of combining every 5. Forces the teams to spend the shared revenue.

[jerios55]

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This is a really interesting concept. In following paragraphs, he states you could focus on college pitching if you really wanted to.

Of course, the only problem is how do you go about filling out the minor league teams. How would undrafted free agents fit into this model.

Well, our draft budget this year ended up being under 9 million this year and I'm sure there are a few filler guys. Might need another 1-2 million for 6 year FA's or something. Since every team needs fillers this amount could be equal.

[BringBackMagic]

That plan is nice and all, but it would probably be better if we tried to discuss a real possibility in improving the draft. Something like that will never happen. Like I said, it's a nice stat-head view on it, but not anywhere near reality.

[Crazysilver03]

That plan is nice and all, but it would probably be better if we tried to discuss a real possibility in improving the draft. Something like that will never happen. Like I said, it's a nice stat-head view on it, but not anywhere near reality.

Just because you don't want to discuss it doesn't mean that people should forget about it. You are right that it isn't realistic in the current atmosphere but we can still discuss it.

[clarence]

I think it's a really good idea, but the powers that control mlb (yanks, bosox) would never allow it.

Any undrafted/ unsigned prospect could just report to minor league camp if invited and receive standard pay for that level.

[JTrea81]

I think it's a really good idea, but the powers that control mlb (yanks, bosox) would never allow it.

Any undrafted/ unsigned prospect could just report to minor league camp if invited and receive standard pay for that level.

They are only 2 teams in a league of 30. If the majority of owners want it, it could happen.

[jtm845]

I wonder if some players would take less money to go Boston, NY, LA, etc. Teams like KC might get the shaft from certain players even if they are the highest bidder.

[jerios55]

I wonder if some players would take less money to go Boston, NY, LA, etc. Teams like KC might get the shaft from certain players even if they are the highest bidder.

I was thinking the same. Yankees and BoSox still give the best chances to get money when they sign a contract. What would stop them from signing guys to a bigger contract a year later.

[Arthur_Bryant]

They are only 2 teams in a league of 30. If the majority of owners want it, it could happen.

The teams that are currently pocketing a good part of the revenue sharing pool will probably also oppose it, though they'd be dumb to do that. But they're already dumb.

BTW the article is by Dave Cameron. An idea this good deserves the credit.

[Wingman]

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This is a really interesting concept. In following paragraphs, he states you could focus on college pitching if you really wanted to.

Of course, the only problem is how do you go about filling out the minor league teams. How would undrafted free agents fit into this model.

Not a bad idea but there's a much simpler solution... Just make the drafted prospects sign with the team that drafts them (or allow them to be traded) for an amount negotiated by the union. They could sign out of high school or when they finish college or any year in between, that would be up to the player. I would even allow for earlier FA to offset the "loss of control" to the players. This system is pretty much already used by the NHL and works fine.