Baseball draft blunders
Jun 9, 2009
This is not a blog about which teams made draft mistakes or about players who never reached their potential.
This is a blog about the rotten timing of the amateur baseball draft and some of the rules that are clouded at best.
There are 8 teams still playing college baseball and their rosters are littered with potential draft picks. North Carolina has two top 15 picks in Dustin Ackley, selected 2nd by Seattle and Alex White, picked 15th by Cleveland.
Is it fair to the players or the teams that days before heading to the College World Series, the major league amateur draft takes place? Heck no it isn't.
Where will they get drafted? Is it high enough to think about leaving early? Where would the player start out in the minors? Do I have any negotiating power with the team? And oh yeah, I'm trying to get ready to play on the biggest stage in college baseball, the college world series in Omaha.
There is another murky rule in place.
The NCAA allows baseball players to have "advisers" to help them navigate the days before, during and after the draft. "Adviser" is just another word for agent.
"Advisers" will talk to major league teams before the draft to see where a prospect might land. It is also common that the players "adviser" later becomes the player's agent.
Dustin Ackley's college career isn't over and he already has top agent, Scott Boras, as his "adviser." Don't blame Ackley or any other high profile prospect. They need the guidance.
Blame the system. This is a flat violation of NCAA rules. No college player is allowed to have an agent.
Last month, the NCAA sent a memo to college baseball players regarding the hiring of an adviser. “Most adviser relationships, if consistent with current and past practices, lead to violations of NCAA agent legislation,” states the May 11 memo from NCAA vice president Kevin Lennon and NCAA managing director David Schnase.
The five-page memo continues, “It has been the NCAA’s experience that very few advisers actually stay on the permissible side of NCAA agent legislation.” The NCAA continued that players don't really need an adviser to be drafted.
That's certainly true but once drafted, “There are many other things that need to be negotiated,” said one prominent baseball agent, “including whether it is a major or minor league contract, the level where the player starts, whether he participates in major or minor league camp. I could go on and on.”
There is a lot going on in the minds of baseball's top prospects and I haven't even touched on the high school players who have another decision to make. Do I take the money or commit to playing college baseball for two years?
Hitting a baseball is difficult. So is trying to figure out the proper balance of fairness to the player and following the rules to keep an athlete's amateur status.
It all boils down to the timing of the draft. Major league baseball and the NCAA need a better solution than the one in place.
