Will this ever come to fruition? The NBA does it(drafting players on a global scale), but can this ever be true for baseball? I kinda like the idea of eliminating the bidding war that may go on for international players that have never played in the big leagues. That way, every team has a better/more equal chance of getting players through the draft process rather than go into a bidding war for the services of, say a Ichiro Suzuki, for example. What do you all think?
I believe one of the recent concessions (few and far between, I know) that the union and MLB made was to hold a worldwide draft. They still haven't compromised on the number of rounds - one side wants to reduce it from 32 to 25, while the other side wants to cut it from 32 to 16 - but they have at least agreed in principle to a worldwide draft as part of the next baseball CBA. In any case, it will definately aid competative balance, as long as MLB can implement a rookie salary scale-like structure and cap signing bonuses; otherwise, these players will simply hold out for the better, deeper pocketed teams as always. It will leave a lot of qualified players, both domestic and foreign, out of the draft however and should still provide for some intriguing prospects coming out of the free agent pools after the draft.
I think cutting the draft down to less rounds would be defeating the purpose of the World Draft(to decrease the bidding wars). Becuz you are right on when you say that there will be lots of qualified players(domestic and international) who would be free agents(thus teams would bid for these guys) if the draft was cut down to 16-25 rounds. But w/ the players union being so strong, I could see the owners losing this one as well. Oh hell, what am I saying, the owners are going to lose everything like always......
Personally, I think a "world" draft is a terrible idea that would do more harm than good to the small & mid-market teams. Everyone seems to focus on the very few Ichiro/El Duque type talents that merit huge bidding wars, while ignoring: a) there are just as many big $$$ foreign FA busts as there are superstars - like the Morales (?) kid from Cuba that the Yanks signed; and b) player development is the only cost-efficient method for the small & mid-market teams to compete with the big boys under the current economic system. Why take away the Astros Venezuelan & Dominican academies or the A's & Expos excellent Latin & Carribbean scouting/development systems? The teams who have invested serious time/money into foreign player development would basically be forced to open up their inventory of players that they have nurtured & developed from the age of 14 or so. Want a slotted salary scale for draft picks? Great. Just leave player development outta this.
What if they could institute something like the NFL where the money you give to your draft picks were tied into the amount of money you could spend that year(yes, a salary cap would also have to be instituted for this to work). Wouldn't that make this work without getting into "bidding wars"? I also agree with ya, a slotted salary scale for draft picks would even be better!
I seriously doubt there will ever be a hard cap (ala the NFL) in baseball. I see increased revenue sharing (50-75%), a salary floor ($50 mil, active roster, excluding benefits etc...) & luxury tax (50-75% on payrolls over $100 mil) as the best we can hope for. The player development side of MLB has never been part of the problem, so why mess with something that ain't broke? A salary cap for draft picks is something the MLBPA shouldn't fight too hard, that's just more money to spend on the big leaguers.
