STARKVILLE — The completion of a new era to the Major League Baseball first-year player draft has more smiles on the faces of those involved in the game at all levels.
Professional executives are happy to not waste draft on prospects who will not sign. College coaches are satisfied to have more of their recruits actually show up on campus in the fall. Fans of the college game, like local season-ticket holders in Starkville, should be excited at the potential for growth in overall talent in what they’re about to watch over the next few years.
“What we just witnessed this week is a draft that was the first of its kind,” Mississippi State University coach John Cohen said. “It’ll take some time to evaluate but there’s some positives in it already yes.”
Last November, Major League Baseball released its newest five-year collective bargaining agreement that drastically changes the philosophy of the first-year player draft for draft-eligible players with the consensus theory being more high-profile high school prospects would choose college over a large signing bonus from a professional organization.
That hypothesis became a reality over the three-day draft process culminating Wednesday with the final 14 rounds of the 2012 MLB draft.
“I think that’s exactly what’s going to happen, and the majority of coaches I’ve heard from feel the same way,” Baseball America national writer Aaron Fitt said. “I also expect you’ll see a lot more quality college juniors coming back for their senior years.”
MLB and the MLB Players Union created Tuesday what is now referred to as signing bonus pools where each franchise will be assigned an aggregate dollar value they’ll be allowed to spend prior to each draft by calculating he sum of that club’s selections in the first 10 rounds of the draft.
“I think history will soon look back at this day as one of the most important days ever in our sport,” Cohen said last November. “I just can’t believe everybody got this done because it’s something we’ve been talking about for years.”
Prospects selected after the 10th round will not count against that pool unless they receive a signing bonus greater of $100,000.
This rule adjustment was created in order to limit the big market organizations from being able to draft a high school prospect in the later rounds but offer him a bonus to essentially buy their way out his signed National Letter-of-Intent with a university.
“In my 16 years of experience evaluating talent and signing kids to professional contracts, this issue of spending way over slot was becoming crazy,” Colorado Rockies scout Damon Iannelli said. “I never understood having to buy a kid away from what he really wanted to do.”
Last year’s incoming freshman pitchers Brandon Woodruff, drafted in the fifth round by the Texas Rangers and Jacob Lindgren, drafted in the 12th round by the Chicago Cubs, both told The Dispatch throughout the process they turned down offers over $500,000 to attend MSU.
“I think it made something completely unpredictable a lot more predictable because of what the constraints allow for a club to do,” Cohen said. “I know I speak from the perspective of the college game on this but the process is much more open now for both sides to talk to kids.”
Two year ago, Fairhope (Ala.) infielder Daryl Norris, a 2010 Louisville Slugger Pre-Season High School All-American selection said he and his father informed clubs he not sign for less than $500,000 and was subsequently not drafted until the 46th round by the Texas Rangers.
This summer Norris, a draft-eligible sophomore, was not selected at all in the 2012 draft mainly due to the response he and his family gave to professional organizations that he wanted badly to return to MSU for his junior season.
“I know guys like Daryl and our signees received a considerable amount of phone calls because teams wanted to know their interest before they drafted them,” Cohen said. “Before teams would just draft them and then wait out their interest.”
The draft bonus pools will be relegated by a tax system that potentially penalizes franchises greatly for going over the dollar allotment. Under the current agreement that runs through 2016, if a club spends over the pool allotment by 0-5 percent then they will be taxed 75% tax on that overage.
Any overspending by 5-10 percent causes a 75 percent tax on the overage and a loss of 1st round pick. Any spending over 10-15 percent results in a 100 percent tax on overage and loss of 1st and 2nd round picks. Finally, spending over 15 percent will mean a 100 percent tax on overage and loss of 1st round picks in next two drafts.
“I think the biggest difference will be with the prospects whose draft stock dropped for signability concerns,” SEbaseball.com editor Mark Etheridge said. “Many times they were early round talents that were picked in the 12-19 rounds or later. Then right before the signing deadline the club would offer them early round money and they would sign. This left the college coaches scrambling to replace a difference-making player at the close of summer.”
The general consensus among people around both the amateur and professional baseball ranks a lot of draft-eligible players were either not selected at all or selected after the 10th round as educated risks due to the new rules of the draft.
“I don’t think a $90,000 bonus is going to keep a kid drafted outside the 10th round from honoring his commitment to a Southeastern Conference or high profile college program any longer,” Fitt said. “College baseball just more premier talent in its game because of today’s rules and personally, I love seeing it.”
Additionally, the signing deadline was moved up by a month from Aug. 15 to somewhere between July 12-18, depending on the timing of the MLB All-Star Game. Both sides wanted this move desperately to get signed prospects into the system quicker but also allow college coaches a chance in the late summer to restock their recruiting classes after losing signees to the draft process.
“We’re going to now know something about our drafted players much more quickly allowing coaches to retool things with some time before fall camp starts,” Cohen said.
On the final day of the signing deadline in 2011, 101 draft prospects came to terms on a contract, forcing most of them to miss playing in the minors until the following season.
“The quicker deadline is a no-brainer because the signing process should all be about communicating with the prospect’s family and doing your homework on what the kid wants to do,” Iannelli said.
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