MLB GMs Want Deadline To Sign Draftees Moved Up To July

Jocketty Voices Support Of Earlier Deadline For MLB Draft Pick Signings

Reds GM Walt Jocketty and other GMs are pushing for the deadline to sign MLB draftees be "moved up, one of several issues ripe for discussion" during the next CBA negotiations in '11, according to John Shea of the S.F. CHRONICLE. Jocketty: "The deadline is at least two months after the draft. I'd like to see it sooner. Most GMs would. Make the deadline July 15. You should be able to get a deal done in 30 days." The GMs also will "try to limit (even cap) the signing bonuses -- a la the NBA and NFL -- and the union might be forced by its membership to be on board." The "outrageous bonuses teams pay nonunion amateurs could mean less money for unionized big-leaguers, who aren't necessarily excited" that No. 1 draft pick P Stephen Strasburg signed a record four-year, $15.1M deal with the Nationals (S.F. CHRONICLE, 8/20). MLB Commissioner Bud Selig: "There's no question in my mind, in 2011, certainly a (hard) slotting system and a worldwide draft are things we will be very aggressive in talking about" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 8/19).

THE BUCK STOPS HERE: In Daytona Beach, Dave Markowitz writes, "All the talk about how the draft must change is just another way of saying ... that baseball teams again have to be saved from themselves. All the entrepreneurs and corporations that comprise the ownership of baseball's 30 teams can accumulate millions and millions of dollars in the business world, but in the baseball world they suddenly have to be taught the meaning of a buck." Markowitz: "Teams want slotting ... because it takes away all the bargaining and all the risk of contract negotiations. Too bad the players don't have someone to absorb the risk for them" (NEWS-JOURNALONLINE.com, 8/20).