Selig, MLB Teams At Odds Over Draft Pick Signing Bonuses
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Are Teams Of Running
Afoul Of Selig In Draft? |
The next two months for MLB will "put a pair of questions in a crucible: How much economic leeway do MLB teams feel they have to spend on draft picks, and how worried are they about running afoul" of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, according to Ben Goessling of the WASHINGTON TIMES. At next week's MLB First-Year Player Draft, agent Scott Boras "could have more than half of the top 10 picks," including projected No. 1 pick San Diego State Univ. P Stephen Strasburg. It "seems almost a foregone conclusion at this point that Strasburg will shatter the previous record for a signing bonus" of $10.5M paid to former MLBer Mark Prior in '01. However, MLB last week reportedly "decided to cut its slot recommendations for draft pick signing bonuses" by 10%. The move "probably won't curtail the bonuses much, but MLB has been firm with clubs that get cavalier with the signing process, and lower recommendations make discrepancies all the more glaring." As a result, "everyone will be watching because this draft -- with a once-in-a-generation prospect and an enterprising agent set against a cautious commissioner in an uncertain climate -- will have ramifications for more teams than just the Nationals," who have the No. 1 pick in the draft. It will "test how much weight the slotting system carries, if it has any at all" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 6/2). ESPN's Rick Sutcliffe said, "The draft picks in baseball need to be slotted. ... It can't be highway robbery every year. You can't have teams not able to draft certain guys because they can't sign them. You're going to lose the parity that baseball has gotten back" ("Red Sox-Tigers," ESPN, 6/3).
DIFFERENT WORLDS: In Philadelphia, Paul Domowitch wrote under the header, "NFL Seems To Have Better Handle On Steroid Problem Than MLB." While MLB "dealt with the steroids issue by not dealing with it, until it finally was shamed into doing something about it," NFL VP/Law & Labor Policy Adolpho Birch noted the NFL was "suspending players when people didn't care about" steroids. Also, the fact that MLB and the MLBPA had to be "dragged kicking and screaming into the war on steroids clearly is a big reason why so much more attention is being focused these days on PED use in baseball than football." But Domowitch wrote there also are "other reasons, not the least of which is baseball's obsession with statistics," as well as that there "isn't the same public fascination with steroid use in football that there is in baseball" (PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 6/3).
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