Boras Demands For Alvarez, Hosmer Leaked?

Simply more proof why Boras is bad for baseball.

Let the Free fall begin on Alvarez

The draft is whats wrong with baseball, I think its proven that small market teams can win with good drafting and good scouting. However when the scales are tipped in favor of the large market teams from the very ground roots of the league things will never be even.

If baseball EVER wants to have a competitive balance, they MUST do something about these STUPID signing bonuses and big dollar contracts for UNKNOWN talent.

Paying players who HAVE DONE NOTHING IN THE MAJORS big money like this is just plain stupid. I say, put a cap in place, maybe $100,000 dollars each, for ALL Draftees. That way, small market temas can afford to Draft GOOD players and not have to pass on them because they are asking for TOO MUCH MONEY.

Maybe the Yankees can afford to pay BIG BUCKS to guys like Brien Taylor and have them NEVER reach the Majors but small market teams CAN NOT.

If these guys don't like the idea of getting $100,000 right out of high school or college, then they can either NOT go into baseball or go to college and get a degree in something where they CAN make that much money.

I highly doubt MOST of these guys could make that much money anywhere else if they are coming right out of high school or college. So, they would go into the Minors and actually have to work their way through instead of being promoted just because of how much money they are being paid.

Now, to keep the Player's Association happy, the Major League minimum salary would have to be increased. Thus yet ANOTHER reason for these young Draftees to work hard and try to get to the Majors.

I think there are several ways to improve the draft:

1) Foreign players must declare eligibility for the draft and be signed through the draft process or as an undrafted player. This prevents teams with huge scouting budgets from locking up every promising 13 year old in the Dominican Republic. This would also prevent players like Dice-K going to the highest bidder.

2) Draft picks should be tradeable for either other draft picks or for players in the minor or major leagues. Draft picks cannot be traded for cash consideration.

3) Slotting would allow teams to have a very good estimate of how much their player will cost. Players can not be paid over slot.

4) In the event a player who is drafted goes unsigned (because they refuse their slot amount or because they go to college instead) the drafting team should hold the rights to the player for a specific # of years. After the term expires the player is eligible to re-enter the draft and start the process over again.

Each of these ideas is aimed at providing equity in the draft and allowing teams with a more limited budget the opportunity to draft quality players. It also reduces the ability of agents (like Boras) to hold teams ransom for insane amounts of money.

Garbage! I am a huge Angel Fan. Does anyone remember the Angels payroll in the 80s and 90s?

1. They do not play in a traditional huge market (anaheim)

2. They compete with the Padres and Dodgers for fans

3.They didnt make money till they started winning

Additionally EVERY SINGLE team got a $30 million check from MLB.com alone.

It is garbage that teams can be called small market in the draft. Every team can afford to pay a lot if they have to pick top 5.

yes, contracts like Johan and A-rod are larger financial risks, but all these teams have a lot of money and either are being run inefficenetly or are cheap. There is never a reason a team should avoid talent in a draft for 750,000-2 million dollars. Its the equivilent of a journeymans annual salary.

Its ludacris that people buy into this

And I like that idea of not letting kids return to the draft the next year. That is probably all that is needed. say, drafting teams have a college player's rights for 3 years and a high schooler's for 6 years. Unless you want to be the next Matt Harrington, sign.
Keep the present rule about not being able to trade a freshly drafted player.

Tim, I think saying that every team in the league but 3-4 teams is cheap maybe shows a deeper problem. If baseball was Basketball and these players are star players right out of College and even high school I might agree.

That last sentence says it all, gogopalehose. A lot of these small market teams are dedicated to pocketing the revenue sharing money, not winning.

I agree on teams should get the players rights for up to 3 years. But I'd only say that about 1st round picks. Some guys taken in the 3rd round should be able to return and let them get some more seasoning. And maybe move up to being a 1st round type.

Rearden I completely agree with you on that, however it is a Different issue. I do think that the MLB should have a Salary cap thats like the NHL's. Obviously A. it lowers the total spending from the top end teams but B. it also forces some teams to spend more with a min Salary for each team.

Since we are really only talking about giving a Boras' player 3MM more than a cheaper player, than why doesn't the team just give up the extra 3MM to the Boras' player. For example, this winter the Oriols signed Steve Trachsel to a 1 year, 3MM contract. Is he going to help the Oriols win that many more games? But if they just gave the extra 3MM to the Boras' player, he might be a big upgrade over a cheaper player.

2 things...
1) Owners all HAVE the money to pay these guys these astronomical SB's. They just don't because they're greedy bastards. That's not always the case, but a lot of the time they pass up the chance to improve their team a lot but they just wanna save a few bucks in the short term.

"Corey - I'm all for ballplayers getting fair compensation. I don't have any issues with talented players making a lot of money.

My concern comes with the purpose of the draft. The draft is designed to provide an opportunity for poorer performing teams to acquire inexpensive, high quality talent. Talent, that they may not be able to afford through costly FA acquisitions. In reality, the draft is becoming a 2nd FA period. Players price themselves out of the range of teams who should be drafting them.

Instead, the best talent falls down the draft board to teams with deep pockets. The cycle of inequity continues. The teams that need the talent the most often pass up the best talent in order to find someone who they can afford.

This cycle perpetuates the model where rich teams continue to get better and poorer teams continue to be bound in mediocrity."

You are exactly right.

The only question that needs to be asked is how is the draft order made anyways? So if it is essentially made based upon which teams had the worst record and which had the best than theoretically shouldn't the worst teams acquire the best players?

But regardless, if you're running a team with a $140M payroll versus a team with a $70M payroll, having that extra money makes it easier for you to overspend in the draft. And the fact is that Carl Pohlad has way more money than George Steinbrenner, regardless of how much money the Yankees make. If Pohlad wanted to turn the Twins into a financial giant, he could do it easily. He just chooses not to, in order to make more money. The team seems to win anyways so he gets away with it most of the time

Forbes ranks Carl Pohlad tied for the 107th richest person in the United States, with a net worth of 2.6 billion dollars. This man could/should of signed Johan and not worried about the dough, but hey i'm not complaining.

In theory, the draft is a chance for small market teams to compete by spending some extra money on signing young players instead of LOTS of extra money on high-priced free agents. Of course now, teams like the Yankees, Tigers, Dodgers, Mets, and BoSox have figured out they can spend tons of money on both... Some way to enforce the slotting system and a cap on bonuses needs to be put in place, and draft picks should be tradeable.

That said, "Pedro Alvarez" is a baseball name if I've ever heard one, and he'll get paud based on that alone.