MLB Skipping the 2020 Draft?

[TheBigLebowski]

I've looked and I don't see it discussed here. If I missed it, please delete and direct me to the proper thread.

I cannot fathom any good reason to do this. One of the proposed alternatives is to have one big draft in 2021, combining the talent pools of the 2 seasons in one draft.

This just reeks to me of trying to find solutions to problems that don't need them.

[TNRED]

Welcome to the new world. Common Sense and reason have been eradicated and are no longer of use.

[JFLegal]

the nfl draft is going to be held (without fans of course) in april, but the mlb draft won't be held in june? i'm not buying that. i bet there will be an mlb draft this summer as usual.

[paintmered]

the nfl draft is going to be held (without fans of course) in april, but the mlb draft won't be held in june? i'm not buying that. i bet there will be an mlb draft this summer as usual.

The difference is football played their most recent season before the draft, baseball will not. How do you conduct a draft when the most current scouting and film is a year old, especially when many of those players are high schoolers and a year can make an enormous difference?

[Boston Red]

So do you have a one year one and done rule for the class of 2020 letting them play one year of college ball before entering the draft? Or do all those top players go JUCO? Or do we have some sort of elite U19 AAU/USSSA/whatever organization season unaffiliated with colleges?

Certainly some interesting possibilities.

[Chip R]

So do you have a one year one and done rule for the class of 2020 letting them play one year of college ball before entering the draft? Or do all those top players go JUCO? Or do we have some sort of elite U19 AAU/USSSA/whatever organization season unaffiliated with colleges?

Certainly some interesting possibilities.

Yeah. They may still be waiting for the NCAA to decide on whether to give spring sport athletes an extra year of eligibility. So if there's no draft, all draft eligible players should be free agents, right?

[redsrule2500]

There's literally no reason they can't hold the draft, even if it was completely remotely.

This is just more virtue signaling to the whole "We're all in this together.....We're helping more - Look, we've canceled the most stuff!"

[TheBigLebowski]

There's literally no reason they can't hold the draft, even if it was completely remotely.

This is just more virtue signaling to the whole "We're all in this together.....We're helping more - Look, we've canceled the most stuff!"

Verdad.

I keep trying to figure out how canceling the draft helps more than having it.

[Kc61]

The difference is football played their most recent season before the draft, baseball will not. How do you conduct a draft when the most current scouting and film is a year old, especially when many of those players are high schoolers and a year can make an enormous difference?

Yes. In fact they are also considering delaying the International signing period. And there are multiple reasons for the discussion.

First, as the above post says, there is no way to scout baseball players in the current environment. You’d be drafting/signing based on old and potentially stale information.

Second, baseball will be receiving relatively little revenue with no games on the horizon. Seems imprudent to be signing a whole new batch of players, including expensive high draft choices, with no operating training facilities or games to be played.

Football is in a different posture given the timing.

NBA? I wonder if they’ll hold the draft in June. It’s possible they will, most of the high school and college seasons were played, albeit no playoffs/NCAA tourney. But if the virus situation is prolonged, maybe NBA will postpone it’s draft.

[Rojo Rijo]

How can you not have a draft and place these kids into limbo for a year?

I'm not buying it. If they aren't drafted then they should 100% be free agents eligible to sign anywhere.

[dougdirt]

One of the big reasons this idea was floated was that it would save a team an average of about $13M. Some teams more, some a little less. But if you toss in the international signing period, which is also on the table for being cancelled, that's another $5-6M per team.

Teams are going to need to find ways to save money. This is one proposal. It'll cause plenty of issues, some for MLB and plenty for those outside of it.

[RedTeamGo!]

I think this would happen for two reasons (and neither of them have to do with “virtue signalling” ::yawns:: )

1.) Limit risk - the spring and early summer is generally spent scouting the players that are going to be in the draft, committing millions of dollars on 18-21 year olds is already risky, doing so with players you haven’t seen or have any tape on since 2019 is risky as hell. However, some teams would probably hit on some quality future players later in the draft by pure dumb luck.

2.) Money - as Doug said, this is a way for teams to save some cash going into the next season. Pretty simple stuff.

But sure, the librul media has forced MLB to cancel the draft to signal to the 2,739 fans that actually pay attention to the mlb draft how woke they are. I am really smart.

[JFLegal]

The difference is football played their most recent season before the draft, baseball will not. How do you conduct a draft when the most current scouting and film is a year old, especially when many of those players are high schoolers and a year can make an enormous difference?

how is skipping the draft a better solution than having the draft based upon scouting reports prior to the 2020 season? and at least there were a few weeks of college baseball. Very small sample size, but it is something.

having the draft as scheduled certainly isn't a perfect plan, but it is absolutely the lesser of the evils. skipping the draft would make zero sense to me. let's say you're a high school senior and everyone agrees you're a first-rounder, the only question is how high. you are going to keep a kid like that in limbo for a full year? the draft would just become even more of a crapshoot, but teams would still have detailed pre-2020 season scouting reports on all of these players. they wouldn't be going in blind and just throwing darts at the wall. teams can also talk to the players' coaches (and the players themselves) on the phone to get additional information.

holding the draft as scheduled seems like a much better situation than canceling the draft.

[Kc61]

how is skipping the draft a better solution than having the draft based upon scouting reports prior to the 2020 season? and at least there were a few weeks of college baseball. Very small sample size, but it is something.

having the draft as scheduled certainly isn't a perfect plan, but it is absolutely the lesser of the evils. skipping the draft would make zero sense to me. let's say you're a high school senior and everyone agrees you're a first-rounder, the only question is how high. you are going to keep a kid like that in limbo for a full year? the draft would just become even more of a crapshoot, but teams would still have detailed pre-2020 season scouting reports on all of these players. they wouldn't be going in blind and just throwing darts at the wall. teams can also talk to the players' coaches (and the players themselves) on the phone to get additional information.

holding the draft as scheduled seems like a much better situation than canceling the draft.

Would seem doubtful that MLB will hold a baseball draft this June. The future is too uncertain. Nobody knows when organized baseball will resume. Once there’s a schedule for resuming baseball then I’m sure they will deal with this in some way, hopefully it’ll be sooner rather than later.

Even the NFL free agency and upcoming draft seem surreal at this moment, but they are in-between seasons and the timing has worked out (so far).

Any baseball draft prospects will just have to adjust like everybody else.

[Boston Red]

Maybe they could have the first 5 (3? 2?) rounds of the draft so that the true "no-brainers" can go ahead and get on with their professional careers.

Also, this notion of no-draft weirdly dovetails with the MLB's plan to cut back on Minor League teams since no draft will likely mean no season for the Pioneer and Appalachian Leagues (or at least for one of the two). The timing of this is amazing for proponents of that plan (not that they would have wanted THIS to happen, of course).