Home Commentary And Analysis CBA Madness, Phase III (Owners Are Dumb)

CBA Madness, Phase III (Owners Are Dumb)

By
Rice Cube
-
92

OK so we have seen MLBPA throw out a proposal and MLB submitting a counteroffer (that I would say is not ideal by any means if I’m being nice), now we have a new wrinkle that doesn’t actually have to do with the salary cap:

  • No more eligibility for high school players (must be 20 by September 1 of the draft year), probably because of the influx of NIL money
  • Reducing rounds from 20 to 12
  • Hard slots (can’t manipulate the pool like in the past)
  • Picks can now be traded and no more Competitive Balance Round picks (tied in to the salary cap/floor proposal)
  • Oh yeah, international draft, which the players really hate

So I’ve been of the philosophy that there is rarely any profit in doing the right thing, and that business is only worried about growing their artificial construct of a worth number, damn the torpedoes. I guess billionaires don’t care about eroding purchasing power and the value of the dollar because their numerical growth far outpaces what the rest of us peasants suffer, but if we restrict our soapboxing to just baseball-adjacent ramifications, here’s what I think will happen…

  • Baseball will be further reduced to the pool of players who can afford all the training, traveling teams, and whatever else that gives them a leg up on everyone else. Even though NIL money exists, the amount given out is probably not as good as a top 10 round bonus amount, whether hard slotted or not. So the incentive to continue in a sport where earning potential has been restricted doesn’t seem to be as prevalent, at least to me.
  • The age limit thing is basically porting the bulk of development to the college programs rather than the minor leagues, which is already something the other sports do but doesn’t seem right for baseball.
  • I suppose this also requires front offices to get even more stringent with their selection criteria, and a reduced but enriched pool of players would seem to make it easier to develop guys who eventually trickle up to the top and become impact contributors, but I am also reminded of when MLB essentially killed a quarter of MiLB and imposed organizational roster limits, which seemed very short-sighted and detrimental to the long-term reach and health of baseball as a whole.
  • Even more so than before, how would domestic players from US, Canada, and whoever is umbrella’d under the current Rule 4 Draft supposed to compete with the international guys? Sure if you raise the age of eligibility it may reduce some corruption in the international circuit, but I really don’t think so since people have been grooming (ugh) these kids since they were like 12.

It isn’t surprising that the players side isn’t keen about this proposal, which is all about reducing costs and not much else. From a community perspective, it is also making the barrier to entry for baseball much more difficult to knock down for many folks, whether they want to go to a minor league game or to become good enough to be noticed by a scout.

92 COMMENTS

  1. Juneteenth lineup:

    CF PCA
    3B Bregman
    1B Busch
    DH Suzuki
    LF Happ
    RF Shaw
    2B Hoerner
    C Kelly
    SS Swanson

    Wondering if Gausman has reverse splits which I definitely did not look up.

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  5. Carson Kelly hit the ball out to left center, more center than left, and Zaidman said, “Will it stay fair . . .”

    So, yeah.

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  14. Not sure what got the bigger (dying laughing), that Carson Kelly challenged a pitch up 16-2 or that the entire ball was in the zone. Does this ump not want to get out of here

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  31. Thielbar has gotta be close to DFA territory. Nobody is doing all that great, but he has huge struggles getting outs.

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  45. Rice Cube:
    In an alternate universe Schwarber is a Cub for life doing the Hulk smash thing

    My main regret after the World Series, merch-wise, was getting a Schwarber jersey instead of a Hendricks one. But I’m confident Jed regrets non-tendering him a hell of a lot more.

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  48. I need to hint harder to people who think I’m hard to shop for wrt birthday/xmas that Carlos Zambrano jerseys exist

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  50. berselius:
    I need to hint harder to people who think I’m hard to shop for wrt birthday/xmas that Carlos Zambrano jerseys exist

    I bought an authentic Zambrano jersey (blue of course) at steep discount back in 2011 after he kinda rage quit the team. Still have it.

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  51. Logic

    Daily Walkoff
    Cubs #661
    “Silver And Gold”

    🟢🟢🟢🟢🚀

    dailywalkoff.com

    Grid was terrible, barely any Brewers won GG and the most recent ones would be too obvious

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  77. berselius,

    Well they asked him and he said it was all good and his office’s paperwork agreed. Sounds like an exhaustive investigation to me. (dying laughing)

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  90. Excellent company

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