NY Times - Puerto Rico Traces Baseball’s Slide to the Draft

After decades of populating major league rosters with All-Stars at every position, Puerto Rico had only 20 players on opening day rosters last season.

4 months ago JaysSaskatchewan 4 comments 0 recs |

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If baseball implements a worldwide draft

will that decrease the number of players coming from Latin America? Teams don’t have as much interest in player development in Puerto Rico because any team can draft the player.

by JaysSaskatchewan on Jan 17, 2012 11:12 AM EST reply actions

It's sad

But I think the biggest problem is the lack of even playing field vis a vis other Latin American countries. A worldwide draft would even that, and I’m skeptical it would pull every other country down to PR’s level in terms of less talent coming out.

by MjwW on Jan 17, 2012 11:35 AM EST up reply actions

From the article

Perhaps more important, major league teams have less incentive to cultivate talent in Puerto Rico because those players may end up with another team through the draft.

Caribbean nations like Venezuela and the Dominican Republic have not been forced to be part of the draft, and players from many other nations can sign with major league teams as free agents as young as 16. As a result, teams have abandoned Puerto Rico for Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, where they invest hundreds of millions of dollars in academies.

Do you think mlb teams will keep developing talent if any team can draft them?

by JaysSaskatchewan on Jan 17, 2012 11:48 AM EST up reply actions

I don't have a definitive answer, obviously

My point was, I think a large part of that phenomena is because of the lack of an even plaing field. Why develop talent that can be poached in Puerto Rico if it can be poached through the draft, when you can go elsewhere (Venezuela, DR). But if there’s a worldwide draft, you can’t go elsewhere and do that. So then teams will re-invest in scouting, trying to find the hidden gems.

In terms of development, there’s perhaps little incentive for individual tams to invest in development, but this is where MLB should step in with dollars to ensure the growth of the game (and solve a potential market failure…if you go to a worldwide draft)

by MjwW on Jan 17, 2012 12:00 PM EST up reply actions