FanPulse: Most feel an extra year NCAA eligibility will effect impact the MLB draft

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A day after the NFL draft (my son said without sports he was way to into the NFL draft) the FanPulse was all on the changing MLB draft. I had a tough time with the questions this week, I tend to think draft questions are above my pay grade. And these ones weren pretty general.

For now, the MLB Draft could have as few as five rounds and may occur more than a month after originally scheduled. With five rounds I’d imagine teams might lean more to college players. I’d think safer picks might be the order of the day.

To help some of these players facing an uncertain future, the NCAA announced earlier this month they would allow baseball players to return for a fifth year of eligibility. They will also expand baseball rosters to help fit the incoming class.

With all of those changes and the overall uncertainty facing the game right now, potential MLB Draft prospects have a difficult decision to make. First and foremost, should they even enter the draft?

A clear majority of fans, according to SB Nation’s FanPulse, say they would hold off on entering this year’s draft. Depending on the player, this might to be a good thing for a player. I don’t know how teams will deal with the draft this year.

The survey shows 60 percent of fans think changes to the NCAA eligibility rules will have a noticeable impact on this year’s draft. I can’t imagine it won’t have an impact.

An even bigger majority think the changes will influence high school seniors who are deciding between college and the pros.

Making things more complicated is a rule in place that states any baseball player who doesn’t sign with a pro team out of high school and plays Division I baseball instead must wait three years before entering the draft again. Normally that would mean a top prospect would either begin his career immediately after high school or no earlier than after their junior season.

Fans believe this is another rule that should be changed, allowing players to go pro after only one year of DI baseball.

This is one of many hard decisions Major League Baseball needs to make in the coming weeks and months. Next week’s FanPulse will turn its focus on what the league should do with those involved in the sign-stealing scandal and how things may have changed in the last two months.

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