The NBA and NFL drafts are must watch television. Hockey fans have come to enjoy the NHL Draft and the event has found a nice niche. Down in the bottom of the barrel is the MLB Draft which is boring, overwhelmingly contrived and does nothing more than highlight what is wrong with baseball.
For starters, most draft picks cannot be traded which takes away from the fun. Okay, so some types of selections can be moved but even then, there is no drama in this. Teams aren’t moving up and down looking to secure their player. There is no way to acquire stars or bolster a roster using these in trades.
It’s just teams selecting guys you won’t hear from in the next two to five years, if ever, for 50 rounds. Let’s not forget that most draftees are not exactly household names to begin with. College baseball is an afterthought, and no one watches high school games apart from parents, girlfriends and scouts.
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Not only is there no action since trades are banned but most people aren’t invested in the prospects themselves. It is already easy to see why the MLB draft is boring. But it somehow gets worse.
The whole draft bonus pool system is so freaking stupid. Instead of taking the best player available or the one they most want, baseball front offices will gerrymander these budgets with over- and under-slot picks. Nothing like choosing a cheaper, worse player in the first round in order to select a slightly better, more expensive prospect later on.
By the way, the entire system was essentially created to provide MLB general managers with the ability to deflect and absolve themselves of any blame. Instead of being on the hook for drafting someone, they now have a plethora of excuses in case things don’t work out.
That mindset is one of the biggest issues within baseball today. People no longer make decisions, analytics do. Everyone is blameless since the numbers already determine what to do. Front office strategy isn’t guided by pure talent evaluation but instead by budgetary operations. That’s not fun.
The MLB Draft is boring and contrived. What should be a flurry of activity that empowers teams to improve themselves, either today or in the future, is nothing more than an exercise in roster stocking. A baseball version of going to the grocery store if you will. But hey, it’s still not as meaningless as Detroit Tigers regular season games.
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