17 hours ago, Jeremy Nygaard said:

I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to say, but Baseball America ranked Blackburn as the organization's #1 prospect in 2008 and #56 overall in baseball. These facts are easily verifiable using Google search.

That Blackburn was a top 100 in Baseball prospectus and nowhere else should be an indication something is wrong with the metric. That Blackburn was number one when others had him so much lower should be a clue that something is wrong. You can call it a fact, but it is an opinion that is so far out of line with others it should be a red flag unless you a mocking prospect rankings. If you were mocking them, good job

The draft lottery seems like a solution in search of a problem

23 hours ago, roger said:

Where the 75% of slot hurts is signing a senior in the 9th round and paying him $15k, then using the extra to go over slot on another pick.

That was my initial reaction too but the guys agreeing to those deals are not Top 300 prospects, so the rule wouldn't likely apply to them. 

On 3/12/2022 at 2:40 PM, DJL44 said:

Injury-risk players are going to slide right out of the first round. You can always go over slot but now you can only go down to 75% of slot. Better to grab those guys in the 5th round or lower. Also, doesn't this mean that there is less flexibility signing players for way below slot? Top 300 players is anyone selected in the top 8 rounds. Is the 'top 300' ranking before or after the draft happens?

I'm assuming MLB will invite 300 players to a combine-sort of thing and those players will have their medicals looked into and approved before the draft begins.

8 hours ago, old nurse said:

That Blackburn was a top 100 in Baseball prospectus and nowhere else should be an indication something is wrong with the metric. That Blackburn was number one when others had him so much lower should be a clue that something is wrong. You can call it a fact, but it is an opinion that is so far out of line with others it should be a red flag unless you a mocking prospect rankings. If you were mocking them, good job

Was it that out of line? Guy became a mid-rotation starter... looking at other lists, they have Blackburn behind the likes of Deolis Guerra and Tyler Robertson. 

And the point wasn't that you can use this mechanism to find #1 prospects, just that draft-and-follows have existed before and that was how the Twins acquired Nick Blackburn, a name that many readers probably recognize. 

14 minutes ago, Jeremy Nygaard said:

That was my initial reaction too but the guys agreeing to those deals are not Top 300 prospects, so the rule wouldn't likely apply to them. 

OK, that makes sense...I think.  I read it as the top 300 picks, or the first ten rounds.  Do you know how they will define the top 300?

5 minutes ago, roger said:

OK, that makes sense...I think.  I read it as the top 300 picks, or the first ten rounds.  Do you know how they will define the top 300?

I do not. But that list will have to be furnished to the clubs and they'll know that they will have to do a little more work on guys they draft off that list. It will probably not even move the needle for most teams, but there are teams - I know the Orioles have this reputation - that tend to find more concerning things in physicals than other teams.

On 3/12/2022 at 7:51 AM, HrbieFan said:

The union wants to stop teams from doing what the As are going to do IMO. I am shocked the union didn't get a floor salary # for every team. 

The MLBPA could have easily gotten a salary floor had they wanted it, so long as they also agreed to a hard salary cap.  They didn't, so they didn't.