Details of International Draft Proposal Emerge

13 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

An international draft is long overdue for many reasons.

Yes and yes. This is a good thing.

12 year olds? That us truly sick.

Interesting, and agree that it is long overdue.

Am guessing, but expect the Twins annually sign 15-20 International kids.  So a 20 round draft makes sense.  Would still be able to have their scouts hunt for that kid who slips thru the cracks or hasn't yet developed.  Sounds like each team would have their picks determined off a set schedule with neither their won-loss record or market size having nothing to do with it.  I think I like that. 

Would they still be drafting 16 year old kids?  Or would they move the age up to 18 to tie with the U.S. draft? 

Thanks Jeremy, for the info. Sounds like a step in the right direction.

A step in the right direction to promote parity.

Not something that I am excited about.  I guess it is not something I have cared about, so I have no objection.  Now to get some big issues settled and move on.

Thanks Jeremy.  Great article.  Like virtually everyone else I love this idea.  The international arena is one of the shady aspects of MLB.  When you have kids growing up in tough financial situations, it is SO easy to take advantage of them and use their dream of playing in the bigs to induce them into lousy relationships with supposed agents.  I think the details could be worked out--the idea is great.  

The rules are being put in place to level the playing field between teams and avoid damaging MLB's reputation as international scouting and tactics become more aggressive. It's that simple.

MLB teams have exploited international kids for years.  Yes, some kids get huge sums of money, but most of the time that money is taken by corrupt people if the kid does not get out of the country.  These kids are brought to baseball academies owned by teams where the kids are taught basic English and baseball.  They do not learn anything of real educational value.  For the lucky few that emerge and get signed even for just 6 figure deals do hit the jackpot, but most of the kids never get signed or sign for only 5 figures move to US and get used in the minor leagues because it is either do that, or manual labor in their home country because they passed up all possible education because they had athletic promise.  Is it a better life than if they went to school, I cannot answer that.  However, MLB has tried to put the spin on their academies as some great thing they are doing for the country, but the money they spend there does not get spread around it stays with very few people. 

Sure, without them some of these kids would never get found and never make it to MLB earning millions to help give back to their country if they want to.  However, there is a very dark side of these as well. I hope with the international draft there will be less of this, but most likely not. 

4 hours ago, Trov said:

MLB teams have exploited international kids for years.  Yes, some kids get huge sums of money, but most of the time that money is taken by corrupt people if the kid does not get out of the country.  These kids are brought to baseball academies owned by teams where the kids are taught basic English and baseball.  They do not learn anything of real educational value.  For the lucky few that emerge and get signed even for just 6 figure deals do hit the jackpot, but most of the kids never get signed or sign for only 5 figures move to US and get used in the minor leagues because it is either do that, or manual labor in their home country because they passed up all possible education because they had athletic promise.  Is it a better life than if they went to school, I cannot answer that.  However, MLB has tried to put the spin on their academies as some great thing they are doing for the country, but the money they spend there does not get spread around it stays with very few people. 

Sure, without them some of these kids would never get found and never make it to MLB earning millions to help give back to their country if they want to.  However, there is a very dark side of these as well. I hope with the international draft there will be less of this, but most likely not. 

So what you're saying is... it's horrible these families are receiving life alterning money and their teenagers are going to an academy which gives them some limited education and safety because MLB could single handedly alter the economic conditions of entire large countries. 

Got it.

Aside from that, your position would probably benefit from some research.

https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-path-to-the-sugar-mill-or-the-path-to-millions-mlb-baseball-academies-effect-on-the-dominican-republic/