GaryMrMets
06-02-2004, 03:31 PM
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/sports/s060204i.htm
Baseball draft not just about finding talent
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
By KEVIN ROBERTS
Courier-Post Staff
PHILADELPHIA
Baseball's draft stinks.
It does not do what it's designed to do, it's been hopelessly corrupted by the money, and about three times as often as it yields a Pat Burrell it coughs up two or three kids named Jeff Jackson and Reggie Taylor.
The draft stinks.
"Oh, no question," said Mike Arbuckle, the Phillies assistant general manager in charge of scouting and player development. "There's no question about it. The draft was designed to do two things - control costs, and it hasn't done that, and create some parity, and it hasn't done that.
"Players get jockeyed around because of signability or dollar issues, and the bottom line is that clubs don't get to take the best players. The worst part is, things are so far down the road, I'm not sure we can get it back on track."
Arbuckle and the Phillies scouting staff begin meetings today to prepare for the annual amateur draft June 7-8. The Phillies (just like every other team in the game) are spending millions of dollars on this thing, and it's a mess.
Every year questions about "signability" - a word baseball people had to make up to define whether a kid offered a couple million dollars and a chance to be on the fast track to the big leagues might actually turn it down - push teams to pass on a player they like.
The Phillies got a taste of it when they took and lost J.D. Drew, who cost them a first-round draft pick in 1997 when he decided he didn't want to play. Drew was represented by Scott Boras, who this season has in his stable Long Beach State pitcher Jered Weaver and Florida State shortstop Stephen Drew (J.D.'s brother).
Weaver may be the best player, but he's making noises about wanting more than the $10.5 million contract the Cubs gave Mark Prior in 2001. At last report, the Padres were leaning toward Drew.
The Phillies, after losing J.D. Drew in 1997, faced a similar dilemma in 2001. Mark Teixeira, a power-hitting third baseman from Georgia Tech, may have been the best player at number four. But Teixeira was a Boras client, and Boras told the Phillies he wouldn't sign. So the Phillies happily "settled" for Gavin Floyd - who was only there because Tampa Bay thought both Floyd and Teixeira too pricey and took Middle Tennessee State's Dewon Brazelton at number three. Brazelton may have been cheaper, but his ERA at Triple A is over 6.00.
It's just a mess. Agents and families jockey around kids who may never see a major-league minute until the whole process is a shadow of what it should be. Arbuckle is an old-school scout, the kind who likes squinting into the West Texas sun to find a gem no one else knows about. But this thing becomes more of a grind every year.
"It takes some of the fun out of it," Arbuckle said. "If you're a pure scout at heart, you get a kick out of out-working, out-evaluating other clubs. Now all the extraneous factors don't allow you to do that. It's not a pure scouting forum."
The commissioner's office now recommends bonus amounts for draft picks. There are no sanctions for exceeding these amounts, but let's just say there were really, really strong recommendations. And for the first time in history, the draft saw a big dropoff in bonus money.
Still the average first-round bonus last year was $1.77 million, which is a lot for a guy who is at best several years away and at worst may not make it. It would be one thing if, like the NFL or NBA drafts, the picks were a good bet to play. But in baseball, the draft is littered with expensive picks that never pan out.
In 1995 the Phillies took Taylor just ahead of 2003 Cy Young award winner Roy Halladay (and don't think Arbuckle doesn't wake up in sweat sometimes thinking about that one). But at least Taylor made it (briefly); two picks ahead of him the Tigers took Mike Drumright, who went on to become . . . Mike Drumright.
Arbuckle said a successful draft gets about a player-and-a-half to the big leagues. Add that kind of success rate to that the quagmire of "signability," and you have an endeavor that just doesn't work.
And there's no fixing it. So the Phillies will once again take a deep breath and hope they can give a lot of money to the player they want. And if they can, they hope he turns out to be Mike Lieberthal and not Chad McConnell.
And that stinks.
Baseball draft not just about finding talent
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
By KEVIN ROBERTS
Courier-Post Staff
PHILADELPHIA
Baseball's draft stinks.
It does not do what it's designed to do, it's been hopelessly corrupted by the money, and about three times as often as it yields a Pat Burrell it coughs up two or three kids named Jeff Jackson and Reggie Taylor.
The draft stinks.
"Oh, no question," said Mike Arbuckle, the Phillies assistant general manager in charge of scouting and player development. "There's no question about it. The draft was designed to do two things - control costs, and it hasn't done that, and create some parity, and it hasn't done that.
"Players get jockeyed around because of signability or dollar issues, and the bottom line is that clubs don't get to take the best players. The worst part is, things are so far down the road, I'm not sure we can get it back on track."
Arbuckle and the Phillies scouting staff begin meetings today to prepare for the annual amateur draft June 7-8. The Phillies (just like every other team in the game) are spending millions of dollars on this thing, and it's a mess.
Every year questions about "signability" - a word baseball people had to make up to define whether a kid offered a couple million dollars and a chance to be on the fast track to the big leagues might actually turn it down - push teams to pass on a player they like.
The Phillies got a taste of it when they took and lost J.D. Drew, who cost them a first-round draft pick in 1997 when he decided he didn't want to play. Drew was represented by Scott Boras, who this season has in his stable Long Beach State pitcher Jered Weaver and Florida State shortstop Stephen Drew (J.D.'s brother).
Weaver may be the best player, but he's making noises about wanting more than the $10.5 million contract the Cubs gave Mark Prior in 2001. At last report, the Padres were leaning toward Drew.
The Phillies, after losing J.D. Drew in 1997, faced a similar dilemma in 2001. Mark Teixeira, a power-hitting third baseman from Georgia Tech, may have been the best player at number four. But Teixeira was a Boras client, and Boras told the Phillies he wouldn't sign. So the Phillies happily "settled" for Gavin Floyd - who was only there because Tampa Bay thought both Floyd and Teixeira too pricey and took Middle Tennessee State's Dewon Brazelton at number three. Brazelton may have been cheaper, but his ERA at Triple A is over 6.00.
It's just a mess. Agents and families jockey around kids who may never see a major-league minute until the whole process is a shadow of what it should be. Arbuckle is an old-school scout, the kind who likes squinting into the West Texas sun to find a gem no one else knows about. But this thing becomes more of a grind every year.
"It takes some of the fun out of it," Arbuckle said. "If you're a pure scout at heart, you get a kick out of out-working, out-evaluating other clubs. Now all the extraneous factors don't allow you to do that. It's not a pure scouting forum."
The commissioner's office now recommends bonus amounts for draft picks. There are no sanctions for exceeding these amounts, but let's just say there were really, really strong recommendations. And for the first time in history, the draft saw a big dropoff in bonus money.
Still the average first-round bonus last year was $1.77 million, which is a lot for a guy who is at best several years away and at worst may not make it. It would be one thing if, like the NFL or NBA drafts, the picks were a good bet to play. But in baseball, the draft is littered with expensive picks that never pan out.
In 1995 the Phillies took Taylor just ahead of 2003 Cy Young award winner Roy Halladay (and don't think Arbuckle doesn't wake up in sweat sometimes thinking about that one). But at least Taylor made it (briefly); two picks ahead of him the Tigers took Mike Drumright, who went on to become . . . Mike Drumright.
Arbuckle said a successful draft gets about a player-and-a-half to the big leagues. Add that kind of success rate to that the quagmire of "signability," and you have an endeavor that just doesn't work.
And there's no fixing it. So the Phillies will once again take a deep breath and hope they can give a lot of money to the player they want. And if they can, they hope he turns out to be Mike Lieberthal and not Chad McConnell.
And that stinks.