Why an August 15th Deadline for Draft Signing?
by strums on Jul 27, 2009 11:17 PM EDT
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The date seems so arbitrary and it doesn't make sense for players to miss a year of development. Why not June 30th? That would put some extra pressure on the players to sign in such a short window. Also, the July 31st deadline could get real interesting if teams included their newly signed players in deals for Roy Halladay types.
Anyone know why they picked the August 15th date? Is there some reason I don't know about?
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OK I guess it's August 17th this year
The strangeness of the date applies the same.
"Ninety percent I'll spend on good times, women and Irish Whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."
you aren't allowed to trade players drafted this year
they have a non-waivable no trade clause until 1-year after they sign
Adoptive parent of Kyle Nicholson
Still would make sense to have a July 31 deadline
So you could trade guys you drafted last year – Brett Wallace nowithstanding.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
From a logistics stand point
Teams would have an awful lot on their plate that week. Rushing to make trades and scout players as well as trying to sign all their picks.
That's why you hire lots of people!
As for PTBNL, I know that’s a possibility, but to protect against a guy getting hurt, you’d probably have to sit him for two weeks, which seems like a waste of time. Just make it August 1.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
August 15th...
First of all, it’s the 17th this year because Aug. 15th is a Saturday.
Like all of these rules, August 15th was a compromise in the last collective bargaining agreement. The deadline used to be much closer to the next year’s draft. MLB was trying to cut back on holdouts, which didn’t work at all. Now everyone just waits until 11:30 the night before the deadline to make their final offer, and the commissioner’s office has been putting pressure on teams that agree to over-slot deals to wait until that time to announce them, so it doesn’t drive up the cost of other players (which, incidentally, also doesn’t work).
Basically the MLB draft is a singularly awful system. The MLBPA has been content to sacrifice the bargaining power of amateur players because it increases the size of the pie for major leaguers, and the result is what we’ve got now.
A couple reasons for mid-August
It gives teams a little extra time to evaluate players in summer leagues to decide if the guys who want over-slot are worth it. A lot of times teams will grab 5 or 6 signability guys with the intention of watching them over the summer to see which 1 or 2 they want to sign.
It’s before school starts. Players who decide not to sign and to go to school instead don’t miss any class. Back when the deadline was just before the next draft, once a student attended a class they would lose the ability to sign with the drafting team (or something like that. I think Boras used to call teams up and tell them that so and so would go to class tomorrow if the team didn’t agree to pay X number of dollars right now.
+1
Though I miss the draft and follow process (Tommy Hanson, Mat Latos, etc…), the current deadline actual makes a lot of sense, as it allows for summer follows, but forces things to wrap up before school starts.
Its also better for teams....
As it lets them assess what the have over the offseason as they do the following years draft prep/minor league shake down. Also affects trades/free agency as teams know whos actually under contract for the following year.
I would love to see if someone is tracking whether the new date changes the percentage of players that sign.
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