….the easy excuse for the increase in bonuses has been the agents. But I don’t buy it for a second. The teams have tons of leverage, in that they are the only organizations which can offer these players big money. And the money even for players at the bottom of the majors is big.

But baseball teams are getting younger faster than at any other point in history, and it is because the economics favors using young players. Even with the higher bonuses, young baseball talent remains the best bargain in sports. And the teams all know it – this is obvious from the difficulty that Type A free agents had landing contracts, from the massive upswing in the value of prospects in trades the last few seasons, and the increase in total spending on amateur players. Changing the game so that the economics in favor of younger players are even greater will simply screw players out of more money and destabilize the dynamics of the game, increasing the value of young talent to a level massively out of proportion with proven talent. And it will end up costing not only the young players, but the veterans who are free agents and have proved themselves at the major league level, a lot of money. And that money will almost certainly not be passed on to the fans, but will go into ownership’s pockets.

The only problem with the draft as it is right now is that teams and fans have come to value amateur talent more highly, but still haven’t adjusted to the idea that what you value more should cost more. And I see no reason to support that kind of thinking.