FanPost

A Rant About Selig and the Slotting System

Note: This may qualify as a text-wall (still not exactly sure what that is), so if you're particularly stylistic conscious, I don't care that you think it's a text wall, so don't bother letting me know in the comments section that it's a text wall.

Bud Selig has put this system of slotting into place because he wants every club to be able to sign their picks but he doesn't want the top talents to opt for bigger dollars playing ball overseas or in independent leagues. Problem is, the system accomplishes nothing. All it does is gives the teams a recommendation as to how much money Selig thinks they should award their selections as signing bonuses.

Teams aren't required to, and in most cases don't, abide by the slot recommendations. There are no defined punishments for going over slot provided you follow the correct procedures. Yet there are tangible advantages for going over slot, you get more talent. So basically, teams largely ignore it. And it accomplishes nothing. You've still got the same problems you had before the slotting system was in place (richer teams drafting more talented players and rewarding them huge bonuses after the poor teams draft lesser talents for signability reasons or failing to sign their picks), but now you've just got a bunch of hoops to jump through. And if you don't jump through the hoops, which are stupid because the system doesn't accomplish anything in the first place, or you pay way over-slot, the commissioner gets all menstrual on you.

Take Mike Minor, for example. The Braves took Minor purely for signability reasons. They had a deal with him in place before the draft for the 2008 slot recommendation, which is $242,000 more than the 2009 slot. Yet Selig makes the Braves wait 2 months to make the signing official. They took Minor for signability reasons. The Braves (in the 2009 draft) are an example of the type of team the slotting system attempts to help. Yet, somehow the Braves get screwed, because that's just the way this system works. It doesn't help anything. It just screws the teams that follow the rules and doesn't fix anything that it attempts to. By my count, there were 10 more-talented pitchers than Minor (Tyler Matzek, Shelby Miller, Matt Purke, Jacob Turner, Aaron Crow, Kyle Gibson, Tanner Scheppers, Rex Brothers, Mike Leake, and Alex White) available at pick #7 (again, goes to show that the system doesn't accomplish much if a team takes the 11th best available pitcher with their selection), they're obviously in the "we're worried about signability" group, but Selig hinders a kid's development for 2 months over $242,000?

Shelby Miller is probably going to get a signing bonus of about 5-7 million dollars taken at pick number 19. They won't be able to announce that bonus until August 17th. Of course, when you're getting that kind of money, the negotiations always last until the deadline anyway, so it has virtually no negative effect on situations like that, situations that the system attempts to avoid.

Like I said, all this system does is screws the teams that follow the rules. It fixes none of the problems that existed beforehand and complicates things to no end. I generally hate bureaucracy like that, but when it's not only useless bureaucracy, but counter-productive bureaucracy, I get rather angry.

When I lived in south Georgia, a wise old man used to tell me, "never do anything half-assed". This slotting system is the definition of doing something half-assed. Half-assed regulating the draft bonuses. You're not really regulating anything, but you sure are making life a little bit more difficult for everyone. If Selig truly wants every team to sign their picks, make the slot system a hard and fast rule. In other words, say: "the slot recommendation is the maximum amount you're allowed to give your draft pick in the form of a signing bonus". If he's truly concerned about talent skipping MLB and going overseas, just get rid of the slotting system all-together, because it accomplishes nothing. Just do something different, because the half-assed approach isn't working.

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