The ever popular Rule 4 Draft starts today. Not sure what that is? Well it is Major League Baseball’s draft of first year players from college and high school and will be an interesting 40 round affair that will occur over the next three days.
Teams pick in reverse order to standings and this year there are a few changes to the rules, based on the last Collective Barging Agreement between MLB and the players. Teams will have a ‘bonus pool’ and if they exceed that they will be taxed, and the tax rate increases quickly to 100% of the overage, with a simply 5% overage being taxed at 75%. Each team’s bonus pool is different.
Of more interest is the changing of the signing date. If a player is not signed they go back into the draft the following year. It has been moved up a month to July 13th, thus allowing players to play in the season they were drafted. Several players over the years have signed with less than two minutes left before they would go back in the draft.
The first five picks are owned by the Houston Astros, Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners, Baltimore Oriels and the Kansas City Royals respectively. For the full first round list look here. To watch the draft you can tune into the MLB Network starting at 7 pm ET, on June 5 and 6 the event starts at noon ET. It will also be live streamed at MLB.Com
Not surprising there is a number of sites that focus on the draft including MLB Draft Insider, Minor League Ball, Baseball America and a number of other informed and opinionated sites available. If you are looking for past information on the draft MLB a lot of that stored here.
Will MLB’s draft ever achieve the news worthiness and anticipation of the NFL’s and NBA’s? I doubt it. In those sports you see the impact, for better or worse, of the players in just a year’s time. With MLB the player often starts in the short season Single A level and then works their way up, skipping a level or two for players that really shine but aside from the very rare case of somebody like Stephen Strasburg.
Also players in high school and college baseball do not receive anywhere the notoriety and fame that the players in basketball and football do. Still the event is well worth watching so that you get an idea of where your team is looking and if they might one day shore up the week up the middle defense.
