but we really need to see the final exact details before we know the full implications.

if not, what’s stopping teams from just redirecting the money they allocate for the draft to the international budget?

Just because he is from Milwaukee, he is the Commish. He is about making money for the owners especially the large market teams.

I do think any kind of slotting will keep some of the HS guys from baseball. They will go to other sports when the lure of bigger bonuses might have had them consider baseball.

This might make it more difficult for the Royals to do what they’re doing, but the fact of the matter is they were taking advantage of a loophole in the system. I think this is a good compromise between the Hobbesian state of nature that the draft is now and hard slotting.

This actually helps small market teams because someone like the Yankees could get even more talent if they just decided to start dumping money in the draft.

It still gives you the ability to pay over slot, but it forces you to do it strategically and, as an above poster pointed out, takes away kids options to demand huge bonuses just because they can.

Think about Aaron Crow. Does Aaron Crow turn down the #4 pick or whatever he was for the Nats to come back next year and get….roughly the same amount of money. It actually increases the risk (financially) of a HS kid going to college unless its the difference between round 30 money and round 1 money (which from what I’ve read this only affects rounds 1-10 anyway).

The reality is, unless you have a Bubba Starling like situation, I don’t think this is going to substantially alter any player’s mindset going into the draft. I would suspect, just thinking about the psychology of an 18 year-old kid, they’re either going to go to college or they’re not, and this system won’t affect that decision for most kids, it just means they get less money, which actually helps small market teams.