Fans think this year’s changes will impact the draft class

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Royals fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

With most amateur baseball put on hold this spring, MLB teams have not gotten a chance to see the players that they will be selecting for the draft this summer. This has caused them to propose changes like pushing the draft back into July, holding regional combines for amateur players, and shortening the draft to as few as five rounds, and capping bonuses for undrafted free agents. A large majority of our Fanpulse respondents think this will have an impact on the decision by high school players on whether to sign with a big league team.

Adding an extra wrinkle is the NCAA’s ruling to allow spring teams to give seniors an extra year of eligibility. More than half of our Fanpulse respondents think this change will have an impact on this year’s draft.

According to our Fanpulse respondents, 62 percent would not enter this year’s draft if they were in a position to be selected.

One way to alleviate the concerns from this year’s changes would be to allow players to re-enter the draft after just one year of college, rather than the three years they typically have to wait if they choose to attend a four-year college. A majority of Fanpulse respondents think that would be a good rule change for this season.

Remember, you can sign up to participate in the FanPulse surveys at this link! Surveys will go out each week and only take a few minutes to complete. Check back next week for more FanPulse results!