A report on this came out today: https://sports.yahoo.com/sourc...ayers-160209523.html
If you're a Top 80 HS prospect who wants to go pro, how could you pass this up?
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"Major League Baseball is undertaking its boldest effort yet to reclaim a youth apparatus that has been outsourced to third-party profiteers, planning a summer league for elite high school players that it hopes will eat into the pay-for-play market that exists today, sources familiar with the plan told Yahoo Sports."
The first sentence above makes it clear that Jeff Passan has an agenda, and that's to curry favor with MLB. The last sentence is also a good one.
"...any fear is mitigated by the recognition that the youth system, as currently constituted, is broken and the union backs the league’s efforts to change it."
Few would argue that youth baseball does not have significant issues. But, no way in heck that MLB paying the freight for 80 top prospects is going to do anything to benefit youth baseball as a whole. MLB is not doing this for youth baseball, they're doing it to benefit MLB. Passan cannot possibly be stupid enough to think otherwise. He's shilling for them.
Agree, MTH, a lot of things didn't add up. Sounds more like it is designed to be an annual single event "showcase" targeted specifically at likely draft targets for that coming year draft. Won't have a whole lot of downstream effect. Tying it to a "system is broken" message seems, well, broken. Interesting, though.
My initial reaction is that MLB see's a nice revenue stream that is currently going to PG and others and they want in. But from a pure financial perspective wouldn't the showcase business be very low margin compared to the rest of MLB's businesses? Maybe their program will target multi-sport athletes and try to dazzle them with some baseball glitz to lure them away from college football?
This program’s targets the top eighty rising seniors. It’s all about the draft. It will have zero effect on 17u baseball and recruiting. All these players will have gone through the process and been college committed before being rising seniors.
Its really nothing more than a three week showcase. MLB isn’t saving the youth. They’re better scrutinizing top two round prospects. This is all for the benefit of minimizing mistakes in the first two rounds of the draft.
Look at the hypocrisy if you believe MLB is doing this to save the youth. It’s only for top prospects. Yet MLB does next to nothing financially for their signed minor leaguers.
In 1987, when I created the 1st Area Code games and formed our Cubs AC team to play 30 games with wood bats during the summer throughout Nevada, Northern California and Japan. On this team was 9 future MLB players. We had 4 pro scouts as coaches and instructors.
Now 32 years later, MLB is now involved" I thought it would be "sooner"! The answer is simple!
Bob
K9 posted:My initial reaction is that MLB see's a nice revenue stream that is currently going to PG and others and they want in. But from a pure financial perspective wouldn't the showcase business be very low margin compared to the rest of MLB's businesses? Maybe their program will target multi-sport athletes and try to dazzle them with some baseball glitz to lure them away from college football?
According to Passan's Twitter, MLB is paying for everything, room, board, and transportation.
If MLB was means testing this, and/or starting with a younger age group, I MIGHT believe that part of their motive was helping underprivileged kids. But, they're not. Which means the vast majority of the kids that are given this opportunity will be the same kids that have been through the Perfect Game circuit. MLB doesn't give a rat's behind about the youth game.
My memory says it's not the first time Passan has taken a swipe at PG.
I'm curious if MLB is providing benefit to the players (room/board, etc) if this doesn't call into question the amateur status of these players in the eyes of the NCAA? Eligibility problem???
They actually started it this year with five teams in PG at World Championships. The Kansas City Royals team that my son played on the last two years was a test to see how the NCAA would handle a MLB team paying for all expenses for players to play for their scouts using their facilities. When NCAA did not balk in any form I knew it was coming. It will become it's own summer league with teams playing each other throughout their minor league fields or in Florida/Arizona. It will become bigger as time goes by and I believe every team will have a team to field in this league.
And I wonder how this will be viewed by the NCAA?
Wait, doesn't PG pay for travel expenses for the PG All-American game in San Diego? I can't see how it would be different if it is MLB footing the bill, rather than PG.
P.S. -- good for the 2020s. It should be a fun experience for the boys invited.
BTW, if you think about it, this isn't all that different from the USA baseball national team final selections, with more kids and for a longer time period. There are a couple sons of HSBBW-ers who will likely be there next summer.
FWIW, final selections for the 18U team are being made this week -- they are playing this week, and then they'll cut the 27 finalists down to 20, and the team will go to Panama for the Pan American championships. I think there are a couple finalists who previously played on the 12U and 15U national teams, and if they make the team they'll be the first players to play on the 12U, 15U, and 18U national teams. Which is pretty cool.
That first paragraph sounds great.....right up until it says "top 80 prospects". I stopped reading after that. What does taking the top 80 prospects as 17 or 18 year olds have to do with helping the issues in youth baseball? ZERO....NADA....NONE....but it sounds good in a press release.....lol. Kudos MLB, your press/marketing people are on it.....but essentially this is meaningless to the other 99.999999% of the travel baseball world
