The 2020 Draft Thread

Bravesfannchar said:
Next year’s draft is supposedly going to be 20ish rounds.
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I think it's pretty rich that MLB has responded to all of the (justifiable) negative coverage regarding their near-criminal under-compensation of minor league players by (a) doing nothing about that issues and (b) also trying trying to shaft amateur players. Even with some MiLB contraction, a lot of the players drafted in rounds 21–40 will still be needed, and still find their way into professional baseball; they'll just have their earnings even further curtailed, since—as $20k-max UFDA—they won't have a shot at any later-round bonus-pool leftovers.
 
Are pensions and health insurance included for comp with minor leaguers?

At the very least if you guaranteed this in some form that would be good.
 
thethe said:
Are pensions and health insurance included for comp with minor leaguers?

At the very least if you guaranteed this in some form that would be good.
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Minor leaguers do receive health insurance with MLB paying 100% of the premium, however, they need to have 1 year of service credit in the minors to be enrolled in the pension plan.
 
50PoundHead said:
I thought they'd go down to 20 rounds or something in that vicinity. Five seems a bit on the lower side of reasonable. Even if the major league season commences at some point, I wonder what it means for the minor league teams and their seasons. The contraction of teams was being discussed and the virus might move it along somewhat, but there are still going to be a lot of minor league players sitting around if there are no minor league seasons and teams will have to decide which of these guys it wants to retain.

As for the draft, I think it's always been somewhat of a crapshoot seeing high school and college teams won't be playing this spring, so I'm guessing it will be five rounds of guys on whom there are the most comprehensive reports, likely meaning lots of college guys. Anyone that viewed themselves as a late-riser is probably heading to college or JC.
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Sounds like that can be 100% hung on the union (and by some extension Borass) to me.

The owners most likely don't mind paying regular bonuses for the players taken in the first five rounds - that's where the best risks are, and they probably don't feel like they're just giving money away to a bunch of kids with precious little chance of ever making it with those early picks. The fact that Borass and the MLBPA stood up and said they wouldn't agree to have the bonuses cut for players taken after the fifth round this season - FOR ONE DRAFT CLASS - is a little ridiculous IMO. Most of the players drafted after round 5 this year won't have much (if any) leverage at all and couldn't go back to school to try to improve their draft stock anyway. If you're looking for opportunities to find more middle-ground and create goodwill heading into the new CBA negotiations they blew a golden chance badly.

The Braves original slot money for picks in rounds 6-10 would have been $929,800 (or $185,960 per player if split evenly). If the players would have agreed to those "half-slot reductions" for rounds 6-10, those players still would have gotten $92,980/player if split evenly - now those players will get $20,000 if they sign as free-agents.

I think everyone understands Borass' and the players' point that those players would be getting less money than in a typical year, but the vast majority of the really good players still hold all the leverage here - they can go back to school, and both MLB and the NCAA are bending over backwards to see to it that they retain eligibility and future opportunities in most cases. Expecting ownership to treat this as anything resembling "typical" sure seems stupid - if the players would show one tiny sliver of sacrificing a little "for the good of the game" in this situation, chances are pretty good the fans wouldn't let the owners forget that for a long time.

The union (and Borass) are acting like everything should be business-as-usual and that the owners aren't taking a huge hit to their pocketbooks too - you can bet your sweet *ss the owners will remember that when CBA negotiations start (and I don't blame them).
 
bravesfanMatt said:
So basically we have 3 draft picks this year. Yikes.
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No, I believe we’ll have 4. Rounds 1, 3-5. We forfeit our 2nd rounder and our comp pick for signing Ozuna and Smith. But very true, this draft will be rough for us. Losing the slot value for the 2nd rounder and the comp pick will severely hamper our ability to go for anyone “big.”
 
Skeeter31 said:
Minor leaguers do receive health insurance with MLB paying 100% of the premium, however, they need to have 1 year of service credit in the minors to be enrolled in the pension plan.
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Is that health insurance year-round while the player is under contract or only in place during the season to cover baseball-related injuries?
 
Skeeter31 said:
No, I believe we’ll have 4. Rounds 1, 3-5. We forfeit our 2nd rounder and our comp pick for signing Ozuna and Smith. But very true, this draft will be rough for us. Losing the slot value for the 2nd rounder and the comp pick will severely hamper our ability to go for anyone “big.”
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Still, yikes.
 
Skeeter31 said:
Keith Law put out his first mock on The Athletic. Has us taking Garrett Crochet.
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I like Crochet more than some people will. BA has him going to the Rangers in their latest mock (out today). Their notes mention...

"Crochet’s pure stuff compares to Max Meyer and most scouts thought with a strong spring he could have been in the top 10 conversations as well. As it stands, teams had just three innings to see him, so his landing spot sounds a bit wider than it would have been. “Still think he goes really good even though no one saw him,” said one scout. “It's a big leaguer regardless. He's a back end reliever (at worst) and ceiling is a No. 2 or No. 3 starter.”

https://www.baseballamerica.com/rankings/mlb-mock-draft/

He's at #19 on the FanGraphs board as of now so I think it's probably a bit of a stretch to think he'll make it to us, but funny things always seem to happen.
 
Interesting note from Keith Law's chat today. Someone asked if we'd go college and stay conservative like we did last year, and he said "I heard yesterday they were one of the most likely teams to go all high school."
 
CJ9 said:
Interesting note from Keith Law's chat today. Someone asked if we'd go college and stay conservative like we did last year, and he said "I heard yesterday they were one of the most likely teams to go all high school."
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Given that we're going to be facing the shortage of prospects in the lower minors (because of the international penalties) soon, that wouldn't be a complete shocker IMO. If the scouts and front office are getting signals from some of the local kids with serious upside that they're willing to gamble some signing bonus money to stay at home, there are likely to be options to do that. Of course you'd have to believe that they're willing to sign relatively cheap and not use their leverage.

If Jordan Walker slips, it'd be easy to see us taking him at #25 - but would he pass up 3 years at Duke for a below-slot bonus to be a Brave?

Will Sanders from Woodward Academy might be available in the #98 pick range (#95 on FG's current list).

Caden Grice could be available in the #126 range - big, projectable two-way kid that's committed to Clemson. Corey Collins is from North Gwinnett HS and should be available in that range as well.

At #156 you could have kids like Slade Wilks or Nolan McLean who might well have grown up as big Braves fans.

If Abel, Kelley, or Bitsko were to slide with teams more focused on college names and AA could get some of those names later that would be an interesting strategy to say the least. Hard to see that shaking out though.
 
I’m also going to convince myself that we’ll be able to sign some interesting guys from the southeast who grew up Braves fans and go undrafted.

Really interested to see how that signing period after the draft works out. Time for AA to channel his inner Coppy and start promising new trucks to prospects.
 
CJ9 said:
I’m also going to convince myself that we’ll be able to sign some interesting guys from the southeast who grew up Braves fans and go undrafted.

Really interested to see how that signing period after the draft works out. Time for AA to channel his inner Coppy and start promising new trucks to prospects.
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Hank Aaron Auto Group for the win!
 
If they're going to go only 5 rounds then they need to let every team get at least 5 picks. At the very least allow those who signed free agents make their picks at the end. It's irresponsible to keep the old rules when the draft has already changed so dramatically
 
weso1 said:
If they're going to go only 5 rounds then they need to let every team get at least 5 picks. At the very least allow those who signed free agents make their picks at the end. It's irresponsible to keep the old rules when the draft has already changed so dramatically
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But then that unfairly impacts the teams that didn’t go after a QO player because they didn’t want to lose the draft pick. Teams always knew the draft could be anywhere between 5 and 40 rounds, so it was their choice to sign players knowing those rules. Yes it sucks for the Braves this year, but it is what it is.
I have a feeling quite a few teams will be lowballing players anyway for hopes they don’t sign and getting the extra pick next year.
 
Skeeter31 said:
But then that unfairly impacts the teams that didn’t go after a QO player because they didn’t want to lose the draft pick. Teams always knew the draft could be anywhere between 5 and 40 rounds, so it was their choice to sign players knowing those rules. Yes it sucks for the Braves this year, but it is what it is.
I have a feeling quite a few teams will be lowballing players anyway for hopes they don’t sign and getting the extra pick next year.
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While they won't be playing this year, I can imagine there are more than a few minor league players who will get to stick around for another year because of the low number of draft picks coming into systems this year.
 
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