What I'll be looking for in the new MLB CBA

With the NFL and NBA both having lockouts this year, and the NBA recently announcing that they will miss the first part of the season, it's gone somewhat under the radar that the MLB's Collective Bargaining Agreement is set to expire on December 11th of this year. It's not as big a story as in the NFL simply because of the popularity of the NFL. It's not as big a story as the NBA because the NBA is in real trouble. It's still important in it's own right though, because it will change the landscape on which the 30 teams in the MLB operate. I'm not a an expert on all things CBA and don't know many details about the finer points of the agreement, but there are a few things that I will look for the new one is announced.

I really hope that the playoffs aren't expanded. I think that there are too many teams in as of now. St. Louis won the World Series from the wildcard spot, but they weren't the best team this year. They just got hot at the right time, and Ron Washington didn't want his team to win it. The more teams that you add to the playoffs, the less drama it will create for the stretch run in September. The more teams that make the playoffs, the earlier the best teams in the league will clinch and start resting their players. The races will then take place between more average teams instead of the better teams. The closer to the median of the league, the more likely it is that there will be in a tie. Tie breaker games are great at all, but in the proposed new system, there will be a one game playoff between the two wild card teams. In the new system, the second best team in the league can win a wild card spot, and play the fifth best team. Having a 162 game season decided by a one game playoff which could eliminate the second best team in the league sounds like a terrible idea. The media will also have a field day the first time either the Red Sox or Yankees win over 100 games, and then lose in a one game playoff to an 85 win Angels or Twins team. 

Another problem that needs to be addressed is the draft. The draft is flawed by nature. The owners want to keep the draft as cheap as possible. They want to limit spending, and hide behind the "it everyone can afford the players, it fosters parody," argument That's a load of bull spit. They want to keep it as cheap as possible to safe money. Keeping the draft cheap will end up hurting the MLB product as a whole, because if teams spend less money, then more kids are going to end up in college. Some of these kids are going to play basketball or football on scholarship. A lot of time them don't make it back into professional baseball. I think that even kids that go to college to play baseball is bad for the game. I believe that developing in the low minors is a much better path to success, as far as baseball goes, than going to college. College is great for education, but as far as pure baseball, the minors are a better path. 

The draft signing deadline is also a problem. After the draft, players either sign for their slot amount in the days following the draft, or sit around and do nothing until the signing deadline in mid-August. Most teams that sign their players for over the recommended slot amount can't make it official or announce it until the day of the deadline anyway, because MLB domes't want the information to get out, because the dollar amounts will influence the money that players drafted near each other will get. The deadline needs to be moved up to the end of June so kids can get into pro ball, and not waste a year of development. Those players who currently wait until the deadline don't make their debut until fall league, or spring training the following year. The early years of a players professional career are critical to their development, and are being wasted because of the length of time between the draft and signing deadline. 

I'm sure that there are more important things in the CBA, but I believe that the draft is the needs fixing. I don't think that there will ever be an international draft, and am fine with that. I'm sure that teams like the White Sox would love it, after their fiasco a few years back, which still hurts their ability to sign Latin players. But I think that overall it'd be a logistical nightmare, and everyone would end up worse off be whatever system that MLB implemented (you can see how much faith I have i the Bud Selig regime).

Other Notes:The Orioles are having a rough time finding their new General Manager. It seems like no one is interested in taking over the organization It's hard to blame them, the Orioles have a bad major league product, their farm system is sub-par, and their younger players all had bad years 2011. They appear to be clearly the fifth best team in their division, and two of those teams are the Yankees and Red Sox. I hope this doesn't turn into Buck Showalter as General Manager, because I'm not sure he has the skills to run the whole organization. The Orioles are in a bad place right now, and whoever takes the helm is going to have a long way to go before they challenge for that division.

My Football Minute:

I follow football, and thought I had a good feel for the league. Then the Carson Palmer for two first round picks trade happened, and I started to question myself. Denver couldn't get a fourth or third for Kyle Orton, but Palmer is worth two ones? OK. But that's not what this is about. My most recent query is: Is Bill Belichick still a genius and defensive mastermind? I'm not sure, he's done some weird things in the past year. He brought in both Chad 85 and Albert Haynesworth before the season. Everyone just said, "oh, what great moves, they're gonna be good." But if any other team brought those two guys in the reactions would be, "I don't know, looks like trouble. Those guys aren't good anymore." Both guys were cheap acquisitions, and haven't had any impact this season. Coming into this year, the Patriots looked like they'd have a good offense, but a below average defense again. With the draft occurring before free agency, the Patriots had a lot of holes that the could have filled with thee 100 picks that they have in the first few rounds. But instead of trading up to get an impact guy, or using their picks to get a multitude of guys, they once again traded back, acquired more picks, and ended up drafting four offensive players with their first five picks. They drafted two running backs, even though their system doesn't utilize them, and they already had BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Danny Woodhead, which seemed to fit their needs perfectly. Their defense is worse than last year, and they had the resources to address it but didn't. We've seen a lot of bad decisions from Belichick, and I'm not sure that we should take his choices as being unquestionable gold anymore. 

And for the Browns: They're really bad, like really really bad.