Why doesnt international players (like latin american countries, japan, etc) go through the draft?
Question:aside from all the awful team salary gaps in MLB.i think international players should go through the draft instead of be posted and signed to a contract, that way the worst teams will have the best shot at these players. i dont think boston really needed dice k and yankees needed hideki matsui...players like them could be much more useful on the drays or royals for example.
instead, we have the usual big market big resources teams grabbing every future superstar from the dominican republic, venezuela, etc, and signing stars from japan.
wouldnt it be much better if those players went through the draft instead?
come on mlb, everytime i think of this it makes me sick to my stomach.
(what surprised me was when yao ming went through the draft and was picked no.1 by the rockets...thats much better right? because if he was signed a FA.i bet you the knicks/la/some big market team would've grabbed him).
Answers:
Who is the one team that has your favorite team's number?
You're looking at this all wrong. Japanese players like Dice K, Ichiro, Matsui are already professional baseball players, just not in America, so they are not eligible for the draft here because the draft is an AMATEUR draft. Yao Ming was not a professional basketball player in China, making him draft eligible.Players in Latin America do get drafted, like Albert Pujols, but usually the studs are scouted and signed at a very young age, such as Felix Hernandez. This is unique to baseball because they 1. Have farm systems to allow those players to develop 2. Do not have the age restrictions as other sports like basketball and football 3. There is more of a need in terms of number of players needed to keep baseball franchises adequately supplied with players (from A ball to the Majors).
they do
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