Boras says timing of MLB draft endangers player safety
By MARK ANDERSON
AP Sports Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Baseball super agent Scott Boras expressed concerns Wednesday about what he called a player safety issue related to the timing of the draft.
MLB moved its draft from early June to mid-July last year to make it part of the All-Star Game festivities.
“The benefit of a later draft is merely a television program,” Boras said as he addressed the media during the second day of Major League Baseball’s general managers meetings in Las Vegas. “This is hurting players. It’s hurting scouting. It’s hurting evaluation.”
Boras said the later dates prevent clubs from giving new players an adequate chance to acclimate themselves to pro ball.
“We’ve had players come into camp after not playing for six to eight weeks after their high school season,” Boras said. “They’re immediately asked to perform.
“This had eroded the evaluation system because scouting professionals do not have the ability to evaluate the next draft market for the summer. They’re precluded from attending all the normal events they used to attend to get familiarity both in character and in performance evaluation.”
Boras said he would like to see a minor-league level added that would be above rookie ball for players to develop.
Boras also said he wasn’t against the pitch clock, which will be instituted next year on the major-league level after the minors experimented with the system, but argued it would be a mistake for the playoffs. Pitchers will have 15 seconds if no runners are on base and 20 seconds otherwise. Hitters must be in the batter’s box with at least 8 seconds remaining.
“It’s a different scenario than the regular season, and we do not want (the players’) performances rushed,” he said. “We understand why they would probably do that during the season, for the efficiency of the game and what they believe to be a fan-positive move for the shortening of games. But for the postseason, we don’t want these men in a completely different emotional environment and where the settings mean so much more.”
Regarding analytics, Boras said players are fed so much information that they are often overwhelmed. He noted it wasn’t a coincidence the World Series featured two veteran managers in Houston’s Dusty Baker and Philadelphia’s Rob Thomson because both understand the value of communication.
“To be given a flood of information daily without the proper bridge for execution, we’re finding clutter,” Boras said. “We’re finding players that are malperforming. We’re finding players whose confidence levels are shaken.”
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