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MLB To Help College Baseball?


Yeah, no. The only reason why MLB has taken an interest in NCAA D1 baseball, is because it's starting to turn profitable, and I'm sure MLB GM's and owners are noticing more kids choose the college route, over toiling around in the minors due college baseball becoming more of a national sport. Granted, MLB will always have guys like Starling and Harper coming straight out of HS, but I'm guessing more and more guys drafted after, say, the 5th round are starting to shy away from signing with a MLB club, and taking the scholarship to play in college and get their education started.

About the only idea that sounds good out of that article is moving back the MLB draft until after the CWS. It never made any sense to me to have the draft prior to the CWS anyways. I'm guessing that goes back to the days when college baseball was nothing more than an afterthought, and has stayed that way.
 
I think MLB is taking an interest for several reasons: first, they can use collegiate baseball as a "training ground" for players instead of the minor leagues (this would save MLB $$$). Second, along those lines, it would allow players to do some growing up and maturing on the schools dime, and not MLB's (again, saving MLB $$$). Three, if wood bats are instituted, this would give MLB a look at players swinging wood bats instead of metal. Yes, summer leagues use wood bats, but the pitching isn't comparable because many top pitchers sit out of summer ball to rest their arms. This too would save MLB $$$ by weeding out the duds who can't adjust to wood.

Personally, I think this is win, win, win all the way around. The thing that has been holding back college ball for years is MLB's minor league system. If the focus for MLB now turns to college baseball, and more of the top recruits go to college instead of the minor leagues, college baseball will grow to heights never seen before.

Count me in, i'm a fan already.
 
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Fromunda Cheese said:
I think MLB is taking an interest for several reasons: first, they can use collegiate baseball as a "training ground" for players instead of the minor leagues (this would save MLB $$$). Second, along those lines, it would allow players to do some growing up and maturing on the schools dime, and not MLB's (again, saving MLB $$$). Three, if wood bats are instituted, this would give MLB a look at players swinging wood bats instead of metal. Yes, summer leagues use wood bats, but the pitching isn't comparable because many top pitchers sit out of summer ball to rest their arms. This too would save MLB $$$ by weeding out the duds who can't adjust to wood.

Personally, I think this is win, win, win all the way around. The thing that has been holding back college ball for years is MLB's minor league system. If the focus for MLB now turns to college baseball, and more of the top recruits go to college instead of the minor leagues, college baseball will grow to heights never seen before.

Count me in, i'm a fan already.
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While as a college baseball fan, I agree. But what about the minor league teams -- and the towns and fans that support them? (I didn't read the article yet.) You keep more players in college (which is mostly a very good thing), but then wouldn't you about have to dispose of some of the minor league teams in return? And there are both fans that support them -- and financial interests as well. It's an interesting thought.

Regarding wood bats. Always wish college baseball would go this route. But I've always heard that the problem is that some of the smaller colleges can't afford the cost of replacing wooden bats on a routine basis.
 



While as a college baseball fan, I agree. But what about the minor league teams -- and the towns and fans that support them? (I didn't read the article yet.) You keep more players in college (which is mostly a very good thing), but then wouldn't you about have to dispose of some of the minor league teams in return? And there are both fans that support them -- and financial interests as well. It's an interesting thought.
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While some minor league teams would disband, if the towns and fans truly support baseball, there would be independant league teams to fill in (eg Lincoln Salt Dogs). Also, if season was moved back you'd have new college stadiums being built with the fan bases that follow that school. I see the give and take, but hey, thats business.

Regarding wood bats. Always wish college baseball would go this route. But I've always heard that the problem is that some of the smaller colleges can't afford the cost of replacing wooden bats on a routine basis. <!-- </div> -->
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Maybe MLB can fund the wood bats? Certainly a cost justification analysis would show that by exposing one high draft pick dud who couldn't hit with a wood bat would fund wood bats in colleges with his multi million dollar signing bonus :Biggrin:
 
Sorry, I'm not a fan of it. People already scoff at the idea of D1 basketball and D1 football as unofficial "minor leagues" for the NBA and NFL. Would it be better in baseball because MLB would actually acknowledge their intentions?
 
I've never heard of anyone scoffing at college football being the minor leagues for the NFL. And if there ever was a sport that was the minor leagues for the pro's, it would certainly be football...
 




Fromunda Cheese said:
I've never heard of anyone scoffing at college football being the minor leagues for the NFL. And if there ever was a sport that was the minor leagues for the pro's, it would certainly be football...
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True. but then again, I don't think you could have a minor leagues for football -- reason being: injuries. Yes, injuries happen in all sports, but they cut careers shorter in football -- much more so -- than baseball. The investment risk for an NFL team to draft a college football player and send him to the minors for 2-3 years is far too great.

But as you brought up, the best way to better prepare college baseball players for the majors -- and less or no time in the minors -- is to rid of the aluminum bat. Until then, the gap is still too great.
 
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One of the few points in sabermetrics that hasn't been widely accepted is that drafting high school players is a crapshoot at best, a losing bet at worst. It's in MLB's best interests to focus more on college baseball players and less on high schoolers.
 
Fromunda Cheese said:
I think MLB is taking an interest for several reasons: first, they can use collegiate baseball as a "training ground" for players instead of the minor leagues (this would save MLB $$$). Second, along those lines, it would allow players to do some growing up and maturing on the schools dime, and not MLB's (again, saving MLB $$$). Three, if wood bats are instituted, this would give MLB a look at players swinging wood bats instead of metal. Yes, summer leagues use wood bats, but the pitching isn't comparable because many top pitchers sit out of summer ball to rest their arms. This too would save MLB $$$ by weeding out the duds who can't adjust to wood.

Personally, I think this is win, win, win all the way around. The thing that has been holding back college ball for years is MLB's minor league system. If the focus for MLB now turns to college baseball, and more of the top recruits go to college instead of the minor leagues, college baseball will grow to heights never seen before.

Count me in, i'm a fan already.
Click to expand...

I'm with you....this would be good for all parties involved. I really don't understand how people could not like the idea, at least not if your a college baseball fan. And you already stated many of the reasons this is good for MLB too.
 
All I can say is it is about time. The NFL has instant name recognition from college players. If college baseball can become more popular, MLB may benefit from the same.
 



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