The Vicious World Of Major League Baseball

The 2008 MLB draft was held June 5th and 6 rounds of supposedly potential great Major league players drafted. Most teams just blurt out their list on day two as rounds 7 to 50 goes in a flash. The big difference in the MLB draft is that they are able to draft high school players. In today's draft there were many high school players taken including the first pick. If you were to look at his video, he is a raw talent that has what the pros call tools; speed, power, arm strength. Now on his video he missed an easy grounder, looked awkward throwing to first and whiffed a BP pitch and has balance problems in the box. We at Hawaii Sports Page are not pro scouts, but the first round pick did not look really polished.

There are three tools one must possess to reach the pinnacle heaven. Speed, hitting power, arm strength. In other words the pros are looking for logs. As in tree logs. You can be a huge log that passes the eye ball test, size, speed, and power. MLB scouts are looking for logs that can be shaped to be pros. They want potential, 90+ on the arm, homerun power, if you don't have home run power you better run the 60 under 6.5 and hit for high average.

To be drafted is one thing but being drafted high is another. The whole league of having a minor league system is so the high draft picks can be trained and developed in that league. But you need players right? So the whole minor league system is made up of fine baseball players some of these players could easily play in the Majors and do well. However, each club is looking for the superstar that can help them win a championship. Each club does the following; evaluate, pay, move the prospects up, do it over again.

Meanwhile the lower draftees are forgotten. Take for instance Keoni De Renne, a top 50 high school prospect in high school from Hawaii. De Renne played for Arizona Wildcats and earned all American honors. His father was the famous Coop De Renne, a hitting instructor and a Kinesiology professor. When De Renne came out of college he was drafted by the Red Sox and played in their farm system and made it all the way to triple A. He was on the doorstep ready to make it to the big leagues. However, De Renne still waits to be called. He has been leaped over by younger rookies or older veterans that have been in trades. That is the nature of the Majors. Every year these players must compete with the current years draftees or trade acquisitions. If you are an infielder there will probably be 4-6 infielders taken every year in the draft. That means there are younger hungrier players trying to leap frog over you. That is the worst part of the whole system.

De Renne left the Red Sox farm system and signed with a new organization the York Revolution with the Atlantic League.

One of De Renne’s team mates is Jose Enrique Cruz. Cruz came to Hilo with his nationally ranked University of Rice team several years ago. Cruz smoked several balls on top of the Edith Kanakaole stadium. A star with pedigree destined for the bigs. However, Jose Enrique Cruz has only made it to the double AA level. Now, we know he is probably better than most of the high school prospects chosen today. He has more experience, seen more nasty sliders and curves and hit them, But we don't understand the logic. Enrique Cruz is a known quantity. Unfortunately, his talents can not immediately rescue a MLB team. Again remember the log analogy. Remember pros, are looking for logs to shape, the hidden gems or superstars out there. They are not looking for already shaped bowls they have seen or the likes. They are looking for tools to be shaped, different than college recruiting.

Logs are what they are seeking. Now De Renne is probably smoother than 50% of all the MLB shortstops, yet his size and power is prohibited him from getting the call. That is why MLB is vicious and cruel. Many a good Hawaii players languished in the double AA, and triple AAA only to be passed up by high school hot prospects or high college draft picks. There is a need for career minor leaguers. Without these career minor league players committing there would be no league, no training ground for these raw logs.

High draft picks get preferential treatment in moving up, they are an investment. Clubs pay big signing bonuses to develop this talent. To not move them up, will make the scouts and management look inept and foolish. Hence, if two equal players have the same ability and are similar in talent, but one has been drafted higher who gets the nod? Now if a low draftee is better than a high first or second round pick who gets the nod? Wrong, the high draftee always gets moved up faster, initially anyway. However, making it to the show sometimes takes being in the right place at the right time and a little luck as Benny Agbayani explained in his book.

Even if you make it you'll be guaranteed only a minimum salary of $300,000. Not bad right? That is great salary if you were guaranteed ten years in the Majors. However, there is no guarantee. You could be sent down to the minors for various reasons at any time. Now the most tragic part is in salary disparity. The skill differences between a superstar and an everyday regular MLB player is so suttle. Yet, that suttle difference believe it or not can make a huge difference in salary. The top players on some MLB clubs make 12-15 million per year. A rookie or second year player may be hanging on to a $300-$400 K salary. The superstar now makes 36 times more than the rookie. Is he 36 times better? If this goes on for two years the rookie would have to work 72 years to make the same money that the superstar makes. Now some players who were streaky hot for a year or two may be able to negotiate major pay raises for several years. But sometimes these players turn old and may have lost some of their talent but they still make ten times more than the younger players even though they may be sitting on the bench most of the day. Some economist believe that talent is over rated and over paid in America and is destroying business. Remember talent is not the same as skill. Talent is the small, suttle difference between being good and great. Sometimes talent is nothing more than timing of good skill. Being in the right spot at the right time or producing your best at the right time when it counts. No difference than an Ivy league CEO getting paid hundreds of millions due to his or her talent to make a company profitable, but is he really worth 1000 times more than the Vice President or CFO?

On the Revolution team Kazunori Tanaka was a high school phenom in Japan being drafted as a first rounder in the Japan professional draft. He broke into the Japan Majors at the age of 19. He came to the US in hopes to make it to the big leagues and make more money. He was drafted in the Japan Professional league ahead of Daisuke Matsuzaki with the Red Sox. So far he has spent four years in the minors hoping for the break to make it.

Another Revolution player Matt Padgett who has spent almost 10 years in triple A will probably end up as a career minor leaguer. Padget hit 120 homers, batted in 588 runs and has a lifetime minor average of 264%. In 2004 he hit 24 homeruns in triple A. For every one story that makes it to the big leagues there are dozens of stories like Matt Padgett. To make it to the show takes not only hard work but selling your self as a hidden log, that is the vicious nature of the Bigs. A handful of players make it to the show and then only a handful of those really make the big money.