MLB hopes to invigorate African-American participation

[ralaw]

I'm not saying it's a conscious decision though. Of course they don't go through the 10-year plan and look at where they'll be with both sports but it's hard for me to believe it doesn't subconsciously come up in their minds when they are deciding which sport to focus most of their time on.

Let's take Derrick Rose for example. He's from one of the poorest and crime-ridden areas of Chicago. As a black kid from that area who's good at baseball and basketball (Rose's HS Simeon is great at both), why in the world would you ever choose baseball when one of your own currently brings in $16,402,500 yearly at age 24 in addition to an almost $500 million deal with Adidas? At age 24 in the baseball world you're lucky to even be in the majors let alone earning anywhere in the neighborhood of seven figures.

I totally agree that there aren't role models or coaches in the area to promote it but even then I don't see why a kid would chose baseball or basketball if they were skilled at both.

I see what you are saying, but before all of that happens a kid is steered in a certain direction, because of social and cultural reasons. Kids from the Dominican choose baseball, because baseball is a huge part of their culture regardless of their economic status....they figure it out. It is the same reason kids that grow up in Europe and Africa play soccer. For African Americans social and cultural influences steer them to play basketball or football.

 

[Senser81]

I'm not saying it's a conscious decision though. Of course they don't go through the 10-year plan and look at where they'll be with both sports but it's hard for me to believe it doesn't subconsciously come up in their minds when they are deciding which sport to focus most of their time on.

Let's take Derrick Rose for example. He's from one of the poorest and crime-ridden areas of Chicago. As a black kid from that area who's good at baseball and basketball (Rose's HS Simeon is great at both), why in the world would you ever choose baseball when one of your own currently brings in $16,402,500 yearly at age 24 in addition to an almost $500 million deal with Adidas? At age 24 in the baseball world you're lucky to even be in the majors let alone earning anywhere in the neighborhood of seven figures.

I totally agree that there aren't role models or coaches in the area to promote it but even then I don't see why a kid would chose baseball or basketball if they were skilled at both.

Derrick Rose was an elite professional talent who was earmarked for the NBA from the start. Kind of a terrible example, like asking why LeBron James didn't play baseball when his HS bball games were on ESPN. Yeah, I agree...it would have been dumb for Derrick Rose to have, say, signed a minor league baseball contract with the Rockford Cubs for $20k/year instead of having John Calipari's kid take his college entrance exam and go to Kentucky to play basketball for a year.

I think a good role model for this situation would be Shawon Dunston. Here is a great athlete from a poor neighborhood who never excelled at any fundamental baseball skill at the professional level, yet he earned tens of millions of dollars by playing nearly 20 years in the majors.

 

[FedEx227]

...and spent 6 years in the minors and didn't receive a million dollar payday until he was 27.

You completely missed my point. It wasn't about Derrick Rose going to play basketball it was about other kids from Simeon or the neighborhood looking at the two options. I can try to go be like Derrick and make $16 million/year or I can make $20k/year for 4 years with the hope that I can stick around the majors for a few more years I'll make a million.

Obviously Derrick is an elite talent, but I just can't comprehend how any black athlete even with "baseball" influences around them would chose baseball's financials versus football or basketball.

 

[Senser81]

...and spent 6 years in the minors and didn't receive a million dollar payday until he was 27.

Yeah...most black people from the Linden projects in Brooklyn receive their million dollar payday well before their 27th birthday.

 

[Houston]

At this point I think running a Negro League for a few years will catch the attention of blacks long enough for them to stick around while you reintegrate.


Plus there's the fact that self-evaluation is relatively simple in football and basketball. If middle school rolls around and you're significantly taller than the average person, you're likely to be interested in basketball. If you're strong or big then you're more than likely gonna be interested in football, without the push from anyone needed. Fast kids naturally gravitate towards the track.
Nobody is sitting around thinking "I have great hand-eye coordination, I'd be great in baseball."

 

[FedEx227]

Yeah...most black people from the Linden projects in Brooklyn receive their million dollar payday well before their 27th birthday.

If there's one thing lower class African-American youth have proven over time it's their willingness to be patient in acquiring money.

 

[Senser81]

If there's one thing lower class African-American youth have proven over time it's their willingness to be patient in acquiring money.

 

[Senser81]

You completely missed my point. It wasn't about Derrick Rose going to play basketball it was about other kids from Simeon or the neighborhood looking at the two options. I can try to go be like Derrick and make $16 million/year or I can make $20k/year for 4 years with the hope that I can stick around the majors for a few more years I'll make a million.

Obviously Derrick is an elite talent, but I just can't comprehend how any black athlete even with "baseball" influences around them would chose baseball's financials versus football or basketball.

So other kids from Simeon are looking at the financials, and weighing the ROI? Its not something as simple as "Derrick Rose is making money (relative, nondescript term) playing basketball, so I'm going to play basketball". What if it was Kirby Puckett instead of Derrick Rose coming from Simeon, would those Simeon kids think "Yeah, Kirby Puckett is making millions playing baseball, but I can make $16M/year playing basketball and only $20k/year playing baseball."

You make it seem as if each kid from the projects has his own Charles Schwab advisor.

 

[FedEx227]

And you guys make it seem like it's that impossible for them to see the easier and quickest route to big paydays is football and basketball. Doesn't take a Financial Advisor to do that math.

 

[Senser81]

And you guys make it seem like it's that impossible for them to see the easier and quickest route to big paydays is football and basketball. Doesn't take a Financial Advisor to do that math.

Football is an easier and quicker route to big paydays than baseball? How?

 

[FedEx227]

Minimum salary for NFL rookie: $390,000
Minor League minimum: ~$52,000

 

[Senser81]

Minimum salary for NFL rookie: $390,000
Minor League minimum: ~$52,000

 

[FedEx227]

Wait sorry. The $52,000 is people on 40-Man Rosters or guy who have played in the majors. The standard is much, much worse.

Here's the breakdown of minor league minimum/maximum salaries and the 2012-2016 CBA Google doc.

"First contract season: $850/month maximum. After that, open to negotiation

Alien Salary Rates: Different for aliens on visas--mandated by INS (Immigration).

Triple-A--First year: $2,150/month, after first year no less than $2,150/month

Class AA-First year: $1,500/month, after first year no less than $1,500/month

Class A (full season)--First year: $1,050/month, after first year no
less than $1,050/month

Class A (short-season)--First year: $850/month, after first year no
less than $850/month

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://mlbplayers.mlb.com/pa/pdf/cba_english.pdf

 

[NAHSTE]

Only loosely related, but a good read on how the new MLB spending restrictions on the amateur draft are affecting college baseball:

College baseball benefiting from MLB draft changes
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By By STEVE MEGARGEE and DAVID BRANDT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 12, 2013
Alec Rash is a 6-foot-6 right-hander with the kind of talent that makes professional baseball scouts salivate.

The Philadelphia Phillies used their second-round pick in last year’s draft on Rash, but the 19-year-old pitcher isn’t honing his skills in the minor leagues this spring. Instead, he’s a freshman for the Missouri Tigers.

Rash is a poster child for how Major League Baseball’s new collective bargaining agreement is already starting to impact the college game.

With new limitations on how much teams can spend on prep stars, it appears more will be heading to college instead of the minor leagues.

In November 2011, the CBA capped the amount of money each organization could spend in the first 10 rounds of the draft. In the first draft under the new rules, the number of high school players rated among Baseball America’s top 200 draft-eligible prospects went unsigned or undrafted increased slightly to 35, up from 26 in the 2011 draft.

Of those 35 unsigned or undrafted players, 33 are now playing Division I college baseball. The numbers might increase after the 2013 draft in June.

“It’s already had an impact,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said of the CBA. “What you’re seeing is the kids who are drafted from round five or after, I think you’re seeing more of those kids show up in school.”

Rash, the highest-drafted high school player not to sign a pro contract last year, said the Phillies didn’t offer the $750,000 signing bonus he sought. He was the 95th overall selection, and the slot value for that spot was $500,000. Rash enrolled at Missouri instead and is 2-1 with a 3.43 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 21 innings.

He said he probably would have turned pro directly out of high school under the old agreement.

The cap “really makes it difficult for teams to be able to just go out and throw money at someone,” Rash said. “They have to play more of a game with it. They have to really be smart with their money. Before the new CBA, they could just throw money at someone and make that decision for them.”
LSU shortstop Alex Bregman is another player tearing up college fields and not the minors.

He was considered a potential first-round draft pick before breaking a finger his senior year at Albuquerque (N.M.) Academy. After getting picked by the Boston Red Sox in the 29th round, Bregman went to LSU and is batting .444 with 41 runs scored and 35 RBIs in 34 games.

The Tigers (32-2) are off to the best start in school history, thanks in part to Bregman’s presence.

“I think in the old rules, they probably would have still taken a flyer on him – maybe not in the first round – but they would have watched him all summer and then they would have had a chance to give him a couple of million dollars in August before school started, and he probably would have signed,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “Because of the new rules, he ends up coming to school, where he’s been leading our team.”

Tennessee has played 17 true freshmen this season, the most of any Division I team. The list of Tennessee freshmen includes shortstop A.J. Simcox and outfielder Vincent Jackson, who were rated by Baseball America among the nation’s top 200 draft-eligible prospects last year.

Before MLB’s latest collective bargaining agreement, teams could offer an unlimited amount of money to players they drafted.

Now MLB assigns a slot value to every pick in each year’s draft – which in 2012 ranged from $7.2 million for the No. 1 overall pick to $125,000 at the end of the 10th round. A team’s total allotment is the sum of the slot value of all of its selections in the first 10 rounds.

A team can spend its allotment as it sees fit, going above or under slot value for an individual pick if it desires. But if a team goes above the overall threshold, it must pay a luxury tax. Any players selected after the 10th round of the draft can be signed for up to $100,000 without counting toward a team’s cap.

Miami Marlins scouting director Stan Meek said the draft’s rule changes are more restrictive, but can be a positive for pro organizations because it streamlines the negotiating process.

“It makes for a more honest discussion and it certainly makes us do our homework with prospects,” Meek said. “We have to get a good understanding of how much it’s going to take for a player to sign because we don’t have as much wiggle room. It’s brought a little more realism to everything.”

Meek said he expects the new rules will help the college game because good prospects who aren’t considered elite – ones that might be slotted from the sixth to 10th round – would be more likely to go to school because the hope for a large signing bonus isn’t as feasible.

Major League Baseball’s slot value for a sixth-round pick in the 2012 draft ranged from about $200,000 to $250,000. That’s not necessarily an enticing amount for a player who has a scholarship on the table and could potentially improve his draft position after a good college career.

Still, LSU’s Mainieri pointed out the rules also can work to college baseball’s detriment.

Mainieri signed outfielder Hayden Jennings last year and didn’t expect him to get drafted in the first 20 rounds. Jennings instead went to the Washington Nationals in the sixth round and never played for LSU. Mainieri said Jennings signed with the Nationals for $100,000, well below slot value.

“Basically what was happening was Washington was drafting a player they knew they could sign for under slot to save them money they could probably put into one of their higher picks,” Mainieri said. “We ended up losing a player there that we did not expect to lose. It happens in both directions.”

 

[SuperKevin]

So other kids from Simeon are looking at the financials, and weighing the ROI? Its not something as simple as "Derrick Rose is making money (relative, nondescript term) playing basketball, so I'm going to play basketball". What if it was Kirby Puckett instead of Derrick Rose coming from Simeon, would those Simeon kids think "Yeah, Kirby Puckett is making millions playing baseball, but I can make $16M/year playing basketball and only $20k/year playing baseball."

You make it seem as if each kid from the projects has his own Charles Schwab advisor.

You don't need a financial advisor. You just need a TV. When was the last time you saw an outfielder in AA with a national television commerical? How many reality shows do they have flaunting the wealth and excess of a 18 year old kid playing in Hagerstown, MD?

 

[Senser81]

You don't need a financial advisor. You just need a TV. When was the last time you saw an outfielder in AA with a national television commerical? How many reality shows do they have flaunting the wealth and excess of a 18 year old kid playing in Hagerstown, MD?

When was the last time you saw a college football player with a national television commercial? Other than Cam Newton and Reggie Bush, how many college football players do they have flaunting the wealth and excess of an 18 year old kid playing in Corvalis, OR?

 

[Senser81]

Wait sorry. The $52,000 is people on 40-Man Rosters or guy who have played in the majors. The standard is much, much worse.

Here's the breakdown of minor league minimum/maximum salaries and the 2012-2016 CBA Google doc.



https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://mlbplayers.mlb.com/pa/pdf/cba_english.pdf

I'm still not following your comparison of minor league baseball players to professional football players. Here is a quick salary breakdown for college football players at schools other than Auburn & USC:

Freshman year: $0
Sophomore year: $0
Junior year: $0
Senior year: $0

 

[NAHSTE]

When was the last time you saw a college football player with a national television commercial?

Every time ESPN runs an promo for their upcoming games...

DEANTHONY THOMAS AND THE DUCKS TAKE ON MARQUISE LEE AND THE TROJANS THIS SATURDAY ONLY ON ABC

 

[Senser81]

Every time ESPN runs an promo for their upcoming games...

DEANTHONY THOMAS AND THE DUCKS TAKE ON MARQUISE LEE AND THE TROJANS THIS SATURDAY ONLY ON ABC

More exploitation of the black race...

 

[SuperKevin]

I'm still not following your comparison of minor league baseball players to professional football players. Here is a quick salary breakdown for college football players at schools other than Auburn & USC:

Freshman year: $0
Sophomore year: $0
Junior year: $0
Senior year: $0

Ok so the minor league baseball player makes more money before his 20th birthday than the football player. However when he is drafted he'll make more money his rookie year than most minor leaguers will make in 5-6 seasons. Again, don't need a fancy financial adviser to tell you this. You just need to see the $80K watch Johnny Football star is wearing in the green room of the draft