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Originally Posted by BishopMVP
There isn't going to be minor league baseball this year. Maybe you can have complex leagues or at least somewhere for AAAA players or top upper minors prospects who are on the 40 man bubble to play if MLB does it's Arizona plan? This is another knock on effect of a messed up situation, but why would MLB draft HS players with less scouting while knowing they'll basically sit out a whole summer of development?
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You'll still see high school kids drafted. They're just going to have to commit to signing during an in-home and drop any threats to go through with a commitment. It's not like they haven't been scouting a lot of these kids for 2+ years and have data on most into March. We had a pitcher with 20+ mlb scouts watching a start in January, a high school teammate of my son hosted the Brewers in January, and travel team teammate had Oakland in their home over the fall. The teams know these kids. This is just as much about saving money and cutting minor league teams as anything else. MLB doesn't want a 40 round draft and they don't want kids using college commitments to secure 7 figure bonuses outside the first round.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BishopMVP
I'm from the lacrosse side, not baseball, but it's part of why I'm pushing against the idea that we should continue this social distancing to the extent schools are closed indefinitely... there are 40 million kids between the ages of 5-22 that are probably losing a whole year of academic, social, and athletic development. The college stuff is going to be a mess to figure out, but at least the eligibility is there... I've coached a group of kids since they were in 4th grade, lost 2 straight state championships by a combined 3 goals & many have been working towards a potential title in Spring 2020 for a decade. They're going to go into the same problem (especially the D3 commits who aren't promised a roster spot) for the next 4 years where there are 25% more players competing for playing time in college, and they're also not going to be allowed to have their senior season, their senior prom, their senior year(spring) of HS, and they'll never get that back. Since schools end later (end of June) there's a chance Massachusetts will go back May 4 & have an abbreviated season + playoffs, but it's really not looking likely. (On the plus side New Hampshire's HS athletic association President did come out today and say there is no reason they couldn't still hold athletic events while students are learning from home as long as it was safe, so maybe that's an avenue.)
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This is the situation our household is in. My son's senior year of baseball was officially canceled yesterday. This was a state tournament team last year that graduated 2 starters and was one of the favorites for a what would have been the school's first state title. It's an incredibly close group of kids and considered the most talented baseball class in the school's history. I'm optimistic we'll have summer baseball up and running here by June or July, but that's up in the air at best. If it does happen there certainly won't be the amount of travel for us that was expected. It's going to be a focus on local tournaments.