Comments on: Free agent compensation rule cost Brewers shot at Mike Trout

By: brianc6234

brianc6234 — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:01:48 +0000

You really should tell the whole story on this. The Angels had the 24th pick for losing K-Rod to the Mets and the 25th pick for losing Teixeira to the Yankees. The Angels most likely would have taken Mike Trout with the 24th pick. The main reason they took Randal Grichuk and then Mike Trout was it might get Trout to sign for less. And he did. People can cry all they want about if Sabathia or Teixeira is the better player. That won’t fix anything. If the rules were fair no team would be able to sign more than one type A player a winter. The rules are all a mess.

As for Mike Trout, 23 other teams blew it on him. Some people say now they’d even take him ahead of Strasburg. The Angels had several early draft picks so they could take a chance on Trout early in the draft.

By: quintjs

quintjs — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 19:58:15 +0000

The change I would have made to the system would be to keep in the same, but in this situation the Brewers and Jays would have either gotten the Yankees second round pick or third round pick, or they could forfeit that pick back to the Yankees and select any player from the Yankees farm system, rookie or below.

So it actually has a real cost to signing many type A players. Of course you have to clear up type A status for middle relievers thing because in this situation no type A reliever would ever get signed.

By: Panda Claus

Panda Claus — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:12:40 +0000

I think the current system is basically OK. Teams in the “buy” mode essentially get a volume discount by only giving up later picks (2nd, 3rd, etc.) for multiple Type A’s.

One change worth considering is to give up your first-round pick to the team who’s losing the first Type A that you sign, a 2nd rounder to the next Type A signed and so on. What I like about that is that teams being forced to give up their picks actually would have some say into where those picks are lost to. Could make a difference especially if you poach players from your own division.

By: BC

BC — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:43:53 +0000

Why don’t they scrap the whole system and give compensatory picks plus have the team signing the free agent forfeit their pick? Type A’s, end of first round pick awarded, signing team forfeits their first rounder. Type B’s, end of second round pick awarded, signing team forfeits their second rounder. Etc…
Just seems more equitable.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 13:32:56 +0000

Regarding the compensation system, it was the Jays who really got screwed. They lost Type A free agent A. J. Burnett to the Yankees that year and ended up with New York’s third round pick. It doesn’t matter that Burnett has not played like a Type A player, the Jays should have received a first round pick, but had to settle for a third round pick.

By: Panda Claus

Panda Claus — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:33:58 +0000

This is a compelling back-story, and one of the many reasons I love baseball and what surrounds it.

Before we make too much about how that Teixeira signing costs the Brewers 48 positions in the draft, we need to realize 24 other picks were made before the Angels picked up Trout.

Even the Angels passed on Trout once, since they selected Randal Grichuk with the 24th pick right before Trout was chosen. Adding to the irony is that even without owning the 25th pick, the Brewers might have still gotten Trout with their own 26th choice if the Angels had passed on Trout one more time.