Major League Baseball Ball Lay announced Monday that it has formed the MLB Draft League with a Prep Baseball .l report – a new summer league that will feature the country’s top draft-eligible players in the 68-game season starting next year. The league will be led by former MLB scout Carrick Jackson, who resigned as head coach of Southern University to take on the newly created position.
As the league’s five established clubs, all five teams affiliated with the former secondary league have been brought in: Mahoning Valley Scrappers, State College Spikes, Trenton Thunder, West Virginia Black Bears and Williamsport Crosscutters. Negotiations with the sixth team are underway, according to the league’s press release, an announcement hopefully in the near future.
The draft league has been made possible by an earlier decision to push back the MLB’s annual amateur draft from early June, to coincide with the MLB All-Star break in mid-July. As of today’s announcement, the 68-game schedule will include an annual -l-star break centered around the MLB draft, so it looks like these players have the idea to continue playing once the draft is ready. That, understandably, could help short-season class-A overcome the league. The Big League Scouts will be able to see the league in person, and the MLB adds that they will also be able to evaluate participants through “state-of-the-art scouting technology.”
Jackson appeared on the MLB network this morning to discuss the league and to clarify some aspects of the timing and schedule (video link). The league will start in early June and run in August. The MLB’s goal will be to attract as many top draft-worthy talent as possible, although Jaxon acknowledged that some programs that qualify for the postseason game will push against sending their players to participate in the draft league.
There are some obscure areas whose full definition is still pending. It is not clear, for example, whether each MLB team will want to continue playing in its draft signage league, although it could clearly help offset some short-season Class-A league losses. Jackson hints at the fact that the league expects some players to exit the league once it is drafted, noting that “after the draft, we will be able to take some children – some seniors and some others, who were looking to get.” Free-agent opportunities and put them in that mix. “
The initial hope is a six-team league with 30-man rosters per Jackson, making 180 roster spots in the league’s first iteration. Depending on how things go, the MLB may eventually consider establishing additional teams in the league. So far, it doesn’t look like college college and high school talent will be separated.
Suffice it to say there is some logistics that need to be sorted out or at least clarified, but the broader solution is that the start of a draft league will give teams and fans a new level of reach in ideal days and weeks. Until the draft. Doing so should also lead to more marketing opportunities and, hopefully, some extra eyes and attention for the MLB, just for the draft. Major League Baseball.L Draft, never seen as an event, compared to NBA or NFL drafts. Still, there is no idea about the basic difference that the prospects selected in the drafts of those other games jump directly to the active roster of their new club, while virtually every player selected in the MLB draft has at least a few years of MLB readiness. .
