H-Town Sports

Houston Sports Blog - Real sports cities have TWO Conference USA teams

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Justice on Stubbs

Richard Justice's article in Tuesday's Houston Chronicle on Longhorn CF Drew Stubbs' pre-college rollercoaster ride is an interesting read. Something seemed fishy when I initially read it, and Skip Sauer at the Sports Economist picked up on that vibe as well.

I know very little about baseball's anti-trust exemption and how the collective bargaining process enables teams to elude claims of collusion, if it does, but the fact that Bud Selig allegedly has the ability to call an MLB owner like Uncle Drayton, tell him that their offer to a draftee is too high and "recommend" a more accurate offer sure makes me nauseous. I was under the impression that MLB worked under a free-market umbrella, at least in the sense that the negotiations between the teams and their draft picks were not restricted by monetary limitations arbitrarily set by the commissioner's office.

Sauer's 'cartel' analogy seems to hit home, especially when you consider that (allegedly) owners like McLane are willing to let the commish push them around (i.e. tell McLane that he's not free to pay his draft pick what he sees fit) in return for favorable future treatment. There's nothing wrong with compromise between parties, but if this is how the system works, it sheds new light on the real reason that some talented draft picks do not end up signing deals following the draft.

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I would love to believe that Big Bad Bud flexed his considerable muscle to keep Uncle Drayton frome signing Drew Stubbs, but the true story is probably much simpler. Stingy decided that he wasn't going to pay Stubbs $900,000.00 and is now making up stories to keep from looking like an uber-ass for letting a potential franchise outfielder get away for a few nickels. I have a hard time believing that Selig dropped a hammer like that. The MLB, moreso than any professional league, is run by its Players Union. If Donald Fehr had gotten a whiff of this alleged market-fixing, the battle would have played out much louder and more publicly than this. I call bull.

Tue Jun 28, 04:21:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home