“The slotted draft system is extremely unfair to players. Baseball is the only major sport to never adopt a salary cap, so it is a free market for players. Yet they are forcing the incoming American talent to sign for a certain amount. The system adopted this year has only made it that much more unfair for the players. In previous drafts if a player had a higher asking price he would fall usually to a team who was willing to meet the demand. Now with a salary cap in place for the top ten picks of each team and penalties for exceeding the cap, players leverage is very low. You also have the issue of teams now drafting less talented players early who will sign for below market value to then attempt to shift the remaining money towards someone else's bonus. Anyone who is signing below the slot is only validating the owners and the leagues strategy to limit what players entering the league can make. Yet if any of the players were from other countries they would be able to sign with the highest bidder. So an extremely unfair system.”

Harold Bicknell, President/CEO

Bicknell Management Group

 

”Don't think the slotted bonus system is fair to rookie players. It certainly makes agents/attorneys for those players less important, which I think was the point.”
Brian Adkins, Owner
AFA Sports