Rosenthal's Right-On!!!

In his most recent column on Fox Sports, Ken Rosenthal discusses some of the ares baseball still needs to improve upon, in order to create true competitive balance in the game (click on the title of this article for a direct link to the story). Rosenthal, along with SI's Jon Heyman and Tom Verducci, have become the "go-to" guys for great insight into our beloved past-time. Peter Gammons will always remain the dean of the profession, but these three continue to impress, column after column. Also always worth reading are the NY Times' Murray Chass and the NY Daily News' Adam Rubin.

From Rosenthal's article:

Significant inequities remain in the ways teams obtain amateur talent, according to one general manager who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Slotting" — assigning predetermined bonuses to each draft position — would increase the chances of low-revenue teams signing their top picks. Too often, such clubs pass on quality amateurs because they fear the players will demand an exorbitant sum.

This has even become a sorespot for the Mets, a top tier revenue team. Jonathan and I discussed a similar suggestion (slotting) last season, after we failed to sign Pedro Beato, a 17th-round "draft and follow" pick, only to see his rights drafted by the Orioles this year, who signed him to a contract that would have amounted to somewhere in the neighborhood of what we ended up paying Chan Ho Park. As always with Mr. Rosenthal, a great read!