NFL Draft: Why Nobody Cares About MLB Draft and Three Fixes

Seemingly everyone cares about the NFL Draft. Why is it though that in a league full of tanking to the top, no one cares remotely as much about the MLB version?

Raise your hand if you can remember the last time you watched the MLB Draft. Okay, maybe a few more than I expected; you are, after all, reading a baseball fan blog. How about planned your day around it though? Counted down the days? Have a slew of warm fuzzy MLB Draft memories you oohed and ahhed over with family and friends. Can conclusively tell me, right now without looking it up, when the MLB Draft is and where it is being held?

That’s what I thought. At this point, only Keith Law and Ken Rosenthal should still have their hands up (I choose to believe they follow me).

In case you hadn’t noticed, the NFL just completed another draft of their own. You might have been oversaturated by Thursday night. You might have been done with the revolving door of top pick speculation. But you probably watched anyway, even if you were just streaming on your phone while standing in line for Infinity War.  

The NFL towers above MLB when it comes to player development. The first round broadcast stands as a marquee event on par with playoff coverage for the NFL. Conversely, baseball fans generally show more interest in spring training games than they will in tuning in to watch those first MLB Draft selections.

That opportunity is June 4th, by the way, coming to you on a Monday from Secaucus, New Jersey.

And with full apologies to Jersey, that sentence pretty well sums up the state of the MLB Draft.

In many ways, this makes no sense. Baseball fans love numbers, especially in this age of advanced analytics. Getting the chance to apply them to come up with some metric to adjust BABIP and exit velocity for metal bats should be a major rush. Football is a sprint, baseball is the marathon.

Pick anything you love about America’s pastime, contrast it with something you love about America’s game, and the end result usually translates to the baseball fan being the more likely stathead.

Fixing the MLB Draft

So is there anything to be done about this? What would it take to make the MLB Draft more enticing, more of the sports adrenaline rush the NFL will be putting out there Thursday night?

Absolutely. What follows over the next three slides are the three biggest problems facing baseball when it comes to marketing their player development, and three ways to help turn that around.

MLB Draft Problem # 1: Immediate Impact?

The biggest issue with the MLB Draft? That has to be the lack of immediate impact most prospects have.

Of the thirty-two players drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft Thursday night, at least twenty-eight of them are going to be in the 2018 starting lineup of the team that picks them. And in Week 1 no less. That number likely grows by the end of the season.

Baseball…not so much. Of the forty-three picks in the first round (making that make sense would be No. 4 on the fix list), most of them won’t play above A ball in 2019. Only two players this century were immediately promoted to the majors from the draft: Mike Leake and Xavier Nady. Not exactly Cooperstown bound talent. And for every Mike Trout or Jose Fernandez, who only spent one and two years in the minors respectively, there are five guys who take years to develop.

Some never get there at all. When NFL first round talent fails to become future Hall of Famers, the vast majority at least go on to still be solid contributors to their organizations. Players worthy of playing at their sport’s highest level. Conversely, the MLB Draft consistently produces a staggering amount of first round busts. Like flame out, not even worth watching on dollar beer and hot dog night in the minors type busts.

The Solution

How can Rob Manfred fix this, and jazz up the MLB Draft? Make college baseball mandatory.

Years of it, even. Three years of organized, competitive baseball. Players can choose to forgo their senior season, but that’s it. And at that point, given the attrition rate, one would think most players not projected to go inside the first five rounds would choose to play out their career and get the degree.

Will this happen? Of course not.

However, it would fix a lot of the problems. Consider the man pictured above, Tyler Kolek. Amazing arm. Threw over 100 mph in high school. Consensus Top 5 pick in 2014. Rated way better than Kyle Schwarber, Aaron Nola, Michael Conforto, and Trea Turner. The Miami Marlins picked him second.

Four years later, Kolek might not even ever reach the majors. His story is not in the least bit uncommon.

College players can flop too, to be sure. But they do it less. Also, those extra years allow that much more time for MLB scouts to evaluate talent. The chances for missing big would go down dramatically. Plus, it must also be said that this system would allow that much more time for that looming ligament injury to pop up. Reams of medical data exist on the Baker Mayfields and Josh Rosens of the world. High school players are just more of a wildcard. This could also circumvent some off the field issues, offering that much more time for 17 to 18 year old kids to get being a 17 to 18 year old kid out of their system.

The result would be much more known commodities, ones that could contribute in just one to two years, and ones much less likely to depreciate overnight. Which, in part, brings us to our next point.

MLB Draft Problem # 2: Name Recognition

Unless you attend college in the middle of Florida, you probably have no chance of naming more than one player currently regarded as a first round pick in the MLB Draft.

Unless you live under a rock, you probably could have rattled off half of the NFL Draft’s projected Top 10.

And then, many many other players that will go on to make meaningful impacts right away on an NFL roster. Conversely, many a passionate baseball fan might struggle to name five players worth being picked in the first five rounds.

Fans just don’t know these names, the investment isn’t there to the same degree it is in the NFL. Generally, there is one player hyped up as the next big thing. Every baseball fan knew about Bryce Harper heading into the 2010 MLB Draft. But Manny Machado, Chris Sale, and Christian Yelich? Much less so.

The Solution

Major League Baseball categorically fails when it comes to fueling the hype train for the next generation of stars. Changing that needs to become a priority, far more so than pace of play.

Time for MLB to start shooting for the same continuous coverage the NFL does, building up the MLB Draft all season long.

Make college fantasy baseball a thing on MLB.com. Support more programming on the same level as College Gameday. Generally, only the College World Series gets broadcast when it comes to college baseball, at least in terms of national coverage. Why not, at minimum a nationally televised College Game of the Week?

The above is just a handful of ideas. But all are in the service of continuous coverage, something the MLB Draft has just never come close to matching the NFL on.

True, much of this accomplished through the perfect marriage of college football Saturdays and professional football Sundays. Simultaneously independent and symbiotic, baseball’s schedule doesn’t allow for this level of separation. But the amount of exposure college, and even high school, baseball receives- that can be increased.

And so too can coverage and promotion the MLB Draft itself. Player-focused studies, articles, specials. More analysis of minor league systems strengths and weaknesses, and best potential fits. For again, the vast majority know where and when the NFL Draft is every year. It’s not an accomplishment. Hockey fans have that down. But the MLB Draft? That’s the type of knowledge that makes you MVP of trivia night. It’s a secret for baseball diehards. The NFL Draft is almost common knowledge.

More promotion is a must.