No one has ever said that the landscape of college athletics is fair. Schools decide what they want to be good in, and devote their resources accordingly. When Skip Bertman decided to he could win in baseball at LSU the culture changed. Now the man who occupies the role in which Bertman won 5 national titles would love to use his national title to change the culture as well.

Following the blissful summer celebrating his national championship Paul Mainieri has been busy trying to shore up a signing class that was hit hard by Major League Baseball signings. Every college baseball coach has to deal with the problems of recruits signing with MLB, not just Mainieri. But it seems as though the way the signings happened this season were eye opening enough for Mainieri to want to change the entire system.

“One of the players (Brody Colvin) was literally in Freshman Orientation getting an ID card when the ball club called with their last offer.” Mainieri said. “He literally left freshman orientation. To me that’s ludicrous. I just can’t believe that we have a system that allows for these kids not to get along with their life.”

And as absurd as that sounds, it is common place for teams to wait until the last possible minute to sign their draft picks. Teams feel that they gain leverage with the players when the threat of going to school and not signing is eminent. The school deadline puts the strength back in the hands of the MLB clubs.

That is why Mainieri wants to talk to MLB and see if they can move the deadline up, allowing the schools time to fill out their rosters following the loss of players to MLB. As it is now, LSU only has 34 players on what can be a 35 man roster.

So right now, there is a kid out there who has dreamed of playing for LSU who can not because he did not have time to enroll at the school due to MLB having a deadline that does not allow for schools to plan for last minute transfers. Not a very fair system.
“Why August 15? To me it should be July 15. What that would do, it’s still a deadline, that the ball clubs can work with the players to get them signed if they want to, but it gives the colleges enough time to scramble and find enough players to fill the gap.” Mainieri said.

Added to all of this were the statistics Mainieri and his assistant David Grewe provided of the number of American players on MLB rosters. In the last 5 years, 465 high school players were drafted in the first 10 rounds. 415 of them signed with MLB. There are 1218 players on the 2009 MLB 40 man rosters, 901 were drafted and signed in the amateur draft. 66% of the current MLB rosters that have players that were drafted out of college, while the number of players on current MLB rosters that were drafted out of high school is 31%. More than 2/1 in favor of going to college.
Certainly makes a good argument for playing college baseball.

“If Major League Baseball is taking 415 of the 465 high school players that were drafted in the top 10 rounds, which should represent the best high school players, why are twice as many players in the big leagues signed out of college? What does that tell you? That those players that we are getting, are not that bad, and that we are developing them while they are in college.” Mainieri added.

Add to all of this is the fact that the money can sometimes be deceiving. A million dollars, after taxes is around six hundred thousand. Still not bad, but a huge chunk is lost. And then there is the MLB servitude clause that says that if a player quits before he has 7 years of service he may be force to pay back a prorated portion of his bonus. So if you quit after 3 years, you would have to pay back 4/7ths of your bonus. After the repay and taxes, that million dollars could not be very much if you are not careful with your money.

From www.eyeonthetigers.com