ot that I'm a fan but I'm interested in this new concept. Localish minor league teams in Morgantown, State College, Williamsport, etc were essentially stripped of their minor league status and are now collegiate summer league teams. Or are they not? What I find is that its for draft eligible players but there's like no time between the end of the college baseball season and the MLB Draft so who actually plays on this team? I went on the WV Black Bears website and it said they had some returning players. How could someone return to play for a Draft League team?
OT: Explain the MLB Draft League
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
- Start date
Without looking too much up, my guess would be players who were eligible previously but weren't drafted. Isn't there only 20 rounds in the baseball draft? A few years ago..wasn't it as high as 40-50? So, I imagine a lot of college players, especially with COVID giving them an extra year, aren't drafted and elect to either not sign or weren't offered a Minor League free agent contract.
But what happens after the Draft? Do these teams lose their players? Or is it basically understood that guys playing for these teams aren't getting drafted.
Last year was the first season of the league so it’s going to take a few more years before they smooth out the roster composition. Last year, the quality of players was noticeably poor, with it mostly being D2, D3 and JUCO players. There were some high D1 players, but most across the country were already previously committed to play in the more established summer leagues such as Cape Cod, the Coastal Plain League, NECBL and others.
My understanding is that this year there will essentially be a reset period after the MLB Draft, which is in mid-July. Any players not drafted can obviously continue for the last month of the season and open slots will be filled by guys who were released from MLB organizations and want to continue playing.
I’m curious to see over the course of time how much support MLB truly gives to this league, or if it just goes through the motions because it feels obligated to support these decent MiLB markets that were stripped of their affiliations.
My understanding is that this year there will essentially be a reset period after the MLB Draft, which is in mid-July. Any players not drafted can obviously continue for the last month of the season and open slots will be filled by guys who were released from MLB organizations and want to continue playing.
I’m curious to see over the course of time how much support MLB truly gives to this league, or if it just goes through the motions because it feels obligated to support these decent MiLB markets that were stripped of their affiliations.
Players that are drafted will leave, yes. See my above post on what happens after the Draft.
I thought the Cape Cod League and leagues like it were for non-draft eligible players. Is the Draft League ONLY for draft-eligible players? Seems like the level of play would be higher if they allowed non-draft eligible players. To me, this seems like just a way to ease markets like State College and Morgantown out of Minor League Baseball and into the Wild Things independent league.
I don’t know about all leagues, but draft-eligible sophomores and juniors can play in the Cape as long as they have remaining college eligibility… so yes, that was a bit of a problem for the Draft League last summer. I am going to give it a few years before making judgment. All of the franchises in that league are fairly stable and play in nice facilities. Even Williamsport had several million pumped into its ballpark from when MLB played their games there during the LLWS.
The MLB Draft League is primarily for players eligible for that year’s draft.
The Cape Cod League is for any college player as long as they have at least another year of eligibility. Some are DRAFT eligible while others are not.
