Salary Cap for First-Year Players?

[NetShrine]

Uh, aren't the owners getting the players to correct a problem created by the owners on this one?

From Bob Nightengale, BB Weekly:

Major league players, angered and also jealous at the huge bonuses for amateur players, sound as if they're ready to relent on a salary cap for the First-Year Player Draft.

"I truly believe there has to be some kind of a cap for high school and college players," Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire says. "Take it or leave it. Where you're going to make your big money is when you get into the big leagues. And if you prove yourself there, then you've earned it. Coming out of high school and college you haven't earned anything."

That could leave Chicago Cubs' pick Mark Prior, the top talent in the draft, with the highest salary ever presented to a drafted player.

Prior, advised by veteran agent John Boggs, procured a five-year, $10.5 million contract that could be worth in excess of $25 million upon completion.

Prior, who enrolled at Southern California to complete his degree, blew away every contract that's ever been given in the draft. He will receive his entire $4 million signing bonus on Jan. 7, 2002 and will earn $250,000 in 2002; $650,000 in 2003; $1.6 million in 2004; $2 million in 2005; and $2 million in 2006.

Yet, what makes the contract so advantageous for Prior is that if he has enough service time and becomes eligible for salary arbitration in 2004, he can void the final two years of his contract. He instead could submit to salary arbitration, which could potentially be worth in excess of $10 million in each of the last two seasons.

He also has a salary escalator in his contract that would pay an additional $500,000 each year during his contract if he wins the Rookie of the Year award, $500,000 a year for making the All-Star team, and $500,000 for winning the Cy Young award.

The Cubs even shelled out $20,000 for each of Prior's final two semesters of classes.

"He has the best of both worlds with those insurances and guarantees," Boggs says. "He has a locked-in number if he has developmental problems or injuries, but if he becomes the pitcher we expect him to be, he has a contract that could potentially be worth $30 million."

Don't think for a minute, either, that Prior will be content knowing that he's financially secure for life.

Not this kid.

If it were about the money, perhaps he would have accepted the $1.5 million offer from the New York Yankees three years ago out of high school. Instead, he went to Vanderbilt, transferred to Southern California and became perhaps the best college pitcher since Tom Seaver. He went 15-1 with a 1.69 ERA last season in becoming a Baseball Weekly first-team All-American, striking out 202 batters and walking 18 in 138 innings.

He's already on the 40-man roster, will go to the Cubs' major league spring training camp in 2002, and if all goes well, could find a spot in the Cubs' rotation by July.

"This is a dream come true," says Jerry Prior, Mark's father. "I grew up and went to high school in Chicago. The first game I ever saw at Wrigley, Ernie Banks hit a grand slam on a cold, windy day in 1959. I thought I died and went to heaven."

Only this could be a whole lot better

[willyg]

I have heard big Mac make these comments before.

I agree, to a point.

I remember reading that in McGwire's day he received a $250,000 bonus from the A's. Now it is very difficult to say what a quarter mil was in 1984 relatively speaking, this might shed some light.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseb...fs90.htm#teams

In 1984 the average salary was $329,408.

In 2001 the average salary is approximately $2.2 mil. By the same standards ($250,000/$329,408) a player drafted would receive a bonus of nearly $1.7 million, and McGwire WAS NOT the first player chosen.

The Mets (Sean Abner) I believe had the first pick that year were all prepaired to take McGwire. Day or two before the draft his father calls the Mets and tells them not to draft him.

Mark is not the best spokesperson on this topic.

[NetShrine]

Groucho Marx said - The money's not important, as long as I get it.

Perhaps the players today are saying - It's wrong from them to get this money, since I already got mine.