[Dilbert San Diego]

Interesting that they can recruit players in the Dominican Republic with these baseball academies for the youth of that poor country.

Why they are allowed to do this when American players are available? They can’t honestly argue that there aren’t enough American players to staff the major league teams.

While we shouldn’t discriminate against players from other countries, neither should we give them a free pass, as is apparently done with the Dominican players. The Dominicans are getting preferential treatment in recruiting, training, etc. to eventually get to the major leagues.

[Alberta's Child]

One of the reasons for this is that foreign players are subject to different draft/signing rules than players from the U.S. (including Puerto Rico) and Canada. These players are eligible to be drafted by a major-league team after high school graduation, while foreign players are not subject to regular draft eligibility rules and can be signed as young as sixteen years of age. Many teams make great efforts to recruit young Latin American ballplayers simply because all of these players are basically "free agents" and would be potentially lost to competitors unless they are signed at a very young age.

This has long been the way it works in big-league baseball. If it has changed in recent years, then I'll stand corrected on it.

[Sonny M]

Why they are allowed to do this when American players are available? They can’t honestly argue that there aren’t enough American players to staff the major league teams.

The draft.

Why would say the red sox spend money and resources to develop players for the yankees and Blue jays, when they get develop players from overseas and keep them to themselves.

The draft changes all the dynamics.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

Please.....MLB is is a for-profit enterprise. Every nickel they make is based on WINNING. Winning is a function of REAL competition and real excellence.

This article pretends that MLB ought to be like outcome-based-education, employment with the gummint, or the special olympics.