Some parts of my day have consisted of being in the office or traveling to games.  The time spent so far in the office has consisted of making phone calls and reading NCAA eligibility rules and amateur rules that apply to players going into an MLB draft.  For the most part, NCAA eligibility rules are very straight forward with players opting to enter the MLB draft.  Any player who is in high school, Junior College, or University will lose their amateur status as a player if they sign any contract with a professional team or sports agent.  Any player that commits to an agent is only providing a verbal agreement to allow them to represent them.  The player cannot sign a contract with an agency while under the jurisdiction of the NCAA.  By signing a contract with an agency or professional team, the player will no longer be eligible to participate in any baseball program that is part of the NCAA.  The term “Amateur” refers to players who have never been signed to a contract under a professional team that provides compensation to the player.  Eligibility rules are a little different.

            Players can be eligible for the MLB draft if they are a high school senior, in their second year at a junior college, or turn 21 before the draft or within sixty days of the completion of the MLB draft.  These rules will further be related to different tactics agents use when deciding on whether a player should sign out of high school or continue on to college.  

Building a relationship with coaches is probably the most important resource to have when recruiting prospects.  If you think about it, these players play under a coach for at least one year.  Players will become comfortable with their coaches and value their knowledge and experience in the game.  More times than not, a player will refer to a coach every time when in the position where they must either decide on whether to go pro or not, or on which agency to have represent them.  If you have a good relationship with a coach, they will back you when their player asks them if they should sign with you.  Another advantage of having a relationship with a coach is when you need to meet a player on their team.  There are coaches that will not let you speak with their players around the field.  Having this type of coach on your side will allow you access players that other agencies normally would not have access to.  

My final thoughts on my first ever draft as part of an agency is that it is an exhausting process.  There were a ton of ups-and-downs in a three day period that I think my head was close to spinning.  At one moment you had the dreams of your players coming true, and the next it is far from happening.  You have a large offer on the table one minute only to have it reduced the next.  I am not sure what to think, but I know that I agree with the fact of leaving the player out of the communication during the draft just based on the notion of not causing added stress to their lives.  It would be a difficult task to have your career at stake while having to answer well over a hundred text messages from scouts telling you that you are worth this amount and then retracting that statement and wondering if less money should be taken so the opportunity is not lost.  I am appreciative of 7 Sports Group educating their prospects on why they should not get involved with the draft conversations. I will say that MLB scouts and GM’s do not care as much for the player as they say they are. The speed in which money was offered and taken away was astonishing.  I think I would lose years off my life each year I was involved in the draft.  The toughest part now is that the draft is over and now the negotiating starts.  From what I hear, these scouts want to meet with the player right now in order to try and get them signed.  Plus, they are expected to try and negotiate a lower bonus offer than what was stated during the draft.  So, not only will try to get you to agree to a lower offer, but they will still try and lower that offer even after they have drafted you.  Congratulations on being drafted, but I need you to take less money.  Really??

There are several opinions on whether or not having a successful client base as an agency is useful in recruiting amateur players or current professional players.  Of course, larger agencies who have a long list of professional clients can be perceived as being successful since all their clients stuck with them this far in their careers.  Being an agent is relationship based and this can be validated by the amount of clients you have currently.  Agencies with bigger name players will have an advantage over smaller agencies who only a few clients based on perception from the prospects and their players.  The most common question I have been asked so far is “What other big leaguers do you represent?”  If your answer is a truthful one and you say “I don’t have any”, the conversation will quickly be ended.  This is especially true when speaking with high school players.  High school players want to be a part of an agency that they can tell their friends about the other clients you have they can see on the television.  They don’t want to say the agency they are with and have their teammates respond with that they have never heard of them.  The only way to get around this issue is be a better communicator and educate the player on what to expect during the draft and how the process works.  This will help with gaining the players’ trust in that you will do whatever is in the best interest of him. 

            7 Sports Group is a smaller boutique agency who just getting into baseball.  They do not notable players on their client list that you can see playing on TV.  One thing they can offer that most large agencies struggle with is personalized service to their clients.  The larger the agency the more clients they have to manage, which means you may not always be able to get a hold of your agent to answer your questions.  These players want to feel that they are your most important client and that you are doing everything for them.  So, do you think an agency with a very notable client list to sell the agency to you is better than a smaller agency?  I guess we will have to wait and see what the end result is.  

On day 3 of the 2013 MLB Amateur draft, 7 Sports Group had another guy drafted.  This prospect was the one that the Astros kept making an offer and then retracting it verbally.  This prospect was supposed to get drafted between the 12th and 15th round, but slipped to the 31st round.  In terms of the MLB draft, this is a huge gap for the player in terms to money.  According to Ryan, the Astros still were offering a six figure bonus even though he was drafted in the 31st round.  Apparently the offer on the table at first was $350,000 and then was lowered to $150,000 in which Ryan terminated the deal.  This prospect already has a full scholarship to UCLA and was on his way to play in the West Coast Collegiate Wood Bat league for the summer.  There was no reason for him to sign way below his asking price of $350,000.  His talent will be more valued in two years when he is draft eligible again.  Determining when a player is draft eligible again is another deciding factor that plays into their asking price.  There is no reason for a prospect like this one sign for such a low value.  He has a scholarship and the talent pool in two years will not be as strong.  Another factor that played into his final asking price is the value of his scholarship to UCLA.  The value of a 4-year education is included when determining a prospect’s worth in the draft.  The MLB team takes this into consideration when they are deciding on how much money it would take to pry the prospect from attending school. 

The office has been on the phone several times since 6am PST with the Astros and Twins.  According to Ryan, the Astros have lowered their offer and want a verbal commitment from the player before they move into their office and start the draft where we are only left with communication via text message.  Ryan has said he contacted the player and got him to agree to the lower amount since he feels that the amount offered is more than what the players said value is right now in the draft. 

            Day three of the draft is underway and we have completed rounds 10 and 11 and our prospects have not been chosen yet.  Several text messages have gone back and forth but nothing has been agreed to yet.  The Astros apparently did not choose our prospect in the 12th round and the previous statement of not believing a scouts word holds true.  I would like to digress a little right now.

            This situation where the scout says one thing and the club does something different justifies why having an agent is so important during this process.  If our prospect did not have us working for him, the player would have either agreed to a lower amount or become extremely frustrated because he would have been told a few times that he would be drafted and then wasn’t.  Players in the draft have a hard time separating that baseball is a fun sport to play versus it being a business to these teams.  In general, baseball is a business, a tough business to be successful at to say the least, and these teams will squeeze every penny they can out of the player in order to keep money in their pockets.  The owners are not worried about one particular player.  They are more concerned at how they can turn a profit from their business of owning an MLB organization.  An agent understands this and wants to squeeze every penny out of the organization in order to give the player a higher stock value once they are in the organization.  If a team needs to make room on a roster, they are not going to release a player they have already invested millions of dollars in.  They are going to release a player they have invested in the least.  So if you think accepting a bus ticket to play professional baseball is sufficient, guess what, your career will be short lived.  The less money you accept in the draft, the easier it is for the team to release you and the least chances you will have to prove your keep.  Now, back to the draft.

The Twins have kept their word and drafted one of our prospects in the 15th round for $75,000!  Knowing that you have helped a player achieve their dream of playing professional baseball is an amazing feeling.  Now, only if the Astros can keep their word and draft our other prospect.  According to Ryan, the Astros have lowered their offer yet again and I think Ryan has taken the offer as an insult and terminated the deal altogether.  Our other prospects are expected to get drafted in the later rounds.  These last few prospects are seniors in college and have no leverage in the draft since their only choice is to either sign or have their career ended because they are out of eligibility at their school.  

As expected, none of our prospects were drafted on day 2.  We now have been in communication with several teams for four of our prospects.  Rounds 10 through 40 are on day three and rounds 10 through 15 are the most critical based on monetary value.  There is not much wiggle room for teams and the amount of money that they can offer to players from the 10th round through the 20th round due to the limitations the new CBA has put on the draft.  Teams cannot exceed $100,000 signing bonus offering unless they plan on paying a luxury tax on any amount over $100,000.  Although, if the team has extra cash leftover from previous round draft picks, then they can exceed the $100,000 bonus amount.  This is where the early rounds play a factor in how we approach negotiating for our players in these later rounds. 

            We are now reaching 11pm PST and we are still talking with two teams to reach an agreed offer for our players.  The Astros and Twins have been back and forth with bonus offers and to make sure the players will sign if they draft them based on the agreed amount.  According to Ryan, the Astros have confirmed a bonus offer and 12th round draft pick for one of our prospects with a signing bonus of $350,000.  Now we must wait and see how the first part of day three goes to see if the Astros and Twins keep their word.  Throughout all these three days of the draft, the prospects have been told to turn off their cell phone or not to pick up the phone if a scout is calling.  I guess this has posed as a bad thing because the scouts will contact the player and get them to agree to a lower amount without involving the agent.  The less contact the player has with the scout during the draft, the less the player is willing to make a decision based on emotion.  I can understand this reasoning since the players life-long dreams is within arms-reach.  For now, we must go home and wait until the third day of the draft begins to see how it plays out.

The first day of the draft has come and gone.  The draft has taken a few odd turns, but for the most part 7 Sports Group’s prospects are looking like they get drafted higher than expected.  One prospect we have has been the topic of several conversations between the Houston Astros and 7 Sports Group.  He is projected to be chosen in the 8th through 12th round and the Astros have been consistent with maintaining communication with us every couple of hours after the first round concluded.  I know that money was talked about and whether or not our prospect would sign for the offered amount.  Ryan mentioned that our asking price was about $100,000 over what they were offering.  But Ryan also stated that we must start high to come down to the figure in which we think our prospect will comfortable with agreeing to.  The toughest part of this process is that everything is hear-say.  Nothing can be put in writing yet and we must take the scouts word for what it is worth, and apparently the scouts word is not worth much from what I take.  Apparently the Astros have offered $350,000 and our prospects asking price is $450,000.  If we can come to an agreement, then the Astros can draft our prospect in a later round knowing that there has been an agreement on the signing bonus offered.  This allows the Astros the room to draft another player who they have not come to an agreement with and that they think will not be around to draft in later rounds.  Let’s see how the second day goes with the 2nd, supplemental round, and 3rd round to happen.    

It is the day before the 2013 MLB Amateur draft and I guess you can say that all is quiet before the storm.  All MLB teams draft boards are set and so are the boards for the agencies.  Final calls are being conducted to our prospects to make sure that they understand what to expect over the next three days.  7 Sports Group does not have any prospects projected to go the first day of the draft.  The first day of the MLB Amateur draft only includes the first round.  The first day of the draft is televised on the MLB Network and possible first round draft picks have been invited to New York to be a part of the televised portion of draft.  Players invited to the first day of the draft were notified a month prior to ensure that the players chosen in the first round are present for interview.  The importance of the first day of the draft for agencies is to see each teams first pick, which will determine how the rest of the draft will play out.  If a team picks a player who is thought to sign for less than the slotted amount, then agencies can plan on negotiating more for their players who are chosen later in the draft.  This means that teams will have extra cash to offer other players in the draft. Based on how the first day of the draft goes will help determine where 7 Sports Group’s prospects may be chosen.  This helps by allowing the agency to be prepared and help manipulate one of our prospects into a higher round.