Oh, The Places You'll Go...

Afternoon, kids.

So, how about that new MLB CBA? Pretty awesome, right?? Eh...not really...at all. In fact, it kind of blows. The fact that they figured out the deal is nice, seeing as how football's took all summer, and the NBA is in danger of having it's season ended before it even has a chance to begin. The fact is though, the new rules do not benefit baseball very well, especially smaller market teams like the Brewers.

But I'm not one for reading paperwork, and there's not much I can say that hasn't been already talked about. Tonight marks the deadline for teams offering arbitration to players, and the Brewers have decided to offer arbitration to Type A free agents Prince Fielder and Francisco Rodriguez, and not arbitration eligible Yuniesky Betancourt (thank god).

This gets a little tricky though with the new system. If a team finished in the top 15 of the league signs a type A free agent who declined arbitration, they must surrender their 1st round pick. The team who loses the player would then receive that pick, as well as a supplemental round pick following the 1st round. However, if a team who finished in the bottom half of the league signs one of these players, they would only have to surrender their 2nd round pick, and the team who lost the player still receives a supplemental pick (this was amended before the new CBA).

In the Brewers case, this would all apply to Fielder (unless the Red Sox went crazy and traded Adrian Gonzalez, then signed both Pujols and Fielder).  However, this new deal limits the amount of players a team would have to surrender a pick for, and one of these players affected was Francisco Rodriguez. So now, if any team (top or bottom half) signs K-Rod, they will not lose their pick. Instead, the Brewers will receive an inserted pick PRIOR to the one they would have received under the previous rules. So, if the Red Sox decide they want K-Rod (a team who finished in the top 15), the Brewers would receive the pick before the Red Sox in the 1st round and a supplemental-1st round pick.

Confused yet? Here's a quick rundown:

Top 15 team signs Fielder = Brewers get their 1st round pick & sandwich pick
Bottom 15 team signs Fielder = Brewers get their 2nd round pick & sandwich pick
Top 15 team signs K-Rod = Brewers get the pick directly before their 1st round pick & sandwich pick
Bottom 15 team signs K-Rod = Brewers get the pick directly before their 2nd round pick & sandwich pick

So what does this all mean? Unless I'm wrong about the Brewers getting supplemental round picks for both Fielder and K-Rod, the Brewers will have 6 of the top 100 picks in this next draft, and (barring the same misunderstanding), they could potentially have 6 of the top 60.

The moral of the story is this: pray that someone like the Nationals, Blue Jays, and Angels are serious about their search for 1B and closers.