John Manuel of BA
throws out his ideas for "fixing" the draft in the wake of the Aiken situation. Certainly the pre-draft physical is a no-brainer. The combine idea (which as he notes is already provided for in the CBA) is a bit more controversial. I really like the idea of one but once you get into the details and timing problems arise. In particular, the effect it would have on the date of the draft. If you are going to have a combine it almost certainly has to be held in late June to allow guys on CWS teams to participate. Given that, a later draft would have to go hand-in-hand with the combine idea. Manuel would push the date of the draft to the All-Star break. Of course by doing so you would lose that first year of development time. I suppose you could expand the fall instructional league to compensate but the reason for existence of at least some of the short-season leagues (NY-Penn, etc.) would go by the wayside.
He also proposes shortening the draft to 20 rounds.
