Meanwhile, the Economist's Dan Rosenheck suggested that extending the baseball draft worldwide could wreak havoc on Latin America's most vulnerable citizens. Outlining baseball's long history of court-sanctioned collusion with regard to player salaries and free agency, he detailed the complicated and disastrous aftereffects on Puerto Rican prospects after MLB included the island's players in its 1990 amateur draft — the percentage of Puerto Rican players in the league dropped from four percent to two percent, and the island's summer league eventually cancelled its season. The same fate could be awaiting the Dominican Republic, if MLB institutes its plan for a global draft by 2014.
Moneyball may be, as Simmons described it, a book about market inefficiency — or, as degenerate gamblers and Wall Street analysts would describe it, "value." But Rosenheck's presentation was a reminder that value, like every game, creates as many losers as it does winners.
Carly Carioli can be reached at ccarioli@phx.com.
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