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The first-year player draft, also known as the Rule 4 draft, is Major League Baseball's primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players, from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs, to its teams. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick. In addition, teams which lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded "compensatory" picks. The first amateur draft was held in 1965. Unlike most sports drafts, the first-year player draft is held mid-season, in June. Another distinguishing feature of this draft in comparison with those of other North American major professional sports leagues is its sheer size: under the new collective bargaining agreement the draft lasts 40 rounds, plus compensatory picks. In contrast, the NHL entry draft lasts seven rounds and roughly 215 picks, the NBA draft lasts for only two rounds (60 selections) and the NFL draft lasts for seven rounds (a maximum of 256 selections if no picks are forfeited). ==Before the draft== Major League Baseball has used a draft to assign minor league players to teams since 1921.〔Before the advent of the farm system, minor league players were under contract to their respective teams, rather than to a parent club. The minor league draft (known today as the Rule 5 draft) was later used to redistribute minor league players already under contract to major league teams.〕 In 1936, the National Football League held the first amateur draft in professional sports.〔Staudohar, Lowenthal, and Lima, pp. 27-28.〕 A decade later, the National Basketball Association instituted a similar method of player distribution. However, the player draft was controversial. Congressman Emanuel Celler questioned the legality of drafts during a series of hearings on the business practice of professional sports leagues in the 1950s.〔''Hearings before the Antitrust Subcommittee, Committee on the Judiciary,'', 85th Cong., 1st Sess. (1957) (testimonies of Chuck Bednarik, Red Grange, Kyle Rote, and Jackie Robinson).〕 Successful clubs saw the draft as anti-competitive. Yankees executive Johnny Johnson equated it with communism. At the same time, Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist Arthur Daley compared the system to a "slave market." Prior to the implementation of the first-year player draft, amateurs were free to sign with any Major League team that offered them a contract. As a result, wealthier teams such as the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals were able to stockpile young talent, while poorer clubs were left to sign less desirable prospects. In 1947, Major League Baseball implemented the bonus rule, a restriction aimed at reducing player salaries, as well as keeping wealthier teams from monopolizing the player market. In its most restrictive form, it forbade any team which gave an amateur a signing bonus of more than $4,000 from assigning that player to a minor league affiliate for two seasons. If the player was removed from the major league roster, he became a free agent. The controversial legislation was repealed twice, only to be re-instituted. The bonus rule was largely ineffective. There were accusations that teams were signing players to smaller bonuses, only to supplement them with under-the-table payments.〔 In one famous incident, the Kansas City Athletics signed Clete Boyer, kept him on their roster for two years, then traded him to the Yankees just as he became eligible to be sent to the minor leagues. Other clubs accused the Yankees of using the Athletics as a de facto farm team, and the A's later admitted to signing Boyer on their behalf.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work =BaseballLibrary.com )〕 Finally, it was the bidding war for Rick Reichardt, who signed with the Los Angeles Angels for the then outrageous bonus of $200,000 that led to the implementation of the draft. Major League clubs voted on the draft during the 1964 Winter Meetings. Four teams—the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Mets—attempted to defeat the proposal, but they failed to convince a majority of teams, and in the end only the Cardinals voted against it. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Major League Baseball draft」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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