New MLB Draft rules impact College Baseball

♦ New Labor Deal Features Major Draft Changes (baseballamerica.com)

College baseball looks like it could be a major winner as a result of this agreement. UCLA coach John Savage watched as three of his top recruits—righthander Joe Ross, third baseman Tyler Goeddel and catcher Austin Hedges—signed for a combined $7.25 million within the final hour of the 2011 signing deadline. The new rules could direct more marquee players to college.

"I think the last couple of years, there's been a lot of high school players that get substantial money who normally would have gone to school where they were picked," Savage said. "So I think you'll see a little less of that, because the consequences will be heavy, in terms of loss of draft picks and financial penalty.| 

"I think you'd be foolish to think that it's college baseball-driven; we all know it's not. But from a party that's heavily involved in this decision, it looks like it was a good day for college baseball."

♦ MLB changes draft rules (collegebaseballdaily.com)

Draft signing deadline moves from Aug. 15 to between July 12 and 18.

♦ New CBA to impact draft, bonuses (perfectgame.org_)

Going forward, we’ll see the first collectively-bargained drag on signing bonuses—involving both drafted players and those signed on the international market. We’ll also see a welcome change in the signing deadline from Aug. 15 to mid-July, though it’s unclear whether we’ll see a change in the number of rounds from the current 50, a change in draft dates from early June to the end of June, or the introduction of pre-draft combines for the top prospects where physicals will be administered. All those issues were on the table as negotiations regarding the draft reached an 11th hour.

♦ New MLB deal means positive changes for college baseball (cdispatch.com)

November, 22, 2011 could go down as the day college baseball changed drastically for the better.

Why? The entire sport was just guaranteed they're more than likely to get an influx of more quality talent from high school instead of these prospects bypassing NCAA baseball for a signing bonus with a professional franchise.
. . .
The end result: Once the details of this agreement were announced, the general consensus was that not only did the sport of college baseball get a talent boost in the future but professional baseball is likely to get more mature prospects and socially aware people signing into their business. Those two aspects are what professional baseball people think will provide a better overall product for fans at every level of play.