Reading the scoring summary

[91Jmay]

Pay scales and the rules that are beneath them are complicated due to contracts and other legal issues, and thus hard to compare.

There are no academies as their are in soccer or other sports. Everyone is trained where ever and become eligible to turn professional at a designated age, usually about 18 in baseball (with some important exceptions), and 19-21 in other sports..

Suffice it to say that Dansby Swanson, a 22 year old college player, was the first draft pick (ergo the best amateur player) in 2015, which means he is exclusively available to negotiate and sign with one club during the year of his draft, namely the Atlanta Braves. His remaining options (same for other drafted players) if he doesn't like the money offered or the team that chose him are fairly limited; he has to wait for another team to draft him. Leagues in other countries won't take him (they will take basketball players in similar circumstances). In effect, the drafting team and the drafted player are locked into each other for a year.

This is not too bad if a player can go back to school for another year, but it is complicated if a player has graduated from college and can't go back there. If he chooses to play in an independent league, he could get hurt and miss out on the big money.

But the point of an inverse-to-last-year's results draft is to establish parity by preventing the hoarding of talent as happens in world soccer and in particular in the Spanish and English premier leagues (where the same kinds of laws that permit drafts don't exist).

All sides recognize parity is good for everybody, and the upshot is that the penalty on pro teams for restricting the movement of top amateur players is a negotiated agreement with the players' union that requires teams to pay its top few drafted players some minimum amount of bonus money collectively. In some respects, the top draft picks are competing with each other for that pot of bonus money in signing negotiations, and sometimes that becomes a problem, but usually not.

While the top draftees get big bonuses, lesser players, non-drafted players and youngsters from places like the Dominican Republic where the players are not subject to the draft get far less and many of them are indeed struggling to make ends meet. Many coach privately during the off season for extra cash.

Also, it is important to note that any number of drafted players don't project to have the talent to make it all the way. Those guys are place holders -- essentially the practice squad -- and they change year after year for there's no sense making a guy wait for years and letting him dream when he is only going to be a practice player with no shot and should start getting on with his life outside of baseball. With that kind of turnover, the league doesn't have to pay much for their services.

I don't know enough about cricket but in soccer, a guy who doesn't project to being in the EPL can still make a nice living on a fourth or fifth division team without being a hanger on. That's not the way it is done in pro baseball in any country that I know about. So that's the apples and oranges of "length of career." The historic average is that each MLB team finds room for three or so newbs a year from amongst the hundred or so of guys they sign and cut every year, and most of them don't last too long because of injury, competition and deals with established players.

Sorry dude, but your definition of nice living doesn't jive with reality. I have friends who are professional footballers in the 4th tier of English football and they have jobs in the summer as well. They are paid $40000 at the absolute most and their career will last maybe 10 years.

Cricket also has nothing similar to that, there are 1200 members of the MLB players association. If there are half of that in the cricketers association I'd be amazed. There is more opportunity and money to play professional baseball because US is a bigger country, which makes sense.

 

[rodk]

They are paid $40000 at the absolute most and their career will last maybe 10 years.

This is not bad at all. Compare the minor league salary scale: Minor League Salary - Jeff Blank Baseball BlogJeff Blank Baseball Blog

Until a minor league player is placed on a 40-man roster, monthly salaries are $1150 for the short season teams, $1300 for low A and $1500 for high A. For players repeating a year at the same level, the salary goes up $50 each year. For AA, the monthly salary is $1700 and it goes up $100 per month for subsequent years. For AAA, the monthly salary is $2150 per month and it goes up to $2400 the second year and $2700 the third year.
If a player becomes a minor league free agent, higher salaries can be negotiated.
A player must be placed on the team’s 40-man roster or be subject to the Rule 5 Draft at the end of his fourth season (if signed at age 19 or higher) or fifth season (if signed at age 18 or lower).
Salary for first year on 40-man roster:
2013: $39,900
2014: $40,750
Salary for second year on 40-man roster or if one or more days of Major League service time:
2013: $79,900
2014: $81,750
Meal money is $25 per road day.
Minor league salary must be at least 60% of the player’s combined minor league and Major League salary in the preceding season.

Generally speaking, a player on the road is responsible for two meals out of that $25, so that's pretty much all of it when it is at restaurants on the road. The season is usually March 1 to about Sept 1 in the minors. Occasionally players are called up after Sept 1 to play in the majors, but there is a whole series of rules that apply to that both on salary and free agency, and it is much too complex for me to worry about.

Cricket also has nothing similar to that, there are 1200 members of the MLB players association.

What you are thinking about is the protected 40 man roster that exists under the master players' collective bargaining. An active roster is usually going to be 25 plus disabled list; the remaining players are in the minors and special financial rules and anti-hoarding rules apply to them. The most important one is the six year minor league free agent who is free to negotiate with other clubs if he hasn't had some minimum amount of time at the big league level with its minimum pay of some $500,000.

If there are half of that in the cricketers association I'd be amazed. There is more opportunity and money to play professional baseball because US is a bigger country, which makes sense.

I don't know but I did see this list of more than 150 first class clubs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_first-class_cricket_teams but I have no idea if being "first class" equates with being "major league" (30 teams) and the list did not seem to include anything about the T20 leagues, so I can't judge that. I suppose that some players are also with more than team so they can play all year, so I don't know what the real opportunities are for employment at that top top level, but the population in the list of countries that support first class teams is roughly a 4 to 1 ratio over the list of countries that regularly stock MLB, so it seems more or less proportionate in terms of entry.

 

[91Jmay]

This is not bad at all. Compare the minor league salary scale: Minor League Salary - Jeff Blank Baseball BlogJeff Blank Baseball Blog



Generally speaking, a player on the road is responsible for two meals out of that $25, so that's pretty much all of it when it is at restaurants on the road. The season is usually March 1 to about Sept 1 in the minors. Occasionally players are called up after Sept 1 to play in the majors, but there is a whole series of rules that apply to that both on salary and free agency, and it is much too complex for me to worry about.



What you are thinking about is the protected 40 man roster that exists under the master players' collective bargaining. An active roster is usually going to be 25 plus disabled list; the remaining players are in the minors and special financial rules and anti-hoarding rules apply to them. The most important one is the six year minor league free agent who is free to negotiate with other clubs if he hasn't had some minimum amount of time at the big league level with its minimum pay of some $500,000.



I don't know but I did see this list of more than 150 first class clubs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_first-class_cricket_teams but I have no idea if being "first class" equates with being "major league" (30 teams) and the list did not seem to include anything about the T20 leagues, so I can't judge that. I suppose that some players are also with more than team so they can play all year, so I don't know what the real opportunities are for employment at that top top level, but the population in the list of countries that support first class teams is roughly a 4 to 1 ratio over the list of countries that regularly stock MLB, so it seems more or less proportionate in terms of entry.

I would agree that soccer has ways to support lower league professionals that almost every other sport on the planet doesn't, due to its popularity.

But in cricket that isn't the case (in fact there are test match international teams who are barely even professional still such as Zimbabwe).

Right but that is the entire world, there is also a professional baseball league in Japan which pays more money than cricket. If there are more professional cricketers who derive their sole income from cricket than baseball in the world I'd be amazed.

KBO to have most players, highest average salary in 2013 | YONHAP NEWS

Even South Korea has 550 professional baseballers who are averaging $87000 per year.

 

[GIMH]

Sorry dude, but your definition of nice living doesn't jive with reality. I have friends who are professional footballers in the 4th tier of English football and they have jobs in the summer as well. They are paid $40000 at the absolute most and their career will last maybe 10 years.

Cricket also has nothing similar to that, there are 1200 members of the MLB players association. If there are half of that in the cricketers association I'd be amazed. There is more opportunity and money to play professional baseball because US is a bigger country, which makes sense.

Fourth tier with other jobs? Really? Surprises me

 

[rodk]

Right but that is the entire world, there is also a professional baseball league in Japan which pays more money than cricket. If there are more professional cricketers who derive their sole income from cricket than baseball in the world I'd be amazed.

Even South Korea has 550 professional baseballers who are averaging $87000 per year.

That would not surprise me but I am sure some of the difference revolves around the relative affluence of the primary baseball countries as opposed to the primary cricket countries. I don't know what the participation rate is for cricket -- ie, how many kids are "all in" trying to get from level to level -- but as I said there is a lot of competition for those jobs in baseball and that shortens the average career except for those in the stratosphere of talent for it.

That being said, the Korean League has supplied perhaps 10 to 15 major leaguers in a decade; the Japanese leagues maybe 25 or 30. Upwards of 25% of all major leaguers come from Latin America, including Venezuela, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and a few others where professional play doesn't really exist on its own; those leagues are just weigh stations for players to get to the big leagues.

Famously, thousands of kids from the Dominican Republic attend baseball academies not necessarily associated with individual teams in the way Barcelona or Liverpool has it in soccer, and these kids are usually so poor that the paltry $1200 a month they get by being American professionals is actually a good payday.

At the same time, thousands of American kids get college scholarships to play but no money; is that really being a professional?

 

[91Jmay]

No, that isn't being a professional but my point is that Japanese baseball players playing in their league are far, far better paid than the majority of the world's professional cricketers. I think we are probably agreeing more than we are disagreeing, I'd say that there is far more 'professional' cricket matches that are played in the world but when you drill down and actually look at players deriving incomes the numbers probably go the other way.

Yeah my friend used to sell protein shakes during offseason when he played for Chesterfield.

 

[Neil Pickup]

l£20k and £100k a year depending on experience and role (which is a useful yardstick for me, puts them roughly on a par with teachers).

Ahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahah.

If you could point out where exactly I can earn £100k, or indeed anywhere near this, please do let me know. Urgently.

 

[Howe_zat]

Ahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahah.

If you could point out where exactly I can earn £100k, or indeed anywhere near this, please do let me know. Urgently.

Are you a first choice county cricketer?

I did some googling around and found that estimate on an AOC article, as I say. The writer thinks 'the average first-team salary is around £50,000 per annum' and they have a graphic lower down suggesting 20k-100k is the range. I can't find anything contradicting it, though it's guesswork for all I know.

 

[GIMH]

Ahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahah.

If you could point out where exactly I can earn £100k, or indeed anywhere near this, please do let me know. Urgently.

Become a headteacher

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Ahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahah.

If you could point out where exactly I can earn £100k, or indeed anywhere near this, please do let me know. Urgently.

Become a private consultant and pitch your seminars on effective teaching methods to schools?