Relieved, But...

By agreeing to a new CBA yesterday, baseball owners and players actually did something smart by stepping away from the abyss. The ceiling for the luxury tax—the owners’ euphemism for a salary cap—gets raised more than the billionaires would like, and all is right in the world. Sort of. What struck me the most was the newly proposed international draft. According to mlb.com, if the players agree to the draft in exchange for the owners dropping free-agent signing compensation, “Clubs who select players from growth countries (countries with less than 0.5% of signings in the previous three signing periods) will receive additional selections to incentivize scouting and signing in emerging markets.” Let’s translate that into standard English. Teams that draft players from countries like Australia, China, Korea and Taiwan would be rewarded with extra picks. Fine. Now where’s the draft for female players, domestic or international? It must be in the fine print somewhere.