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"\"&lt;p&gt;As teams await word of whether there will be an international draft next year, the trainers in Latin America are on edge about what it means for their future in the game.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Some agents and trainers welcome an international draft, but many fear that a draft will put their livelihood at stake. Both team officials and player representatives have expressed concern that decisions about a draft are being made by people without experience in international scouting or international amateur player development, and argue that the amateur players being affected don\\u2019t have anyone looking out for their interests.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cYou have the union negotiating these agreements,\\u201d said one trainer. \\u201cThey\\u2019re negotiating on our behalf when they don\\u2019t have anything to do with us. They\\u2019re sacrificing us so that the people they do represent\\u2014major league players\\u2014get benefits. Why would they be allowed to negotiate what our future is?\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Major League Baseball won\\u2019t include the trainers in the discussion, although they\\u2019re hardly alone in that regard, as even teams are in the dark about what MLB has in the works with its international draft talks.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cDo you think they&amp;#8217;re in touch with 16- and 18-year-olds, with kids playing in the (Dominican Summer League)? Of course not,\\u201d said a second trainer. \\u201cThey don&amp;#8217;t know what these kids are going through. They need someone fighting for them who&amp;#8217;s going to be a player advocate, someone of these times, who knows what it costs to produce a kid and what the kids go through.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cThe union doesn&amp;#8217;t care because the Latin players are not the majority in the union, for one, and there might be a sentiment among the players who are already in the majors that say, \\u2018I paid my dues to get here. Let them do the same.\\u2019 They&amp;#8217;re not worried about whether a 16-year-old or an 18-year-old gets paid what he deserves. The union sold out the kids.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The trainers and agents who represent international amateur players realize that MLB wants to control its costs, which the signing bonus pools have been able to accomplish. Many of them don\\u2019t understand why the commissioner\\u2019s office would want to restrict players\\u2019 options of where they can sign now that MLB has already implemented a way to systematically lower signing bonuses. Money is usually the loudest factor in a signing, but players and trainers do take into consideration which organization is offering that money.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cThere are academies here that are good academies, and there are academies that suck,\\u201d said the second trainer, who is in the Dominican Republic. \\u201cAnd kids know that. And trainers know that.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Several trainers and agents also said they want what they believe is equitable treatment compared with amateur players born in the United States.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cOut of all the negotiations, the Latin draft was probably on the bottom of the union&amp;#8217;s list,\\u201d said a third trainer. \\u201cIt also has to be a fairness issue here at some point. I&amp;#8217;m not saying equal because I understand they&amp;#8217;re different situations, but it has to be a better balance.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The slot values MLB is using for the 2013-14 signing period bonus pools may offer an indication of what might be on the way for an international draft. For the domestic draft, the slot value for the No. 1 overall pick is $7.79 million. The &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/international\\/2013-2014-international-bonus-slots\\/\\\"&gt;top international slot&lt;\\/a&gt; is $3.25 million. Before the bonus pools went into place on July 2, four players\\u2014Nomar Mazara ($4.95 million), Jairo Beras ($4.5 million), Michael Ynoa ($4.25 million) and Ronald Guzman ($3.45 million)\\u2014signed bigger bonuses, not counting Cubans.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cI&amp;#8217;m not against the draft,\\u201d said the third trainer. \\u201cIf you look at the draft, I&amp;#8217;m not saying it should be equal, but a (42) percent difference between their first pick and our first pick? That&amp;#8217;s a big difference. You&amp;#8217;re talking about the best players in the world. I know it should be less, it&amp;#8217;s a different market, but should it be that much of a difference?\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The disparity continues further down the talent pool as well. This year there are 55 slot values in the domestic draft of at least $1 million compared to 11 for international players. In the domestic draft there are 103 slot values of at least $500,000. The international side has 26 slot values of $500,000 or more, even though 33 players signed for at least $500,000 in 2011 (the last year before the bonus pools), not counting Cuban defectors or Andres Serrano\\u2019s $750,000 deal with the Cardinals that MLB terminated.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cIf you look at the Latin American market, we&amp;#8217;ve got guys winning Triple Crowns and Cy Youngs,&amp;#8221; said the third trainer. &amp;#8220;If you go through every major league roster, at least seven (international players) you see are going to be Hall of Famers. We are going through some wonderful times in Latin America, having important players in the World Series and in the All-Star Games, and look at how many Latin players have important contracts in baseball. It seems to me like it&amp;#8217;s been a good investment for them, yet we&amp;#8217;ve been penalized the last two years in bonuses.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;\\u201cThe evidence is there, that we have been a productive industry. Why should we keep getting penalized? They&amp;#8217;re decreasing our opportunities and it&amp;#8217;s unfair. I&amp;#8217;d like someone to explain to us why. That&amp;#8217;s all. I understand they want a better balance with the clubs. Whether they spend the money or not, that&amp;#8217;s up to them. But why keep depreciating the value of the Latin market under the structure they&amp;#8217;re going to?\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/trainer-frustration-grows-over-possible-international-draft/>