“Don’t miss your favorite team draft a prospect who won’t play a meaningful game for four years” is almost as difficult of a sell for MLB as “tune in to see the complete unveiling of your favorite team’s 162-game schedule.”
In the 24/7/365 world of sports, MLB has foundational disadvantages that prevent it from competing with the buzz around the NFL schedule release — which reportedly drew about 699,000 viewers across two cable television networks in May — and the NFL and NBA drafts.
Even MLB free agency — with its giant-sized, fully-guaranteed contracts — is a drawn-out, guess-when-it-will-happen process that bores compared to the immediate star-driven action when the markets open in the NFL and NBA.
But not today.
