Via George King (subs. req’d): Scouting director Damon Oppenheimer wants baseball to begin giving pre-draft physicals to draft prospects every year. “Baseball is in the dark ages,” he said. “We are the only sport that doesn’t do pre-draft physicals … We go into this thing blind. Without the physical, you make an assumption.”
The Yankees, of course, have gotten burned in recent years by drafting players who turned out to be injured. A pre-signing physical showed an “abnormality” in first rounder Ty Hensley’s pitching shoulder last year, and you can also go back to recent second rounders Sam Stafford (2011, shoulder) and Scott Bittle (2008, shoulder). Yeah, I think every scouting director of every club would love pre-draft physicals. Examining the 1,500+ draft eligible players every year is not feasible, but the top 200 prospects (according to MLB’s Scouting Bureau) are drug tested before the draft. Those guys should undergo a physical as well.
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