[CTcard]

... Given this he suggested the MLB draft should be no more than 3-4 rounds, and then after that, high school players can be free agents, or more hopefully just opt to play in college.

...  This proposal would make college baseball much more of a development league for MLB than it already is, and would probably lead to contraction of MiLB teams since so many more players would be opting for college.

The baseball draft is certainly ridiculously long. A manifestation of that came this year. Jacob Hoffman of Stanford was drafted by the A's as a perk for doing some work for them - he was a student at Stanford but didn't play for Stanford (and the official press release mentions him, but doesn't count him as a player drafted). You don't see that kind of courtesy draft pick in the NFL.

At any rate, the draft isn't 40 rounds long to fill the MLB rosters, it's to fill out minor league teams. The vast majority of those kids will never play in the majors.

The effect on colleges is interesting.
First of all, getting rid of rounds of the draft, or even getting rid of a good chunk of minor league baseball, won't send more kids to college but will increase the talent level of those playing at college though perhaps decrease the average level of interest in actually attending classes and the like. 

Many have argued that if the NFL and NBA had similar systems, and thus kids not interested in college opted not to go, then many of the problems associated with big time football and basketball would melt away. After all, you don't hear about so many scandals in college baseball. This may be true, but it seems like it would come with the price of college football and basketball having popularity closer to that of college baseball - at least in the long term. That may be a price worth paying, but it's a price that should be kept in mind.

The effect on individual kids seems much more complicated. I don't know what happens to most kids who play in the minors and never get further. One might think that having a college degree would be good for people in such a circumstance, but I am not entirely sure that funneling people into college who have little interest in being there really helps that much.

[CTcard]

... Given this he suggested the MLB draft should be no more than 3-4 rounds, and then after that, high school players can be free agents, or more hopefully just opt to play in college.

...  This proposal would make college baseball much more of a development league for MLB than it already is, and would probably lead to contraction of MiLB teams since so many more players would be opting for college.

The baseball draft is certainly ridiculously long. A manifestation of that came this year. Jacob Hoffman of Stanford was drafted by the A's as a perk for doing some work for them - he was a student at Stanford but didn't play for Stanford (and the official press release mentions him, but doesn't count him as a player drafted). You don't see that kind of courtesy draft pick in the NFL.

At any rate, the draft isn't 40 rounds long to fill the MLB rosters, it's to fill out minor league teams. The vast majority of those kids will never play in the majors.

The effect on colleges is interesting.
First of all, getting rid of rounds of the draft, or even getting rid of a good chunk of minor league baseball, won't send more kids to college but will increase the talent level of those playing at college though perhaps decrease the average level of interest in actually attending classes and the like. 

Many have argued that if the NFL and NBA had similar systems, and thus kids not interested in college opted not to go, then many of the problems associated with big time football and basketball would melt away. After all, you don't hear about so many scandals in college baseball. This may be true, but it seems like it would come with the price of college football and basketball having popularity closer to that of college baseball - at least in the long term. That may be a price worth paying, but it's a price that should be kept in mind.

The effect on individual kids seems much more complicated. I don't know what happens to most kids who play in the minors and never get further. One might think that having a college degree would be good for people in such a circumstance, but I am not entirely sure that funneling people into college who have little interest in being there really helps that much.