WETZLER.JPG

Ben Wetzler went 10-1 last season with a 2.25 ERA and was a fifth round draft pick by the Philadelphia Phillies. He opted to stay in school for his senior season, but the NCAA has punished him for using an adviser or agent during his contact with the Phillies.

(Ross William Hamilton/The Oregonian)

Last night, Baseball America's Aaron Fitt reported the Philadelphia Phillies told the NCAA that Oregon State left-hander Ben Wetzler broke the NCAA's "no agent" rule. The Phillies drafted Wetzler in the fifth round of last June's draft, but the Beavers ace returned to Corvallis for his senior season.

Wetzler, who will be held out indefinitely while the NCAA investigates this case, has already been scratched from the OSU's rotation for its upcoming four-game trip to Surprise, Ariz. While Wetzler sits, Fitt's piece is rippling through the blogosphere. A number of scribes have lambasted the Phillies, who opted not to comment on the matter, for breaking one of baseball's unspoken rules.

Here is an excerpt from Fitt's report:

That (no agent) rule is widely disregarded by baseball prospects, whose advisers routinely negotiate with teams on players' behalf, against NCAA rules—because that is the industry norm. As an American League scouting director told Baseball America in 2008, "Every single player that we deal with—I don't care what round you're talking about—has representation, has an agent."

And every year, some players drafted inside the top 10 rounds elect not to sign pro contracts, often drawing the ire of the clubs that drafted them. But major league teams almost never attempt to contact the NCAA in order to report potential violations. The Phillies, according to sources, did just that with two players they drafted last year: Wetzler and sixth-round pick Jason Monda, who opted to return to Washington State for his senior year. Monda was cleared to play by the NCAA last Thursday, the day before the college season began.

Deadspin's Barry Petchesky penned a thoughtful, thorough column this morning deriding the Phillies:

Why would the Phillies do this? It is almost inexplicable. They have nothing to gain—Wetzler is gone, and Philadelphia will receive a compensatory sixth rounder this summer—and everything to lose. Non-senior prospects generally indicate their "signability" before a team selects them. You should now expect very few of them to be open to talking with the Phillies. If, as MLB.com's Jim Callis surmises, the Phillies ratted out Wetzler in anger for not signing with them, it's petty, vindictive, and ultimately self-defeating.

But the Phillies are just useful idiots in this situation. The real outrage should be reserved for the NCAA, whose inflexible "no agent" rule is illogical and immoral. If Wetzler retained an agent to help him negotiate a pro contract, one he ultimately declined to sign, it did zero harm to amateurism. He is not being paid. No one is making money off him. The rules say a player can retain his eligibility even after being drafted—so why take away his agency to make a full and informed decision on whether to return to school or go pro?

These are kids. Sometimes teenagers, sometimes dealing with contracts in the millions of dollars. They don't know what they're doing, the NCAA wants to make sure it stays that way, and the Phillies are eager to help.

Philly.com's David Murphy asked the question: Did the Phillies sandbag Ben Wetzler's senior season out of spite?

While it may be impossible for an organization to ever sink to the depths that the NCAA has reached in its quest to continue operating its billion dollar minor league sports franchises without the expenses typically associated with such ventures, the Phillies seem determined to try. Or, at least, to give the impression of trying. ...

Technically, once a baseball player hires an agent, he becomes ineligible to return to NCAA competition. The rule, of course, is complete crap, the exact kind that you'd expect from an organization with a track record of the NCAA. As one Phillies player said today, "You're expecting a college kid with no money who might be paying for school to negotiatie with a professional sports team?"

NBCSports' Craig Calcaterra took a similar stance:

Draftees routinely use agents to negotiate such deals — or even hire agents as "advisors" before being drafted — and teams never tell the NCAA about it. Mostly because everyone except the NCAA knows that the no-agent rule is idiotic and harmful to these kids who are drafted given how much money is at stake. With the NCAA itself and major league teams looking to take advantage of young athletes, often an agent is the only person looking out for their best interests. Many teams have actually said that they prefer to deal with an agent because it gives everyone involved some security and comfort knowing that a 20 year-old is not going toe-to-toe with seasoned baseball negotiators.

At this point, it remains unclear when Wetzler will learn exactly how much of the season he will miss. An OSU spokesman told The Oregonian the athletic department is hopeful a resolution will be reached by the end of this week.

In the meantime, you can read more reactionary pieces on Fitt's report at Yahoo, Building the Dam, SB Nation, Give Me Sport and Call to the Pen.

-- Connor Letourneau