I asked myself a simple question: What is the biggest problem major league baseball has today? There are a few answers that certainly get brought up immediately, but I?m not convinced these have any genuine negative impact. The first knee-jerk reaction might be that something needs to be done about umpires missing calls. Excuse my brashness, but I think this notion is a crock. Thanks to the advent of High Definition cameras, X-Mo replays and regression of the quality of broadcasting to the point where they feel the need to expose every last flaw in the game just to fill air time, this perceived problem has been thrust to the forefront of many discussions. Incidents such as the Armando Galarraga would-be perfect game gave critics an excuse to bash the current system and call for additional instant replay measures to be introduced. While the current system only allows for instant replay in the event of a disputed home run, there are those that are lobbying for an NFL-esque challenge system that would include the ability to challenge out/safe and fair/foul calls. In my opinion, a new system like this would only cause more problems. One, there would have to be a limit on the number of times each team?s manager would be able to challenge a call, which would only lead to more perceived slights after the limitation is reached. Once a team runs out of challenges, they will be left feeling the same way they did before the new measures were introduced. This could lead to a slippery slope of even more replay. Two, how would you punish a team for frivolously using their challenges? There aren?t timeouts like in other sports, so what would stop a manager from throwing a challenge flag (even the visual of that gives me the heebie-jeebies) every time he needs to get a reliever some extra time to get ready? Or how about if a pitcher is on a roll and the opposing manager is only using a challenge to get him out of his rhythm? Three, at what point during the game do you take the challenges out of the hands of the manager and into the hands of an umpiring official? Umpires are incredibly proud creatures and the thought of their own questioning the calls they make sounds to me like a breeding ground for contempt. How will this affect the impartiality and/or judgment of the umpires if they feel like their rulings are not final? These are all valid concerns that must be considered, as baseball has been operating for well over a century in its current state. Umpires are certainly not infallible; they make mistakes just like the rest of us. The problem is that among the overwhelming majority of the correct calls they make, there are a scant few that they get wrong. I don?t feel that implementing a system that fundamentally changes the way the game is and has been officiated for generations is a necessary step that MLB needs to take. While there are many more issues that folks may say need addressing, such as doing away with international free agency and using a form of international draft, implementing a hard slotting system to control spending on the amateur draft, or even tackling the vast discrepancy between large and small market payrolls, there is another aspect of the game that is in dire need of revamping. The arbitration process is an antiquated system and is not executing what it was intended to address. I am not specifically speaking of the arbitration process that players in their first six years of MLB service time are subject to, but the process as it relates to free agents and draft pick compensation. The first beef I have is with the Elias Rankings used to determine the whether a free agent is considered Type A, Type B or none of the above. First and foremost, in this day and age of advanced statistics, if a ranking is used that relies heavily on such figures as total plate appearances, batting average, runs batted in, fielding percentage, wins and win/loss percentage, among others, there is something wrong. For example, this offseason has Bengie Molina and Jorge de la Rosa as Type A free agents. If that doesn?t rub you the wrong way, you haven?t watched Molina flail away at pitches and de la Rosa host walk-a-thons in between disabled list stints for the past two seasons (which is the window of time that the Elias Rankings use to formulate their figures). There is far too much information available to still be using archaic statistics to rank the players going into free agency. Would you be willing to give up your team?s first round draft pick for the right to sign Jason Kubel or A.J. Pierzynski? That is exactly what would have to happen if either of them were offered arbitration by their 2010 employer. It?s also not fair to the free agent in question that where they sign depends heavily on whether that team is willing to give up premium draft pick. What on earth does that have to do with the free agent? One of the more interesting cases was that of Jose Valverde, who was a free agent last offseason. He carried the albatross that is the Type A designation, but there was little interest in his services despite being one of the most successful and durable closers in all of baseball. Top closers that have signed multi-year free agent contracts in previous seasons such as Francisco Rodriguez and Francisco Cordero inked deals for far more than what Valverde eventually settled for with the Detroit Tigers. It just so happened that in that particular offseason, the teams that had a vacancy in the closer spot were not at all interested in losing their first round draft pick. Draft picks are more valuable than they have ever been, given the amount of money that teams pour into scouting, drafting and signing the right players. Why successful major leaguers are subjected to being compared to the value of a theoretical mid-to-late first round draft pick is beyond me. Free agent compensation needs to be abolished completely. However, in conjunction, the ability to trade draft picks is something that should be considered instead. The result of these changes would be as follows. Smaller market or underachieving teams would theoretically be able to obtain high draft picks for their players in the trade market, enabling teams not in contention to gear up for the future. Free agents would no longer be subjected to a ranking system that is obsolete, thereby allowing them to sign for their fair market value.