PADRES UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Owners Might Change Rules Regarding June Draft Choices

Major league owners, alarmed over the escalating signing bonuses commanded by draft picks the past three years, are trying to invoke a rule that would allow clubs to retain a player’s rights for at least three years after high school.

Although owners still are trying to keep their proposal quiet, one owner, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it will be considered during baseball’s winter meetings in December.

“We’re calling it the, ‘Scott Boras Rule,’ ” the owner said.

Boras, who represented four of the top eight pitchers in the June Free Agent Draft, including the Padres’ Joey Hamilton, has enraged owners with the recent inflation in signing bonuses.

Since Padre pitcher Andy Benes signed for a record $235,000 in 1988, Boras has commanded more than $1 million for the top draft pick in each of the past three years. This year, pitcher Brien Taylor signed for $1.55 million with the New York Yankees.

At their recent meeting in Baltimore, the owners proposed a rule that would drastically alter the draft. Instead of a high school player forcing a team to immediately sign him or lose his rights once he enrolls in college, teams would be allowed to retain his rights for three years.

“I know they’ve contemplated this for a long time,” Boras said, “and now they’re trying to get away with it. The draft is unfair anyway, since there no true free agents. But I guess it isn’t good enough that only one player of every 1,500 is receiving equitable compensation.

“Now, players will no rights at all. Teams will say, ‘We’re still going to have you whether you go to college and improve, or not. So you might as well sign now.’

“What this does is remove all fairness by the system. Teams won’t have to worry about about the draft anymore. It’ll be the fish-barrel approach. They’ll just draft my volume.

“It’s a gross injustice to players and the system. I don’t think it’s good for baseball, aside from economics. If a team has a bad player, teams no longer will have that right to draft the best player. He’ll already be tied up. It just may jeopardize scouts altogether.”

The anonymous owner said there still are some flaws in the proposal, but they probably will limit the number of players a team can draft, reducing the total to perhaps a maximum of 50.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the proposal?

Most general managers, including the Padres’ Joe McIlvaine, also are against it.

Although Boras has been accused by McIlvaine and other general managers of giving his clients bad advice, Boras said the Hamilton case should prove his accusers wrong.

Hamilton formally signed his contract Saturday for $385,000, although Boras advised him to go to school unless the Padres offered $500,000.

“It was Joey’s decision all along, and he did what he wanted to do,” Boras said. “I don’t influence people. Obviously, Joey was not influenced by what I said. I just wanted to make sure he was informed, and then Joey did what he wanted to do.”

The ex-Padre player of the Week goes to Mark Grant of the Atlanta Braves.

Sure, he is on the disabled list and hasn’t thrown a pitch all year. He certainly hasn’t been instrumental in the Braves’ bid for the National League West title.

But do you know any other player who can make $540,000 this season, have the opportunity to make $100,000 more for a possible World Series share and somehow finds a way on national television every time the cameras are rolling?

“Except for my shoulder,” Grant said, “I’m having the time of my life.”

Padre reliever John Costello kept telling himself his inactivity was just a coincidence. Not until Costello pitched in two games this week, including his first victory as a Padre Friday that was worth a $5,000 incentive, was he assured that his contract played no part in his inactivity.

Costello has incentives in his contract that pays him an extra $5,000 when he appears in 25 games, $5,000 for 30 games, $5,000 for 35 games and $5,000 for 40 games.

And until this week, the last time Costello had pitched for the Padres was Aug. 7.

“It was frustrating, real frustrating,” Costello said. “But it’s out of my hands. I can’t tell them to put me in games. It’s a tough situation because you can’t get mad. You can’t say anything. You just have to keep your mouth shut and hope they put you in.

“Really, more than anything, I just want to go out there and prove to these guys I can do the job. The rest will take care of itself.”