By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

When the Reds prepare to make their selections in this week's amateur draft, they and every other major-league club will do so with limitations.

Representatives for the players union and owners agreed on the concept of a worldwide draft while negotiating the new Collective Bargaining Agreement last summer, but the idea is still being explored by a newly formed committee.

Under its present format, only players from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico are eligible to be selected.

"It's something that has been negotiated, and there's been a lot of time and effort spent on both sides trying to come to an agreement," Reds general manager Jim Bowden said. "There's never been an agreement so there isn't one."

The current draft format has allowed baseball's wealthier teams the ability to sign top foreign free agents at a premium price.

The Yankees signed Japanese outfielder Hideki Matsui for $21 million and Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras for $32 million this past offseason.

A worldwide draft, most feel, would be a significant step toward achieving competitive balance.

But there are many details that need to be worked out: who would be eligible, how many rounds the draft would be and whether teams could trade picks.

"If in fact a worldwide draft goes into place, it will be a whole different way of getting players," Bowden said.

"More dollars will have to be spent on scouting, and less dollars would be spent on signing players because the players would go through our system of the draft. That would be the tradeoff."

The Reds say they began preparations for this possibility two years ago, and point to an increased scouting presence in Latin America.

"I think we're ahead of most organizations because we have scouts in different countries that we had never touched down in before, and some still haven't been," said Leland Maddox, Reds assistant general manager/director of scouting. "Now they're down there promoting the Reds and the game of baseball.

"The strategy in a worldwide draft would still remain the same, though: Take the best player around."

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E-mail kkelly@enquirer.com