That is all fair, and maybe the punishment was light. What more would you have done? Acted sooner and taken away their number 1 pick? Would Fowler then have cost their 3rd or 4th? No real difference there. Would they have been unable to sign a QO player? Taken away their entire draft? Taken their first pick next year? Maybe that would have been the thing to do.
I'm not saying it was an easy decision as there was no precedent but MLB really dragged it out. That gave the Cardinals more incentive to go after Fowler, knowing they may lose that pick as part of the punishment anyway. I do think if their first round pick in 2018 had also been taken away along with the picks this year that would have been more palatable.
From what I've read, it does seem quite a few people in the industry think they got off pretty easy.
And again, the Cardinals should not received a competitive balance pick every year due to market size. They are not hurting for revenue in the least. That gets on my nerves on a yearly basis.
