Top draft prospect Jonathan Gray had positive test for Adderall - ESPN

This illustrates that the folks who make policy, whether it be in sports or government, rarely account well for both perverse incentives and unintended consequences.

from ESPN:
Top draft prospect Jonathan Gray had positive test for Adderall - ESPN:

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Due to the odd incentives of MLB's current draft system, Keith Law thinks a positive test for Adderall could make Jonathan Gray more likely to go No. 1 overall, but it will cost him some money. Story

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from Wikipedia:

A perverse incentive is an incentive that has an unintended and undesirable result which is contrary to the interests of the incentive makers. Perverse incentives are a type of unintended consequence.

Examples 

• In Hanoi, under French colonial rule, a program paying people a bounty for each rat tail handed in was intended to exterminate rats. Instead, it led to the farming of rats.^[1]

Unintended consequences can be roughly grouped into three types:

• A positive, unexpected benefit (usually referred to as luck, serendipity or a windfall).
• A negative, unexpected detriment occurring in addition to the desired effect of the policy (e.g., while irrigation schemes provide people with water for agriculture, they can increase waterborne diseases that have devastating health effects, such asschistosomiasis).
• A perverse effect contrary to what was originally intended (when an intended solution makes a problem worse)

I understand that the CBA covers many areas and the area in which they endeavor to suppress bonus payments to draftees via slotting may prove to work out quite well, especially in this case.

As I'm sure Keith Law will note in his Insider notes, whoever does end up with Gray will have some leverage to knock his bonus demands down a bit.

So maybe in a perverse way, MLB and it's policies will work out in the long run. At least as far as the bottom line goes. But as far as the PR perception that little has been done on the PED front other than push the pushers to more exotic or more under the radar vehicles to enhance performance, things may not be working quite as well as intended.

UPDATE FROM MLBTRADERUMORS.COM:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/06/jonathan-gray-tests-positive-for-banned-stimulant.html

In fact, in a second piece (this one for ESPN Insiders only), Law outlines a scenario in which this test could actually make Gray more appealing to the Astros with the first overall pick. Law writes that Gray's bonus demands will be lower due to the poor result. One source told Law he expects Gray to sign for a "huge" discount. In that scenario, the Astros could likely sign Gray below slot with the first pick and allocate some of the additional funds to later players without risk of exceeding their bonus pool.

Adderall is typically prescribed as a treatment for ADHD, but Gray did not have a prescription for the drug. In Law's first piece, he notes that more than 110 active players were granted exemptions to use the drug in 2012. Carlos Ruiz's 25-game suspension to open the season was the result of using Adderall without a prescription, he adds. Most teams that Law has spoken to thus far aren't overly troubled by Gray's test, though it does bring his judgment