Does draftability affect college offerings?

Jeff,

It works both ways. There are top colleges that will not recruit players they feel sure will be early draft picks. However, many other top colleges will recruit the same player. The colleges that do sign a potential early draft pick need to cover for the possibility of losing that player. That is one reason why some recruiting classes seem larger than others.

Also, there are schools who will recruit a top draft type player because of the recognition it brings to the program. And sometimes that highly ranked player becomes a tool to help recruit other top players.

Some colleges are at a big disadvantage in taking a chance on recruiting a potential high draft pick. The Big 10, for example, actually has a rule that disallows over recruiting. I'm not sure how many people know that.

Everyone talks about the importance of signability to the MLB scouting departments and the draft. Less talked about, but also important is that same signability concern to the college coaches. Every so often, the player drafted in the first round still ends up playing in college, but nearly always the first round guys don't end up playing in college. College coaches have to do their own work and try to figure out what it will take to lose a recruit to professional baseball. The big dissapointments are the guys who are drafted well below the early rounds and still go pro.

Often, the firm college commitment, becomes leverage for the drafted player. He might end up getting drafted in a lower round than his talent would dictate due to signing concerns. But then the MLB club offers him early round (even first round) money.

Anyway, Jeff, you have brought up a very interesting subject that deals with both professional and college baseball. Maybe it can shed some light on how difficult both can be.

Jeff,
Stanford is an example of a program that does not appear to let the draft impact who they recruit.
Over the years, they have ended up doing quite well in having highly ranked players, who were high draft picks, end up attending school.
The most recent example is Kenny Diekroger who was a 2nd round pick of the Rays in 2009. It is reported locally he likely would have been picked even higher but the concerns over his signing caused other teams to shy away. I know John Mayberry, Jr. was another such player, but there are many more, including some son's of posters on this site.
Over the past several years, the only one I know who didn't end up playing at Stanford actually ended up attending as a student. At the last minute, the Nationals paid a signing bonus of nearly $2,000,000 and agreed to allow the pick to attend Stanford, at their expense. He works out during the school year on his own but only pitches during the Summer, when school is not in session.

Michael Taylor was a 2004 Stanford recruit who went undrafted in spite of looking like Dave Winfield. He is in AAA now.

Stanford is the best at keeping the kids they sign. That said, they only recruit kids who are extremely committed to attending college. They do an amazing job! The MLB scouting departments know this as well.

quote:

He is in AAA now.

Based on the way he performed there, hopefully not for long. Based on his name being included in trade talk last July, interest from many teams seems to exist, if the Phillies cannot find a spot.

I should have said "for" now. He is a little bit blocked. So was Ryan Howard, though.

Actually, in son's case the college offering affected his draft status, he was not drafted out of HS due to signability.
I think PG got it right, there are some programs who will not touch those HS players that will be drafted high and others that do not shy away at all from going after the best prospects.