Virginia Players Drafted

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Through today, only Manchester's Blake Hauser and Godwin's Reed Gragnani have been drafted out of high school. Hauser, 25th round, 755 overall, to the Indians. Gragnani, 27th round, 828 overall, to the Red Sox.

Midlo Dad,
I remember that your son was drafted out of high school last year and he chose to go to college. Do the clubs contact the players before they are drafted or as soon as they are drafted to try to sign them? What are the chances of these kids signing out of high school?

MD -

Will round 25 money be enough to get Hauser to sign?

I absolutely love watching him pitch...

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Originally posted by Flying Dutchman:
MD -

Will round 25 money be enough to get Hauser to sign?

I absolutely love watching him pitch...

Not a chance, but that's not the point. That late in the draft teams will take some players who fell because the bonus "demands" they floated to teams were higher than any team was willing to pay.

Teams aren't willing to potentially waste a higher round draft pick on a player they perceive unlikely to sign, so they wait until that later rounds of the draft when the opportunity cost is much lower. Then the team will see if they can negotiate a player down at all from their original bonus figure.

For example, let's say Hauser originally floated $500K as his bonus figure (by the way, I have no clue what number he put out there, so I'm making these #s up). That would be equivalent to something like what a 2nd round pick could expect. But lets say the team that ended up drafting him saw him as a 4th round talent and placed a dollar value on him of $300K or so. That team then takes him later in the draft, at a point where the team probably figures they're not getting an impact guy anyway, and then they wave $300K to $350K in front of his face and see if he'll take the money, or if he still insists on going to college.

The rangers selected eddie butler from greenbrier christian.

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Midlo Dad,
I remember that your son was drafted out of high school last year and he chose to go to college. Do the clubs contact the players before they are drafted or as soon as they are drafted to try to sign them? What are the chances of these kids signing out of high school?

Not to answer Midlo's question for him, but they absolutley contact the players before the draft. Last year, my kid was contacted two months out and as the draft got closer, it was an everyday phone call from one of the organizations. Contacts are made beforehand in order to get an idea of signability.

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Originally posted by golfball:

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Through today, only Manchester's Blake Hauser and Godwin's Reed Gragnani have been drafted out of high school. Hauser, 25th round, 755 overall, to the Indians. Gragnani, 27th round, 828 overall, to the Red Sox.

Midlo Dad,
I remember that your son was drafted out of high school last year and he chose to go to college. Do the clubs contact the players before they are drafted or as soon as they are drafted to try to sign them? What are the chances of these kids signing out of high school?

Each team has area scouts that attend high school games of those they are interested in. The next step is for the area scout to contact the kid and the parents to setup an inhouse interview. This gives the area scout the ability to size up the kids family situation and also provides some financial insights in terms of house etc. The area scouts are interested in "signability" and if there are any turn offs in the kids history including the kids parents etc. In some cases, the kid is invited to a MBL sponsored tournament in which the kid can meet with several MLB minor league managers/ and scouts and also show his talent during in squad games. My kid went to such a tourament in Florida run by the Cleveland Indians. If your kid has the talent, believe me the MLB area scouts will know about it and will initiate the communications prior to draft day.

Thanks for the information Trepfan and Grasscutter. I had no idea how it worked.

D.J. Fitzgerald (Ocean Lakes) went to the Cubs.

Velleggia (ODU) to Orioles.

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size up the kids family situation and also provides some financial insights in terms of house etc.

What does that mean? Scouts are assessing families financial situation and housing?? meaning a kid who NEEDS more will get more?? The money and package offered is need based? Not talent based?

VA HS players drafted on the last day:

Tim Butler, Greenbriar Chr. Academy (Rangers, 35th round)

R.C. Orlan, Deep Run (Dodgers 45th round)

Seth Greene, Deep Run (Nationals, 47th round)

Cameron Giannini, Hargrave Military (Tigers, 49th round).

And that's it, just 6 in all.

More VA colleges' players:

VMI: Travis Smink (Astros, 31st round)

UVA: Matt Packer (Indians/32) and Tyler Cannon (Pirates/41)

Liberty: Andrew Wilson (Braves/36)

Mason: Shawn Griffith (Cardinals/37)

ODU: Joe Vallegia (O's/42)

wow. no interest in NR's Keeton? From what i've read about him, i thought he was at least a late late round pick.

Midlo Son had all sorts of meetings, calls and e-mails leading up to the draft. He had set a high price because he really wanted to go to college unless the money was too good to be true. Most teams faded out as draft day neared, but a few hung in there, trying to see if he would reconsider and take less. One team in particular called and made a succession of escalating offers about 2 days before the draft, trying to see if he would bite on a pre-draft deal. Son said, thanks but no thanks. That team didn't pick him.

In the end he was taken off the board by the Phillies in the 40th round. By rule they have to tender a MiLB standard contract within so many days, and they did, but they offered no bonus money. Internet rumor was that they were after another kid and Son was an "insurance policy", in case that other kid didn't sign. But he did, and the Phillies never made a serious effort to sign Son. Which was OK by us because the price at our end never wavered. Since it was clear that no one was going to meet that demand, Son was perfectly happy heading off to college, see you in 2011 or 2012 or whatever.

Of course, once you're drafted, the team that takes you is the only one you can talk to, so the other contacts stopped as of draft day. (Actually, Son was pitching the AAA state semifinal game when he was drafted, so it was put out of his mind at the time.)

As for Hauser, I don't speak for him. I can't imagine he'd sign for 25th round slot money, which is basically zero bonus dollars. Someone has the rights to him now, so if they meet on the dollars in the next 2 months, it can happen. But from our experience I consider it unlikely.

Joe Mantiply - LHP - Tunstall High School - Round 48 - Mets

Thanks Midlo, I appreciate the information.

Sorry I missed Mantiply, my bad, no insult intended.

Sorry that I also missed Matt Laney, L.C. Bird class of 2007, drafted out of Miami Dade CC, Phillies 42nd round. (He was listed as a Florida draftee, so I missed him the first few looks through!)

Why wouldn't Ethan Carter have been drafted? Is he only a junior?

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Originally posted by abcbaseball:
Why wouldn't Ethan Carter have been drafted? Is he only a junior?

Read through Midlo Dad's explanation of how the process works, above. I don't know for sure so I'm only speculating here, but I'd suspect that if they were approached pre-draft, Ethan Carter, Mike Kent and Jake Mayers, who are all certainly good enough to have been drafted but weren't, made it known to the pros that unless they were offered top-slot money they were going to college -- especially given where the three of them are going (Carter to South Carolina, Kent to Clemson and Mayers to U. Richmond) and the scholarships that I understand that they received.

My thinking is that the pro teams are less willing to use even a late-round draft pick on such an "unsignable" HS kid than they might have been even just a couple of years ago, given the available talent elsewhere (JuCo, D2/D3/NAIA, HS kids with low NCAA prospects due to grades, foreign players, etc.) that are better bets as to signability in the later rounds where the financial risks are lower for the teams.

I tell you what, if I had the college options that those kids have I wouldn't even consider the minor league route right out of high school.

Mike Schurz out of Iowa (Maury High School) was picked up in the 44th round by the Astros.

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Originally posted by gamefan:

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size up the kids family situation and also provides some financial insights in terms of house etc.

What does that mean? Scouts are assessing families financial situation and housing?? meaning a kid who NEEDS more will get more?? The money and package offered is need based? Not talent based?

I'm going to assume you're joking. But in case you aren't - the scout looks at the families financial situation to see how much money would seem like alot of money to a kid. For instance, if your father is a lawyer and you have a significant scholarship to a great school (let's say Wake Forest) then it's going to take SERIOUS money to get you to pass up school.

If, on the other hand, you live in a shanty house, barely graduated highschool and your single mom has 9 kids then you might think $50,000 is "life-changing" money.

It's actually the completely opposite situation than you were presuming.

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Originally posted by Flying Dutchman:
MD -

Will round 25 money be enough to get Hauser to sign?

I absolutely love watching him pitch...

The Indians won't offer 25th round money. It'll be an offer more likely in the 175-225 range and I think there's a better than average shot that he will sign.

There's also the chance that Blake will choose to go to Patrick Henry CC and keep his draft eligibility for next season as well - but it's still early in the process.

JUMO -- good insights there.

The thing I would emphasize is that while a lot of kids think of a pro draft as their dream come true, the guys on the other side are hard-nosed negotiators who absolutely will take advantage of you if given the chance. Well, a lot of them, anyway.

The whole purpose of home visits is pretty much to size up the family as you suggest.

In the end, if you have a bottom line price and at least one of the MLB teams is willing to pay more than that, then you should get to the point where you do sign, theoretically. If they are actually willing to go higher than your bottom line, you need to be careful or they'll just pay your bottom line and keep the rest in their pockets. The more I reflect on this process, the more it starts to sound like buying a car -- trying to feel the other side out, not revealing your true position, trying to get the best deal while still getting a deal, etc.

The common refrain we heard from scouts was, "We just want a kid who's ready to go pro and sign." Well, of course that's what THEY want. That doesn't mean that's how a player should play it. A lot of too-eager kids end up in released in their mid-20's, unemployed, broke and uneducated, maybe even bitter. Chewed up and spit out.

Pro dreams are great things, but don't lose touch with reality.

P.S. When you realize how the teams view this process, you can see why Latin American kids are so enticing. For the price of one U.S. 18-year-old stud, teams can fill their minor leagues with a half dozen or more 16-18-year-old Dominicans, then see who rises to the top.