Virginians in the MLB Draft

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Originally posted by Flying Dutchman:

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Isaac Ballou - 36th round to Pirates

Marshall University
Nansemond-Suffolk Academy class of 2009
Smithfield,VA

If his HS class was 2009 and he attened Marshall how was he drafted? Wouldn't this make him a rising Junior at Marshall for the upcoming 2012 season?

I have not researched the specific reason why Mr. Ballou was eligible but there are a couple of possibilities. (1) possibly he entered college with some credit hours from AP courses and had completed his junior year academically. (2) possibly he turned age 21 by the deadline for being considered in this year's draft.

Just checked. Mr. Ballou was born March 1990 so he was age 21 and thus eligible for the draft no matter his academic year.

Anyone aware of the status of the draftees? Last week, I read that Cave was going to sign with the Yankees. What about the others?

Read on the internet that Shawn Morimando (Ocean Lakes) signed with the Indians today. Congratulations!

Yep its all over his Facebook. Congratulations to him and his family! It was a lot of fun watching him pitch the past couple of years.

Just read on Baseball America that he got a $350,000 signing bonus.

Baseball America is reporting that Jake Cave has signed with the New York Yankees for an $825,000 signing bonus. Congratulations to him and his family.

Danny Hultzen, adopted Virginian (Maryland resident via UVA) got $6.35 in bonus money and an MLB contract. Looks like the Mariners finally broke out of their historic stinginess and got their man! Congrats to Danny!

Jackie Bradley (Prince George, then U. of So. Carolina) signed with Boston for $1.1 million after being drafted in the supplemental first round. I think that may be our biggest Virginia-born deal this year. Way to go, JB!

$350K for 19th round? $825K for 6th round? I'm not complaining mind you, just wondering why MLB even bothers with slot "suggestions".

grasscutter, I completely agree with you. Nobody really follows the slotting recommendations. The deadline itself kind of bugs me too. With these high profile players, its almost like they dont even talk to the team that drafts them until about 2 hours before the deadline to negotiate because they know that they will get the most money that way. As a diehard fan of the game, I would like to see some of these players actually play after signing. Instead most of the guys that sign at the deadline end of going to the spring training facilities and waiting around for the instructional or Arizona fall leagues.

Most of you probably know this already, but the problem is almost exclusively MLB's doing. As if the draft itself doesn't already hold down salaries enough, MLB dictates slots which are a joke for the high end guys. Nobody reasonably thinks any of the top guys are going to sign for slot, but MLB refuses to "approve" the deals until August 15 (I say "approve" because MLB doesn't actually have the power to not approve the deals, but they can hold them up with thinly veiled threats typically aimed at ownership).

Practically every baseball writer I follow agrees that the signing deadline will be moved up in the next CBA. The date I've heard most is July 15 which seems to make a lot more sense. I would think that will give teams a better shot at getting draftees out to their affiliates in late July/August.

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Originally posted by grasscutter:
$350K for 19th round? $825K for 6th round? I'm not complaining mind you, just wondering why MLB even bothers with slot "suggestions".

Well, look at Dillon Maples. He was a UNC signee and also plays football. The Cubs took a chance on him in the 14th Rd. They had concerns about his signability and most clubs passed him over. He got a $2.5MM bonus.

Slots are followed but when a top round talent falls, all of that goes out the window.

A couple of points.

First, I think the Commissioner's office has only sent out slotting numbers through the 10th round.

Second, most of those later round guys getting that money, you could safely assume, were early round talents who fell in the draft only because of questions of "signability", that is, they wouldn't sign for slot money if taken in an early round. So what you see here is the natural reaction to the Commissioner's efforts to fix prices on higher level talent -- people try to do a work around so that market forces win out in the end.

There's really no reason why the Commissioner should expect to be able to cram his dictates down people's throats. Either people get what they want to sign, or they don't sign. And in the end there can be a deal only if both sides agree to a number. If a kid can head on to college, then either you pay him to buy him off that path, or you sit back and watch him play college ball.

I've read that the Commissioner wants formal slotting to be confirmed in the next CBA. He may well get it, since players already in MLB have no dog in that fight and may well yield to that demand in negotiations. But the unintended consequence may simply be that more and more of the best young talents go to college instead. And when you see a guy like Hultzen coming out of college and getting the money he got, or when you see Gerrit Cole turning down $2 m out of HS and then quadrupling his payday after 3 years at UCLA, you have to wonder how the Commmissioner believes he can win this fight long term.

In a world where Stephen Strasburg gets $15m while Aroldis Chapman gets $30m and Daisuke Matsuzaka gets $50m, you can see that the draft is really just a grand price fixing scheme imposed for the owners' benefit. But like any cartel, it's hard to hold it together once teams figure out that it pays to let everyone else play ball with the Commissioner while not doing so themselves. Eventually the guys not following slotting outnumber those who are.

The best the Commissioner's office has come up with so far is to put proposed contracts on hold until the last minute, so that if Cole gets $8m, no one else knows about it until it's too late to use that as a base figure for other negotiations. The guy you have to wonder about today is Trevor Bauer, who signed early and got $3.4m. By comparison to Hultzen and Cole, it begins to look like he was stupid to be so quick to sign. If you're a future high level draftee or an agent likely to be representing one, that is the real lesson you take away from the last 24 hours.

Scott Boras has said he doesn't care what the deadline is as long as he has one to use as leverage.

Moving the deadline up would not change the dollars at all. It would, however, resolve things in time to get signees into MiLB before the summer season is completely over. That's probably good enough reason to do it.

In the meantime, I guess Hultzen, Cole and others will get themselves ready for the Arizona Fall League and for 2012. Same as Strasburg and others did before them.

What would really be interesting would be to see what would happen if there were no draft at all, just total free agency. I wonder what the true market value of guys like Cole and Hultzen would be if they could wait and sign with the highest bidder, the way everyone else in the world gets to make their job decisions. Would they get as much as, or more than, Chapman or Matsuzaka?

Kind of surprised Deshorn Lake did not sign. Anyone have insight there?

I'm with you on this one Midlo. I heard conflicting reports about Deshorn Lake. First I had been hearing that he was going to sign because he didnt want to go to school for 3 years until he could get drafted again. Shortly after school got out for the summer, I heard that he was asking for way too much money. Unfortunately I never heard his actual asking price. I'm also curious as to what happened with TJ Costen out of First Colonial HS.

Today's Virginian Pilot indicates he (Costen) did not sign. Article also indicated I. Ballou and C. Cox did not sign. Assume money in 22, 36 and 49th rounds was not enough.