And members of the baseball media along with plenty of baseball scouts cannot stop sweating San Diego State pitcher Stephen Strasburg. I cannot remember the last time that people were so caught up in the potential of a college or high school prospect. With the #1 pick in the 2009 MLB Amateur Draft, the Washington Nationals have little choice but to select Strasburg. Scott Boras is already scheming.
Strasburg, currently advised by Mr. Boras, is apparently looking for something around a 6-year deal worth $50 million. Many call the Nationals cheap, but in this case, with the #1 overall pick that is not transferable (MLB rules forbid teams from trading picks to one another), the Nats may not be able to escape spending some big money.
$50 million on an American prospect as the U.S.A. gets knocked out of the WBC in the semifinal round by Japan. Interesting.
12 replies on “Roughly 3 Months Away From The MLB Amateur Draft”
Where did you get the numbers of 6 years atnd$50 million?
I just saw that the oracle (Peter Gammons) said this. As much as I believe it is a rumor floating around, there is no way this happens.
Darren – I hear a lot of talk about MLB draftees signing above/below/at slot – where does one find a list of projected slots are the 09 draft? In other words, if I want my player to sign for slot, how do I learn exactly what that number is for various rounds/picks? How would one go about obtaining a list?
You need to look at what players got in those slots in years past. BaseballAmerica is a good source for that kind of information.
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Still, how precise can that be? say pick X received Y dollars in 2008, then in 2009 does that pick ask for Y again? or Y plus 2%? 4%? Also, BA and other outlets tend to cover rounds 1-10 only, what if your client is a 12th rounder? 20th? 40th? If one of your clients is picked in one of those rounds, what will your process be, as these figures from years past are not readily available for picks beyond round 10 or so
Good question. You may ask for Y, you may ask for more than Y, and you may have to take less than Y. Let’s say X was a college junior. If your client is a college senior selected in the same spot and plays the same position, his leverage is lower and may have to take a cut in bonuses. But let’s say he’s a high school pitcher with big upside. Then you may ask for a lot more than Y. There are plenty of other factors to look for when deciding on an amount.
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Thx Daren. Where would go to locate signing bonus information for players selected outside the Top 10 rounds
We put our interns to the task of compiling that info.
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I thought this was interesting, especially since I was perusing BA yesterday, checking out this sort of information. Though I could be wrong, and Darren please let me know if you disagree, but it seems that if you are a college senior and drafted beyond the 10th round, you shouldn’t expect to sign for much more than $10k – one reason why you will not find this information easily accessible or in BA. These guys, generally have absolutely no leverage – what are they going to do, turn down the $10k and get a real job?
For example, a guy I grew up playing ball with hit .374 with 14 HR and an OPS of 1.073 for Kent State University, was drafted in the 13th round of the 2006 draft as a senior infielder. He signed with the Marlins for around $12k – I am not 100% of the exact number…
But then, if you check out BA’s draft database and are a member, look at the 50th round of the 2008 MLB Draft (http://www.baseballamerica.com/draftdb/2008rnd.php?rnd=50)
The Royals gave a high school catcher $100k with the 1480th pick, the Yankees gave a HS LHP $125k with pick 1502 and the BoSox gave a HS RHP $150k with pick 1504.
Theres a lot that goes on – maybe these guys were early round guys that wanted too much money so they fell and these teams took a shot with their last pick. Maybe they had an agent some teams didn’t like to deal with, who knows?
It doesn’t really seem like there are so much designated slots for $$ anymore. If you are represented by Scott Boras, theres a chance you could be the best player in the draft but will fall to a team with $$ and still make more than the first overall pick. Buster Posey (5th in 08) signed for $6.2m while Tim Beckham (1st in 08) signed for signed for $50k less for whatever reason.
The baseball draft is a very interesting process, completely different than any of the other drafts for various reasons. I can’t wait to check it out this year.
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You are correct on many points. College seniors drafted beyond the 10th round often have very little leverage. Very talented players are often drafted later than they should be based on their talent because they tell scouts that they have high demands…which many teams may be unwilling to pay.
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Just to follow up, in the first 6 rds of 08, the smallest signing bonus came in the 6th rd for $25k, a 2B out of the University of California. Everyone else was getting at least $100k with some still making $1 mil +. It looks like some agents (or even players that chose not to be represented) were happy to take around $10k – $25k less than the guy drafted one spot before them and make things easy, while others were getting as much $500k more.
The 7th rd saw the Rays pay $30k to the first pick while the A’s paid a righty from Pepperdine $1.1 mil…What happened to Moneyball??
In the 10th and beyond, guys were still receiving $100k +, but many more amounts were not identified, leading me to believe they were small numbers…
I guess one should hope to get drafted by the Yankees to receive a solid bonus no matter where he is drafted, then only to be traded to a bad team for its best player(s), so he can get his cup of coffee much sooner than if he stayed in pinstripes…hah
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Darren or anyone who may know the answer,
this is unrelated to the subject covered in this post but i needed some where to ask this question.
I was recently looking on ESPN.com at the Atlanta Braves roster, and on it the site provides the players 2009 salary. My question is why does it say for Jo-Jo Reyes $0 and for Charlie Morton it say $405,000? Jo-Jo has been pitching in the majors for the majority of the time the past three years, not to mention all of this current season. Charlie Morton made a very brief stint in the majors last year and that was it.
Is it that Jo-Jo is still in his minor league contract, or does espn just have incomplete data?