As I alluded to in a previous post, I have some pretty big ideas for fixing the Major League Baseball draft. Before I get into the details (of which there will be plenty), just a few disclosures. I’ve never worked inside baseball, I have very few contacts inside the game, my college degree isn’t in Economics (its Political Science), and I’ve never played pro baseball. These ideas are largely mine, with some influence from other articles I’ve read about the shortcomings of the draft. I’m in no position to change things, but as you regular readers know, the draft is one of my favorite aspects of baseball, and I’m a bit of a baseball nut (obviously), so I figured it wouldn’t hurt for me to lay out my ideas for fixing something that I have a great deal of interest in. Of course, if you don’t think the draft needs fixing, then you can probably just skip this piece. If not, enter below the fold…
Category Archives: 03. Draft Central
Colvin to attend Phillies workout
Scroll to the bottom of Andy Martino’s latest offering for this nugget
The Phillies will hold a workout at Citizens Bank Park this morning for seven unsigned draft picks, including Brody Colvin, a highly regarded righthanded pitcher. Colvin was selected in the seventh round and has a commitment to play for Louisiana State.
Outfielder Wander Nunez, the team’s 48th-round pick, who played high school baseball at Frankford last season, also will be there. The deadline to sign draft picks is 11:59 p.m. Monday.
Maybe someone should try and find out who the other guys attending will be. But obviously Colvin is the big time name here. Keep your fingers crossed.
Update –> Scroll down to the comment left by “Ketch”….then rejoice.
Draft notes
* The signing deadline is one week away, and I’ve finally gotten around to updating the draft picks page. The Phillies have signed 7 of their first 9 picks (Colvin and Hudson remain), and have signed 31 of their 49 picks. Check below the fold for more
Pirates sign Colton Cain; Colvin implications
As reported by Baseball America today, the Pirates signed 8th rounder Colton Cain for $1.13M. Cain was ranked the 14th best prospect in Texas, #109 in the entire country. By comparison, Brody Colvin was ranked #3 in Louisiana, and #43 in the entire country. Cain’s bonus could provide the Colvin camp with some extra leverage, and this could basically confirm my suspicion that it was going take seven figures to keep Colvin away from LSU. I’d say now that we’re looking at $1.2M at least to get a deal done. The signing deadline is 9 days away, so there’s still time, and deals should start trickling in this coming week.
Phillies Sign Lino Martinez for $325,000
Hat tip to Ben Badler of Baseball America, who has been all over the international market. Per BA…
[A] 6-foot lefthander from Venezuela[,] Martinez, 16, throws 86-88 mph with good feel for a changeup. Martinez’s breaking ball is a work in progress, but he has some athleticism and a good delivery.
Have to say I agree with andyb: it’d be great to see the organization make a couple of signings in this price range, as they’ve had some success there over the years. Domingo Santana was signed for $300,000, and he’s already got 3 HRs in 5 games for the GCL Phillies, so he’s certainly worth keeping an eye on.
Feel free to use this thread to discuss the international market. And as James said below, enjoy your holiday weekend!
On the international front, don’t expect much
Baseball America’s team by team previews
Philadelphia Phillies: The Phillies likely won’t be active for the players at the top of the market in Latin America, though that hasn’t stopped them from finding quality prospects on a budget in past years. They signed Dominican outfielder Domingo Santana for $330,000 in March, and it looks like they’ll try to land players for comparable bonuses this year.
This is what I expected, to be honest.
Draft Pick register added
At the top of the site. It will be updated when new info/signings are available. If you come across an article on one of our draftees, please post it there. You can also get to it by following this link. Thanks.
Day 3/Final draft thoughts
Its time to put a bow on the 2009 Draft. As is the case with every draft, you won’t know how good the draft was until the smoke clears at the deadline and you see who was signed and who went to school. The Phillies, as was pretty predictable, took a lot of college seniors today and also a bunch of high school kids. The college guys are picked to make up the numbers, if any of them get a cup of coffee in the bigs in the future, then that was a success. If the Phillies sign 1 of the high school kids, its a big bonus. So lets have a look at who was taken today and then wrap up all of the selections with a game plan for getting these guys signed.
2009 Draft, Day Three
Here’s your outlet for discussing the final 20 picks of the 2009 draft. The Phillies will pick 27th again in every round or until they decide enough is enough. I expect them to take a bunch of high school kids and some college seniors again just to round out the numbers. They took Cosart in the 38th round last year and signed him, so anything is possible. Look for high school guys from Texas and Washington in particular, and maybe even some of the midwestern states this year, as the Phillies seemed to hit Nebraska/Kansas more so than usual. Check below for more…
Day 2 draft thoughts
I was out for much of the day today and was following some of the picks on my iPhone, so I wasn’t able to really give detailed thoughts. As you can see from my twitter update, I was a fan of the Singleton and Susac picks. I’m going to give some very brief thoughts on each individual pick, as well as the first half of the draft in general. I hope to hit on a few key points that will be worth monitoring over the next 2+ months and beyond. So lets get started.
Phuture Phillies 