The Phillies two picks remaining of their first 15 to not sign are 3rd rounder Brandon Workman and 12th rounder Julian Sampson, both RHP prepsters. I wouldn’t be overly concerned just yet, even though we are less than a month from the signing deadline. Half of the first round has yet to sign, and the general consensus is that teams wait as long as possible, as to not anger the Commissioners office. If you’re going to bust slot, you generally wait till the end, as to not set a precedent for other prospects who haven’t signed. The rumored numbers are about $600,000 for Workman and $250,000 for Sampson. Personally, I feel like the former has a very good chance of happening, the latter, I’m not so sure. If both guys sign, it will turn this draft into a B- in my book. I’m still not thrilled with how rounds 3-10 played out, but signing Jiwan James and Jacob Diekman is a definite plus, and if they grab Sampson as well, that’s a nice haul. We’ll see…

It’s been an eventful month or so since the draft. The Phillies have done some nice work in signing their college guys taken early in a rather quick fashion, and they wrapped up their two top prep guys in d’Arnaud and Mattair quickly. They’ve also nabbed Jiwan James, one of their best flier prospects taken after the 20th round. But, we’re now only 6 weeks from the deadline, and a few important guys are yet to sign.

Continue reading Draft pick signings; crunch time approaching →

Here’s a nice article on our 30th round pick, Jacob Diekman. Diekman is reporting to the GCL squad, and reportedly got something “close to 7th round money”, which is probably between $50,000 and $100,000, if I had to guess. He seems like a good kid, and you can never have enough live arm lefties.

Less than 12 hours after deciding to pass on pro baseball for now, Jiwan James changed his mind and signed with the Phillies. The article talks about James going back and forth, including attending an orientation session at Florida, but ultimately deciding to sign. The Phillies had contacted James on draft day and offered him the money if they took him in the 6th round, but he said he wouldn’t sign for that. Within the article linked above, it mentions the Phillies visiting him and upping their offer. My guess? Between $250,000 and $350,000, around 3rd-4th round money. We’ll know eventually, as Baseball America normally gets all the bonus amounts right. This leaves Julian Sampson as our prized prep prospect, as the Phillies already came to terms with 30th round pick Jacob Diekman, a live armed JuCo lefty. Mark Adzick is 99% committed to Wake Forest, leaving Sampson as our main target. I’m not sure how the signing of James will affect the latter, time will tell, but for now, this is quite an exciting development.

Want the skinny on James? Check out the writeup on PhilliesDraft.com

Diekman, the team’s 30th round pick, looks likely to sign.

The Phillies took him as the 18th pick in the draft’s 30th round. He was the 923rd player selected overall.

Immediately after the draft, Diekman planned to continue to play for the Bruins this summer. He said the Phillies had indicated they planned to watch his progress and could make an offer later.

At that point, Diekman also said he planned to stay in school and head to Lincoln and the University of Nebraska for the fall semester.

But “later,” became now, in a hurry.

“The Phillies made a really good offer now and I don’t want to wait the whole summer,” Diekman said.

Diekman said he decided to “take” the offer from the Phillies when it came.

“They said they want me in their organization so they can work with me,” Diekman said. “I guess they have a left-handed pitching coach and he thinks he can really improve me.

“They really want me now.”

Diekman said initially he’ll be headed to Florida and the developmental league.

Thanks to e-mailer Allan for the heads up on the link. Diekman is only 20, and has a great pitcher’s frame. He was pitching at Cloud County CC, and I don’t really have much info on him, but the Phillies must like what they see.

If you check at the top of the blog next to the “Prospect Tracker”, you’ll see a chronological list of all the Phillies draft picks from the 2007 draft, their position, height/weight, DOB, and any articles I tracked down about them. I only was able to update the first 15 or so picks, but I’ll get to the rest later. So far, only Kirk Bacsu, our 32nd round pick, has officially signed, and my guess is, no bonus. As I find more, I’ll update. If you find them before me, just post them on the Draftees Page and I’ll update. Thanks.

Last week I posted my mock draft, lots of stuff happened between then and yesterday, but just for giggles, let’s see how I did, and how I did compared with blog reader kgengler

Continue reading First Round Mock…How’d I do? →

I’ve had my say, reviewing day 1 and day 2, as well as some overall thoughts. Now I want to know what YOU think of our draft. I’ve set up a simple poll over at polldaddy.com, just click the link and register your vote. Also, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Click here to vote.

I want to make a disclaimer statement right here. I’m going to say some really harsh things about the Phillies “braintrust”, ownership group, and anyone else associated with the draft in the next 2,000 or so words. If you love Bill Giles, David Montgomery, Pat Gillick, and all of the folks associated with said people, you may want to just click away from this review and assume “he wasn’t a fan” and move on. I don’t want to lose readers because I compare Pat Gillick to a piece of petrified wood, but I have to let out some frustration, and it’s better to do it in print than to go kick a stray dog in the alley behind my apartment. So, now that you’ve been warned, let’s get to it. Also, this is going to be a really long entry, if I misspell a few words, you’ll have to deal with it, I don’t have the energy to spell check something this long!

Continue reading 2007 Draft Review, Day 2 →

Well, if you feel like me right now, you’re worn out. The first day of the draft is one of the most exciting days of the year for me, and this year was no exception. This draft had potential for a bunch of exciting moments, as Boras guys dropped, college guys saw their stock jump a bit, and guys on my “wish list” quickly started flying off the board. Not surprisingly, there were plenty of highs and plenty of lows. Tomorrow, I’ll compare my mock draft to the actual results, but for now, I just want to review the Phillies draft choices and give my take on what has transpired. If you’re ready, let’s go. Click the player’s name for a profile/video when available.

Continue reading 2007 Draft Review, Day 1 →