Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
Around SBN: Baseball Unveils The "Sam Fuld Rule"

MLB Draft

2012 Amateur Draft Order

Photo

Now that Edwin Jackson is off the board, Raul Ibanez (Type B) and Derrek Lee (Type B) are the only free agents remaining that could potentially bring back compensation for their former teams. However, that is if either one of them can land a major league contract to leave their respective team's, which may be a reach for both right now.

With that being said, the order for the upcoming amateur draft is just about set. We will update the list if Ibanez or Lee manage to land major league deals, otherwise, follow the jump to view the 2012 Amateur Draft Order for the first round and supplemental first round.

Continue reading this post »

1 comment  | 

Astros Clinch No. 1 Pick In 2012 Draft

Photo

Earlier today, the Twins pushed their loss total to 102 for the season. Given that the Houston Astros are already assured of losing at least 102 games this year, they've effectively clinched the first pick in next year's draft. Even if Houston wins all of its remaining games, they'll still pick first next season given that their 2010 record was worse than Minnesota's.

Houston hasn't had the No. 1 pick in the draft since 1992, when they selected Phil Nevin with the first selection. According to MLB Bonus Baby, SB Nation's blog dedicated solely to baseball's draft, the top three prospects going into next year's draft are currently LSU pitcher Kevin Gausman, California prep pitcher Lucas Giolito and Arizona State shortstop Deven Marrero. Other top draft prospects include Stanford pitcher Mark Appel and Florida prep pitcher Lance McCullers.

0 comments  | 

Houston Astros Sign George Springer

The Houston Astros have signed 11th overall pick George Springer, as first reported by Baseball America's John Manuel. The University of Connecticut outfielder signed for $2.525 million, according to Jim Callis of Baseball America.

Springer was a junior at UConn that raked in all three seasons at the collegiate level. Coming in at 6'3'' and 200 pounds, Springer is considered as a superior athlete. Here is a snippet of ESPN's scouting report on the outfielder:

Continue reading this post »

0 comments  | 

MLB Teams Set Draft Spending Record: $236 Million

Over at Baseball America, Jim Callis has all of the spending figures on this year's draft from the 30 MLB teams, and as you'd expect, they're pretty staggering.

The teams spent a total of $227.9 million on signing bonuses this year, although additional guarantees from Major League contracts given to Danny Hultzen, Trevor Bauer, Anthony Rendon, Dylan Bundy and Matt Purke push the total amount of money guaranteed by the teams up to $236 million. Both of those figures set new records; last season, the teams spent $195.7 million on bonuses and $201.8 million in total guarantees.

Continue reading this post »

0 comments  | 

Arizona Diamondbacks Sign Trevor Bauer

On July 25th, The Arizona Diamondbacks signed 3rd overall pick right-handed pitcher Trevor Bauer to a contract, valued just north of $7.3 million over 4 years (more to follow). At the time of the signing, Bauer was on the short list of landing one the most lucrative deals in draft history. For those interested, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tracked down the fine-print details of Bauer’s contract which includes a year-by-year salary breakdown.

Baseball America writes Bauer has "the deepest repertoire of any pitcher in the draft," while ESPN's Keith Law believes "Bauer can show two plus pitches and has a tremendous track record of missing bats" and has "premium stuff and a verifiable track record." The UCLA product is proving both of them right early on. Albeit only 14 innings at the lower levels of the minors, a 41% strikeout rate is nothing to sneeze at. Trevor Bauer's pitching repertoire will work anywhere. In fact, some believe Bauer could be working out of the Diamondbacks bullpen this year and could be starting for them next season.

Continue reading this post »

0 comments  | 

MLB Draft: Reactions from Around the Nation

With the signing period now complete, here's some of the reactions from around Baseball Nation to how their teams did.

Despite failing to sign their top draft pick, Bluebird Banter likes what they saw from their draft this year, and have a great writeup comparing the 2010 draft with this year's class.

Jeff Sullivan over at Lookout Landing isn't concerned with the size of the contract that the Mariners gave to top pick Danny Hultzen:

As far as the actual money is concerned, whatever. I don't really care what these guys get paid so long as they get signed, since I figure the Mariners wouldn't commit more than they can afford. So Danny Hultzen has a lot more money today than he had yesterday. Good for him. I hope he got one of those giant checks. You can't take those anywhere!

Federal Baseball has some great quotes from an interview that Baseball America's John Manuel did on MLB Network Radio:

"The Nationals' strategy is to throw a ton of money at amateur players," Mr. Manuel continued later in the discussion on last night's signing deadline, "and I think it's going to pay off. It worked for Mike Rizzo [as] the Scouting Director in Arizona and I think it's going to work for him in Washington. Between [Stephen] Strasburg and [Bryce] Harper and then [Anthony] Rendon those are the last three years, they had the top player, for what it's worth, on the Baseball America draft board." 

Brew Crew Ball has a good breakdown of how the draft actually went for the team, including the impact this draft will have on improving a depleted farm system.

Continue reading this post »

0 comments  | 

MLB Draft Overview: The Surprise Signings

Photo

Every year, we see a few players in each draft class that insist to all 30 MLB teams that they have no interest in signing with a professional baseball team. They're young kids with college scholarships, and they don't want to forgo that experience in order to begin the daily grind of riding buses, staying in cheap hotels and living the generally unglamorous life of a minor league baseball player. The MLB teams go with the standard response, "You sure? We do have [more money than most people can ever dream of making] on the table at the moment? It's really going to suck if you get hurt next year at a frat party."

But every year, we're reminded of the magical power of the dollar sign. College might be cool, but do you know what's probably even cooler? Seeing seven figures in your bank account when you're 19. And alas, that's why we seen dozens of supposedly "unsignable" players happily ink on the dotted line each year- turning down a one-time offer for that much money is really, really hard.

Here's a list of some of the most shocking signings of the night:

  • The Pirates sign Texas prep outfielder Josh Bell, a second-round pick (61st overall), to a $5 million signing bonus. Bell, considered the best prep hitter in the draft, had a commitment to play for the University of Texas, and told all 30 teams that he had no interest in playing professionally yet. That was obviously before negotiating with the Pirates, who offered him the largest bonus ever handed out to a player drafted outside of the first round. The Pirates also signed their ninth-round pick, Clay Holmes, for $1.2 million. The Holmes signing is the largest bonus ever given to a ninth-round pick.
  • There were mixed opinions on whether New Mexico prep catcher Blake Swihart would sign with the Red Sox given his commitment to the University of Texas, but Boston offered him a cool $2.5 million and he passed on his scholarship to play in Austin. Some were also surprised to see the Red Sox sign South Carolina center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr., who struggled with some injuries this spring.
  • The Blue Jays loaded up on guys that were expected to be tough to sign, and while they didn't land all of them, they did get a few. Prep pitchers Daniel Norris, Tyler Beede and Kevin Comer were all expected to be very difficult signs, and while the Jays couldn't get a deal done with Beede, they were able to reel in Norris and Comer. It wasn't cheap, though, as Norris took $2 million and Comer got $1.65 million.

Continue reading this post »

7 comments  | 

MLB Draft Overview: Winners and Losers

Boy, they said it was going to get crazy, right? In the final ten minutes before this year's draft pick signing deadline, we saw 13 of the top-15 picks in the draft sign, and 21 of the top-33. There were people sitting around their computers all day waiting for the news to trickle in (ahem), when realistically all you needed were those ten minutes before midnight and you could've covered pretty much all of the big headlines of the deadline.

And while MLBDD was there all day covering the signings, we're hoping to offer you some analysis now, as well as a neat place to keep all of our previous draft links. Well, here it is. I'm going to cover the surprises, the big winners, the disappointing losers, and [hopefully] everything else in between.

THE WINNERS

The Pirates: Yeah, duh. They added a premium talent by taking the player they perceived to be the best available in Gerrit Cole, and then forked up the dough to sign him. They proved a whole lot of people wrong by inking arguably the most difficult-to-sign elite talent in the draft, prep outfielder Josh Bell. And then to boot, they continued to bolsteir their minor league pitching ranks with a bevy of high-upside prep arms: Clay Holmes, Colten Brewer, Tyler Glasnow, Jake Burnette and Jason Creasy all signed with Pittsburgh rather than go to college next year. Overall, the Pirates spent an astounding $17 million on 24 players in this year's draft, but when you're able to add two elite talents and a host of other quality prospects, that price tag seems a whole lot less significant.

The Royals: Most people expected the Royals to get a deal done with first-round pick Bubba Starling, but it's the bevy of other picks that signed with Kansas City that should really push this class near the top. Prep pitchers Bryan Brickhouse and Kyle Smith both required over-slot money to sign (Brickhouse got $1.5 million), but they're high-upside guys and the Royals need as many lottery tickets as they can gather. It's a prep-heavy class, but the Royals just added some serious upside to their farm system. Another very good draft class for Dayton Moore and company.

Continue reading this post »

4 comments  | 


User Tools

MLB Daily Dish: the best and most reliable clearinghouse for MLB Trade Rumors from credible sources, covering every signing, transaction, and trade, with a heavy dose of analysis and fan reaction you can't get anywhere else. Enjoy!

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow us on Twitter!


Managing Editor:

Jbopp-kc_small Justin Bopp

Reporting:

Dme_small Satchel Price

Dsc00490_-_version_2_small Jason Hunt

Lax-xl_small Marisa Ingemi

Carlosicon_small Julian Levine

George_small Ronit Shah

Featuring:

Pic3_small Craig M Williams

Small adam bernacchio

Bio_pic_small Patterson_B

001_small Jeff Kleiner