Around this time last year we were lamenting the Cardinals not signing 4th round pick Kyle Russell. You all know the story by now: Russell demanded a first round type of bonus. The Cardinals wouldn’t pay it. Russell went back to Texas and was unable to duplicate his insanely successful 2007 season, a season where he hit .336/.456/.807. This year he ended up being drafted by the Dodgers just one round higher and settled for a $410,000 bonus. I’m sure he has to be kicking himself because while the Cards were unwilling to give him a seven-figure bonus, I would at least hope that they would’ve paid him more than $400K. But so far, so good for Russell and the Dodgers, he’s hitting .302/.402/.537 for in the Pioneer league in 153 at bats. He’s also still the Russell we know with 53 punch-outs.
Mike Stutes was another one that got away. Stutes was drafted in the 9th round but opted to go back to Oregon State. Like Russell he regressed the following year and probably regretted his decision to go back to school. OSU had a rough season and Stutes had his worst season by far as a Beaver. He fell to the 11th round and was taken by the Phillies. Stutes has been dominant so far in the Phillies organization. He’s been pitched at two levels of A ball, and in his last two Sally League starts he has gone 7 full innings and has 18 K’s and no earned runs. In 53 total pro innings, Stutes has 61 K’s in 53 innings and has allowed only 5 earned runs.
So that brings me to this. The signing deadline is less then two days away and the Cardinals still have some unsigned picks out there. The Cardinals have done an excellent job this year getting their players signed and on the field. None of their top 10 picks have gone unsigned. The highest unsigned pick is senior Mitch Harris, who unfortunately for the Cardinals at least will have to continue on active duty with the Navy. Reading Derrick Goold’s latest blog entry, it sounds like the Cardinals still hope to work something out. As a senior, the deadline doesn’t apply to him.
Here’s a listing of the remaining unsigned picks:
13 395 Mitch Harris RHP
30 905 Brett Bruening RHP
31 935 Justin Leith LHP
35 1055 Shane Boras 2B
37 1115 Danny Jimenez LHP
45 1354 Chris Taylor C
46 1382 Brandon Sizemore 2B
47 1409 Ray Asaro OF
50 1490 Danny Miranda LHP
- 19 year old Brett Bruening had a rough season for Grand Junction CC but has a lot of characteristics scouts look for. He has a nice projectable frame at 6-6. He throws a fastball, sinker, changeup and a slider and uses a high leg kick which creates some deception. He fell to the 30th round because of some questions about his signability and probably because he just didn’t perform all that well against JUCO competition. I would not expect that he will sign but haven’t heard either way what his plans are.
- Justin Leith has elected to go to Florida International. He’s a high school lefty who throws in the high eighties and has a good changeup.
- Shane Boras is uber-agent Scott Boras’s son. And I’m sure dad “advised” his son to go to college. He’ll be a USC Trojan.
- LHP Danny Jimenez is from St. Charles North in IL. BA considered him to be the 2nd best high school pitching prospect in the state. He’s a big guy at 6-4, 205 lbs. and also played basketball. He was considered to be signable but apparently he’ll be attending Logan Junior College.
- C Chris Taylor. A senior who is taking his sweet time to sign. He hit .349/.439/.660 with 19 homers for the season and was the Atlantic 10 co-player of the year.
- IF Brandon Sizemore is another senior. He was an excellent hitter in college, posting a .325/.388/.675 line his senior season, showing he has some raw power but his strike zone judgment isn’t great. I’m not sure what is keeping the two seniors from signing; maybe they have some job offers that were too good to pass up. I dunno. Last year Nick Peoples signed late, so you never know.
- OF Tony Asaro was a teammate of Scott Gorgen’s at UC Irvine. He hit .314/.374/.539 for the Anteaters but struggled to hit with wood in the Alaskan League. Looks like he’ll be back for his senior year.
- Danny Miranda is another HS lefty. He committed to U of Miami.
All in all, bravo to the Luhnow and the Cards for the job they have done in getting their signed relatively quickly. There’s always going to be a few that get away in every draft but it’s great that we’re not having to deal with some of the drama that other teams are going through right now.
There is one deadline that I am anxiously awaiting-Top Venezuelan prospect Yorman Rodriguez turns 16 tomorrow. What team he signed with could be announced around midnight tonight, and last we heard the Cards are in the running.
Entries (RSS)
SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline
Signability. I think a lot of times when a players is deemed “signable”, its more a fault of the scout making promises he can’t fulfill. I know for a fact that Danny Jiminez was under the impression that he’d be a Top 10 pick (or thereabouts). When you think about it, Jiminez has all the leverage in the world going to a JUCO school. He only has to wait 1 year before he can re-inter the draft unlike a kid who’s got a full-ride scholarship to a university who is required to wait 3 years.
I just don’t see how a kid like Jiminez, drafted as low as he was, could be considered signable. To me, he’s the definition of a wasted pick since he’s not going to get any type of signing bonus and/or scholarship from the team he’s drafted by.
As I posted on the other thread:
Goold had the following nugget on Mitch Harris in his latest Bird Land (which is all about Rasmus’ rehab)
“The Cardinals have signed 29 of their first 30 picks from the draft (subscription required), and only the Navy kept them from going 30-for-30. Thirteenth-round pick Mitch Harris, the pitcher from Annapolis, remains on active duty, but because he’s a senior tomorrow’s deadline does not apply. The Cardinals will have more time to work something out with Harris and the Navy to get him into the organization next season. …”
Is it really possible that the Navy will “negotiate” to release Harris from his commitment?
I’m stoked that they got Wallace into the fold as early as they did, allowing him to eat up A-ball pitchers so far.
I would assume that Wallace at least gets a sniff at training camp next season?
My understadning that Harris cannot “buy out”, he has to serve two years, at least?
Stutes is sorry he didn’t turn pro last year, but his issue was that he was lied to regarding money. He really wasn’t asking for that much more than they wanted to give him. Who knows the real story on that, but he got a decent bonus this time around. In teh meantime, Stutes had a FB that needed some work, and some other issues, so he did this past year to work and improve on his stuff. He’s got that type of FB that does do better against wood than metal.
He elected to stay at OSU also because his brother was going, but as some schools do, even with an NLI, they told him to head to JUCO first or it would be a wasted year.
He really is a nice kid, too bad the impression was the Cardinals weren’t good enough for him. Taht wasn’t the case.
There is a clause that allows for players to pursue pro sports careers. The army is allowing it for 2 players right now. But the Navy has historically not allowed it. Though a deal can be worked out.
that guy that got drafted in the 7th round of the nfl draft out of army was supposed to be able to get out of his two years…then the navy and air force started pitching a fit, so the army retracted that clause…so that guy is serving his two years now instead of playing for the lions…he didn’t find out til he showed up for training camp…that kinda blows
In regards to Yorman, if he does sign with the Birds , what does anyone think he is equal to draft round wise. I am guessing he is a first round talent based solely on what I have read on here. Is he Colby+ talent?
Matt-He’s elicited some lofty comparisons, from Miggy Cabrera to Carlos Beltran. His tools are pretty outstanding 70 power, 70 speed but some scouts question his ability to hit for average. But to answer your question, yes he is a Colby talent, maybe plus depending on who you talk to. If the Cards give him the bonus he’s reportedly demanding, it would be the highest signing bonus in team history, higher than JD Drew. So yeah, he’s a talent.
Is the military service obligation on Harris limited to a prohibition on playing until his service is completed? Could the Cardinals sign him to the form of the contract that the Cubs did with Smardjzeh (spelling?) regarding his football opportunity, i.e. give him some kind of bonus now with a further payment when he able to play for the Cardinals? Or is his military obligation also a prohibition on him signing such a contract with the Cardinals? Obviously the Cards and Harris would have to figure out what is a fair bonus in light of the fact that his skills may become rusty while in the military. Finally if they have until next year’s draft to sign him that means that one of his two year military obligation will have been served and the wait would only be one more year.
Erik should we expect to see any news on the Y-Rod front in tonight’s DFR, or do you think the news will break tomorrow morning???
In an ESPN article they said Y-rod and Inoa would challenge for the number 1 pick in the ‘08 draft had they been eligible. Yorman is a very raw prospect…think raw like Daryl Jones when he was drafted but with a Miggy-Beltran upside.
I don’t know when it will be announced, I’d imagine it would be in the P-D tonight or tomorrow sometime if he signs with STL. I’ll be on top of it.
Who is even going to be the ’source’ to look to for the earliest news on this? The Post-Dispatch? ESPN?
He’s a raw talent but with that upside and the Cardinals aggressive promotion plan, what is a realistic window for this guy? Call-up 2010 at age 18? Probably not. With that bonus, though, they will want to get him up in 3 years I would imagine.
I’d say Derrick Goold will be on top of it. I have a guy who has some inroads in Latin America but he isn’t saying, either because he doesn’t know or he just can’t. With these 16 year olds it’s tough to say how aggressively they will promote them. Angel Villalona of the Giants is just 17 and he’s in the South Atlantic League, which is the same level as the MWL. Three years would be a stretch IMO, it just depends obviously on how he does.
If all goes as planned I’d say he could have a shot somewhere around age 20 to 21, but he is really raw and he could go all D-Jones and need a few years to find himself in the minors and begin producing.
Let’s wait till he signs with the Cards before deciding his timetable. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I wake up to good news about his signing tomorrow!
I was just commenting on the fact that if the Cardinals do pour all this money into his signing bonus, they will likely want an early return for it.
Then again, I may not understand international signings as well as I think I do. I was equating this to the Tigers possibly rushing Rick Porcello because they want to get the most value out of him they can because of his big bonus.
Sizemore is classified as a college junior.
Jimenez is called signable because his college alternative is Logan. Its a good juco program for Illinois, but its grads tend not to command high bonuses. The Cards will have made Jimenez a fair offer, in relation to his potential and his alternatives. It often costs some moola sign a high school player, given their options.
Sizemore is listed as a senior according to this page.
On the ML draft tracker, the Cards classed Sizemore as a junior. The CoC profile says he played juco ball in 2006 and 2007, so his first year at Charleston is 2008. Its possible Sizemore is a senior academically, but has another season of baseball eligibility if he wants to use it. (Rigoli’s son was classed a junior at Pace U, but the Cards drafted him out of HS in 2004, so he’s a senior in age, though in terms of baseball he must have taken a year off or been injured, because he had another year of eligibility that he forewent.)
Goold is reporting today the Cards are not going to be coming to terms with any of the 4 young unsigned pitchers (Bruening, Leith, Jimenez, Miranda). We must have splurged our bonus money in Latin America.
The Cards stocked up on at least two undrafted collegiate catchers in late June, Noland and Rosa. They may have made up for Taylor choosing to do something else.
Bruening just completed a freshman year at Grayson Community College in Texas. (IIRC, this is where 3B Andy LaRoche went. Its a strong TX juco in baseball and just won the juco World Series. The difficulty in signing a guy like Bruening is he will have attractive offers to boost his draft stock in future years by continuing to play amateur ball in Texas.)
Nick Peoples broke a collarbone in May 2007 at UTexas. This injury delayed his signing. The Cards held the signing rights to Peoples beyond mid-August 2007, because a senior. While its possible Taylor might sign after this summer because he too is a senior, its also possible the Cards are indifferent.
To wrap up: Harris is a well-developed pitcher, who the Cards will keep after. It will take some money to sign him, because he has a lot of leverage, including having no college debt and having a paying job. When done with the Navy, Harris will be a free agent, able to sign with the highest bidder. The Cards will factor this in making him a competitive offer.
Drafting Shane was an honorific salute to Scott, one-time Cards farm-hand. Missing on Taylor, Sizemore, and Asaro is also not going to cost Luhnow any lost sleep.
Bruening, Leith, Jimenez, and Miranda, it would have been nice to sign more young pitchers with potential, but they chose collegiate ball.
Harris is a good, not great prospect. Money isn’t the problem on whether he would sign with the Cards. The question/problem is his commitment to the Navy. They won’t let him out of it. He’d sign for slot in a heartbeat if the Navy lets him play. I believe his commitment to the Navy is 6 years. He would be approaching 30 by the time he gets done. There isn’t going to be a bidding war for his services at that time.