Comments on: Signing deadline looming, but no drama for Cards

By: Grimm

Grimm — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:58:47 +0000

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.

By: beau

beau — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:21:42 +0000

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.

By: beau

beau — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:05:51 +0000

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.

By: beau

beau — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:57:02 +0000

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.)

By: beau

beau — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:53:19 +0000

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.

By: beau

beau — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:49:03 +0000

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.

By: erik

erik — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:07:15 +0000

Sizemore is listed as a senior according to this page.

By: beau

beau — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:54:36 +0000

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.

By: HL is not dirty

HL is not dirty — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:49:22 +0000

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.

By: nms

nms — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:46:25 +0000

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!