I’m not quite done with my write up from last weekend’s Springfield games. That should run Monday next week. In the meantime, here’s a post I stumbled across in which everyone made their predictions.
The correct answers are:
1) Zach Cox – Yes; $2M; 8/16/10
2) Seth Blair – Yes; $750k; 7/30/10
3) Tyrell Jenkins – Yes; $1.3M; 8/10/10
4) Jordan Swagerty – Yes; $625k; 8/16/10
5) Austin Wilson – No [/weeps]
I was personally too optimistic on Wilson. I heard lots of rumors about those negotiations before the signing deadline and they stayed cautiously optimistic the whole time. So, admittedly, a big miss on my part there. I hope Wilson doesn’t regret not signing. He’s hitting reasonably well though not great by college standards – .331/.366/.451 — but he passed up a huge opportunity to pursue his degree.
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Did the rumors attach a number the Cards put on the table for Wilson? Just curious. I wondered at the time whether the offer to Wilson was contingent on the failure to sign Cox.
I never heard a concrete number. What I did hear was early on that the college commitment was not as solid as reported. Things seemed to stagnate after initial conversations and I don’t know that it ever reached a $$$ stage.
I believe I read that negotiations never got to the point of, quote unquote, “exchanging” numbers.
Yea that’s what Luhnow said, hopefully it was just cover as the Wilson family probably didn’t want a number floated about how much he turned down. If we didnt actually make an offer the Cardinals werent doing there due dillegence.
I think you are right Andrew. Even if numbers were whispered back and forth orally it is in the best interests of both parties to deny it.
Even if the Cardinals didn’t make an offer, I would say they did do their due diligence, because they took Wilson in the 12th round. If there was any indication that Wilson was remotely interested in signing with a club rather than going to college, he would have been taken within the top 3 rounds, by the Cardinals or somebody else.
There was absolutely no risk in using a 12th round pick, and it allowed them time to see what they could do. If it worked, they got a legit top 10 player. If it didn’t, they simply lost out on a 12th round prospect.
They still have to make some sort of offer even if they weren’t getting any indications from the Wilson’s that they wanted to sign. At the end of the day you have to give and offer no matter what. Just say there may be a hard slot system soon, where the only the first 2 picks will get over 4 million dollars to sign. We will offer you 4 right now, theres a chance that Austin goes number 1 when he comes out, theres also a chance he goes lower in the first round and with a hard slotting system he may lose out on alot of money.
You have to at least make an offer.
No, you don’t. When team officials talk about making an offer, they’re talking about making an official offer on paper. But before that happens, there’s usually a lot of discussions beforehand about what each party expects, and it’s obvious that the Cardinals had those discussions, because they had a lot of contact with Wilson and his parents. But the idea that they never extended an actual offer is not farfetched at all.
There’s nothing in the rules that says teams don’t have to extend draft picks formal offers when they pick them. The draft only means they have exclusive rights to that player for a number of months to negotiate with and sign them.
What does it hurt by throwing out and actual number before getting on offical no for good?
It doesn’t hurt; I just think that Austin Wilson’s case was unique. I think Mo was on the level when he said that it was never about the money and that numbers were never exchanged…it was about whether Wilson wanted to play pro ball or go to college. The question was whether Wilson would give up his commitment. If you can’t get past that question, then numbers don’t even enter into the discussion and an official offer is never made. I believe Wilson’s priority was his education, but he was open to see what the pro ball life would be like, which is why you had the Cardinals take him all the way back in the 12th round and court him for a few months to see if they could change his mind. That’s why the rumors never really mentioned a number, as azru said.
The first four picks look decent so far IMO.
Swagerty has outperformed expectations
Blair has underperformed
Cox is maybe under-performing slightly, but I think the transition issues were expected.
Jenkins….no idea
If unreasonably awful is a new synonym for under-perform, than yes Seth Blair has underperformed.
Blair is really the only one of those four who I’ve really cared about coming out of that draft anyway. So I can’t help having a little bit of ennui with the other three.
I mean Jenkins.
Hes the really the only guy out of those four I care about.
Yeah, think you’re being a bit optimistic there.
Cox and especially Blair have had an awful start to their pro careers, by anyone’s standards.
I was really hoping all would sign but honestly I didn’t and still don’t care much about Cox. I would have been happy if they had given all of hte money for Cox to Wilson and do whatever necessary to sign him. He would have been the prize if he had signed not Cox.
As much as I would have loved Wilson in the system, we weren’t buying him out of his commitment.
I was correct with Jenkins and Cox being overslot, and Swaggerty and Blair being under or slot. Speaking of Jenkins, what has he been up to?
Actually Blair was slightly over slot and Swaggerty was also over slot.
Pitching well in EST. Is impressing some people.
Where did you get this info?
Quotes? Articles?
Brian Walton went to EST last week. Saw him pitch talked to coaches. Quotes and articles have to pay subscribtion to Cardinal Nation.
I had the first 4 correct and was very closer in all the bonuses actually. I was dead wrong on Wilson though :(