Round 14 Pick 450: Anthony Melchionda, SS
Posted on June 7th, 2012 by Jeff in 2012 MLB Draft, tags: Anthony MelchiondaAnthony Melchionda
Sr, Boston College
Height: 6’
Weight: 195 lbs
DOB: 2/17/90
Throws: R
Bats: R
Jeff’s Quick Take: Anthony Melchionda played on the Cape (surprise!). He didn’t put up great numbers there or during his senior year. But as a senior (code: cheap sign) at a valuable position (short) – he could be a valuable player in the system.
Boston Herald has his raw stats:
This season, he led the Eagles in runs scored (39), and ranked second in batting average (.310), on-base percentage (.389), hits (65), RBI (35), doubles (21) and home runs (6). He was honored with a selection to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference second team.
Here’s video of him in the batting cage, in the field and in a game:
Entries (RSS)
Kantrovitz has said the Cards didn’t draft for need this year — just picked the best guys on the board.
But it’s hard to look at this mix of third basemen/right fielders and shortstops and think they didn’t have a plan to stock up on two specific types: potential middle-of-the-order hitters and slick fielders who might not hit much.
Ramsey would be the exception, except he fits another organizational need: advanced, successful college players who can move fast into the upper levels. Wacha, Piscotty, Wisdom, Mejia, Heyer, and Wilson all seem to fit.
Maybe an overcorrection for all the young, top-of-the-lineup-type guys they took last year?
There was an article in the Post Dispatch where Dan K talks about the draft. It’s very apparent that round 6-10 where about getting very cheap senior signs to save up money to use for our Day 1 picks and or the picks from 11 to 40. The 7th round pick who has a slot of 147k did an interview in his paper where he talked about contacting teams and saying hey I know the new rules will change things and ill sign for X amount. He mentioend that he’s pretty sure he’s goign to get up to a 5 digit number. So our 7th rounder pretty much said he would sign for 10k. This saves the team 137k to spread aruond in other players. While those after 10 don’t go against the MLB mandated draft budget. If we can also save 50-70k on picks like this the team can feel free to spend that money elsewhere or use that money as part of the tax for slightly going over the 9.13 alloted.
Did he mention the figure 10K? Because I read the article to say 5 figures and that he wanted enough to help offset the small amount he’d be paid in the minors. Unless you ran across a hard 10K figure, I doubt it was that little.
He said he hopes to get up to 5 digits. Which to me means 9999 is the biggest 4 digit number and any 5 digit number will be very low 5 digits.
Alan Craig signed for $15,000 in round 8. The guy should expect $18,000, a round sooner. .
I don’t think you really understand how this works.
Allen Craig was a senior, rd 8. Freese, signed for $6K, rd 9. Senior Matt Carpenter, signed for $1,000, rd 13. Stavinoha was a senior sign, $15,000, round 7. The Cards have been selectively signing seniors for years. Nothing new about selecting a senior in round 7 of the 2012 draft.
I also really think that the Cardinals have a philosophy of throwing a bunch of stuff on the wall and seeing what sticks. They seem to always draft in bulk as that increases the percentage that we will find someone at that specific position will stick.
I think this is it. Every year it seems like the organization uses a couple tendencies to pick larger groupings of players with the hope that a couple get the job done. I’m hopefully a couple of the high school athletic types will play well in short season coming up
I didn’t know where to post this so I guess I’ll just post it here and hope someone that can help me will see it. I have a question. Does any one have any updates on other high potential players the Cardinals took a few years back in Reggie Williams and Tony Bryant?
I found their stats online. Both were on short season clubs last year. Williams will turn 23 in September and Bryant just turned 20 in January. Do either of them still have prospect status or are they just hanging on at the moment? Williams had the better numbers of the two last season, but Bryant is younger (neither had very good seasons). Thanks for the help!
Of course they are, Williams was going to start last year at QC but broke his hamate bone in Spring Training. He came back did well at Batavia but wa suspended for PED just like Cody Stanley. Stanley has served his 50 games. Williams becuase he was in SS ball to end the year his suspension doesn’t start until the SS season starts so he won’t be able to play till Mid August (which i find bogus, same suspension different amount of time served because of what league you were in).
Bryant I saw in Spring Training. Raw guys like that you can’t judge a year after being drafted. Bryant may never make it out of SS but he’s surely got physical talent.
Awesome. Good info, Andrew. I appreciate it. I remember when they were drafted that it was noted how raw they were but they had the physical ability to be good ball players. I’d like to see Williams get out of SS ball quickly because it’s hard to hope for much out of a kid that’s struggling in SS ball at age 23.
As for Bryant, he’s got a little more time to get things together. Like I said, he’s only 20 this season. For him to become a legitimate prospect, I’d expect to see improved numbers this season in GCL (or where ever they send him) and possibly be at QC at some point next year at age 21. If he can do that, his future will look even better, but he’ll have to force the organization to move him up with good play.
Melchionda went to the same college as Cards first rounder of 2004, pitcher Chris Lambert. Since a senior, Melchionda is going to be looking at a much lower bonus, probably about $1,000 bucks, not a million like Lambert.