Derrick Goold has the scoop.

52 Responses to “Foody Signs (For Real This Time)”
  1. Salamicat18 says:

    Great to have him on board. This makes the large bonus to Ramsey seem far less catastrophic.

  2. Andrew says:

    It means no Rice or Williams which really disspoints me. I don’t think we could sign Williams even if he called the Cardinals and said he wanted to be signed.

  3. Jeff says:

    No bonus yet, but I bet it is the $400k we have heard all along.

  4. Landon says:

    Phil said it Foody was signing for 335,000.

  5. Matt says:

    My theory on the Foody stuff was that the Cards were waiting on how the money shook out and see if they could take Williams instead. I assume the Ramsey bonus ruined that last chance they had at Williams.

  6. Phil says:

    I said 385

  7. Lou Schuler says:

    It’ll be interesting to see the final numbers after everyone signs who’s going to sign.

    The slot for Mejia and Heyer is ~ $460k. Both are juniors, so they have a tiny bit of leverage to keep the Cards from lowballing them beyond their predraft deals. They’re worth more signed than unsigned because otherwise we lose their slot bonuses from our pool.

    I don’t expect a lot from either pick, although I’m sure they’re great guys, smart ballplayers, and hard workers. Heyer has city miles on that arm of his, and Mejia, for all his accolades (Pac 12 POY and defensive POY; 2nd team all-America in BA), wasn’t even ranked in BA’s top 500.

    Watching the CWS I saw Mejia make some terrific plays, including one in the first inning of game 1 against South Carolina that may have turned the game around. The leadoff man reached on an error by the Arizona 3rd baseman. The next guy grounded sharply up the middle for what looked like a sure base hit. Mejia not only kept it from going through, he started a 6-4-3 that would’ve been a highlight in MLB.

    I wasn’t impressed by his bat. I also wasn’t not impressed. I just don’t think I saw him barrel up anything, unlike Ramsey and Piscotty (especially the latter, who I think hit hard line drives every time I saw him at bat).

  8. Phil says:

    Lol it’s all good

  9. SLCard says:

    I would have rather had Trey Williams. Nothing against Foody, but with the crappy new draft system, choices will have to be made, and I think a guy like Williams fits a much larger need on the farm at this juncture. Not that it is up to me, nor does the organization care what I think, but I think Williams ceiling is much higher. I am a bit dumbfounded at the bonus Ramsey got, given his lack of much leverage. Wasn’t the primary justification for reaching for Ramsey at that point the large sum of money it was supposed to save?

    • Lou Schuler says:

      If Ramsey didn’t sign, the Cards lose $1.75 million from their bonus pool. So who truly had the leverage there? (I suspect the Cards wanted him all along, even as a first rounder.)

      I have no idea whose ceiling is higher between Williams and Foody. Williams was drafted first, so you have to think the Cards ranked him as the better prospect. But we haven’t heard anything from his camp, not even a rumor AFAIK. And Foody’s friend Phil has been touting a deal since shortly after the draft.

      Maybe the Cards threw the same bonus range out to both guys, and it wasn’t enough for Williams? Or maybe his agent forgot to return the phone call?

      Doesn’t matter now. We always need pitchers, and we haven’t had a high-ceiling HS lefty since Garcia. Before that it may have been Chris Narveson.

      • Andrew says:

        The bonus pool isn’t money given to the Cardinals by the MLB. The Cardinals would have lost the privelage of spending 1.6 million of their own money. They would have the privelage of having one pick later next year as compensation for Ramsey not signing.

        • paperlions says:

          The Cardinals wouldn’t have received compensation for not signing Ramsey unless they offered Ramsey at least slot money and he turned it down….so….no, not signing him to get a comp pick was not an option.

          • Norton says:

            This isn’t true. You don’t need to make any type of qualifying offer to get a compensation pick next year.

      • BigJawnMize says:

        Williams ceiling is considerably higher…potential 20+ home run 3b.

        Foody has a long way to go, but I would put his ceiling as back of rotation starter.

        No knock on either kid but Williams power tool is truly a plus skill if he can translate it to pro ball. Foody will have to develop something, but there is potential there.

  10. wileyvet says:

    Baseball America’s scouting report on Foody: he produces two solid-average pitches, sitting in the 88-91 mph range with his fastball and throwing strikes consistently with it. He should have average fastball command down the line, and he has a feel for a fringe-average breaking ball. Foody has no plus pitch at present, though, and while scouts like his toughness and strength, it’s hard to project his stuff getting much better.

    Yikes! I’m lost as to why everyone is going ga-ga over this guy. This scouting report must be way off the one the Cardinals have or at least I hope so. He doesn’t even project to be as good as Scrabble.

    • austin says:

      A h.s. lefty that is already sitting high 80′s/low 90′s and can control it somewhat is a fairly rare commodity. I think the line “it’s hard to project his stuff getting much better” makes very little sense to me. This is not some ultra-polished college guy. I don’t know how you don’t project a big guy like Foody to markedly improve in the next 3+ years. Even if the velocity doesn’t tick up a bunch it is enough for a lefty, and you have to imagine there is lots of room for improvement in all the non-velocity areas of what makes a pitcher.

    • nmstar says:

      Neither did Steven Strasburg coming out of high school. I’m not comparing the the two mind you–just saying he is young and has promise.

  11. Cardinals645 says:

    Bummer; I really wanted Williams. Still very happy to get Foody over nothing, which I thought we might be stuck with after the Ramsey signing.

    • Oliver says:

      Don’t be so quick to assume Williams will not sign.

      • Felonius_Monk says:

        We won’t have more than about 300-400k at the most to offer Williams. If he was going to sign for that, I struggle to see why a top-100 talent fell to the 11th round.

  12. Richard says:

    Wiley:

    Have you ever looked at scouting reports of HS pitchers picked in the late rounds in previous years? Tell me how many of those guys contributed even as much as Scrabble has.

    • wileyvet says:

      That’s my point! There should be very little expectation for Foody, but people are talking like he’s a steal. Some people here seem to think Foody was a high-risk, high-upside, high schooler that should have and would have been drafted higher with the old rules. The signibility issue dropped him down from what I’m reading. I sure hope he’s a lot better then advertised.

  13. Evan says:

    Slcards- explain how you think a power hitting 3rd baseman is more of a need than a left handed SP. we drafted 3 3b in our first six picks of this draft plus we have freese, cox, and rahmatulla. I’d much rather see us get the left handed pitcher.

    • jjray says:

      Forget the 3B tag. What power bats do we have below AA? We drafted boat full of left handed pitchers the last few drafts. The organization needs power bats.

  14. Richard says:

    It seems that Trey Williams has more skills/tools/upside than Foody, so I would have preferred getting Trey if possible. I’m not a big fan of drafting/signing on need; who knows which of those kids will stick at 3B (or have to make it at 2B, 1B or a corner OF). Plus, a MLB 3B who is blocked has far more trade value than a LP who isn’t MLB quality, so how these kids turn out is far more important than what positon they play.

  15. Richard says:

    With HS pitchers, I think it’s silly to say someone’s ceiling is back of rotation starter unless they’re a RH who projects to top out in the high-mid 80′s in velocity.

    Virtually nothing that determines whether a guy will be a top pitcher or not (besides fastball speed and handedness) can’t be developed.

    Also, while I like Trey better, power isn’t much of a tool. Plenty of guys can hit a ball a long way if they hit it square. Not many can hit a MLB pitch square or force the pitcher to throw them a ball in the strikezone.

    Batting eye is the most important tool for a hitting prospect (IMHO) yet almost never talked about.

    • Felonius_Monk says:

      Williams also has a great eye and a surprisingly mature plate approach for a HS kid, from what I’ve heard. The one knock remains his attitude. If that grades out as a plus then I think he’s a first-rounder, or at least a 1S pick. Sad he’s not signing, I think he’d have been a great addition and I’d rather have had him than Wisdom, Ramsey, Bean and maybe even Piscotty.

  16. Richard says:

    Lou:

    Middle infielders who can’t hit but vacuum up groundballs have decent value (and far more value than can be expected in the round where Mejia was drafted) so long as they can muster even a .300/.330 (yes, I’ll still bitter about LaRussa forcing Brendan Ryan out for a bag of baseballs; in 2011, Boog produced more WAR than all of the middle infielders the Cards had added together. This year so far, he’s produced more WAR than Furcal, at a fraction of the price, and Tyler Schucalso).

    • Lou Schuler says:

      I know. But BA knows that as well, and they have far better sources among scouts and executives than all of us combined. And they didn’t rank Mejia among their top 500.

      Back in ’07 they had Pete Kozma in their top 30, IIRC, and it wasn’t much of a surprise when the Cards picked him. Yet he’s turned out to have the same all-glove, no-bat potential they’ve hung on Mejia.

      Don’t know if they’ve changed their metrics for ranking players, or if the two things are completely unrelated.

    • VolsnCards5 says:

      Furc is at 1.8 WAR, boog is at 1.5

  17. Richard says:

    They have worse resources than the Cards FO (or any FO, for that matter). The question is how they would have ranked Boog Ryan.

  18. wileyvet says:

    Wouldn’t we have been better off if we payed him in Foody Stamps!

  19. bustacard says:

    Sorry if I’ve missed it somewhere. I was wondering if anyone could field a few draft related questions.

    Where do we stand in regards to our pool allotment assuming we sign Heyer and Mejia at or below slot? Are we already in the luxury tax bracket? How close are we to topping out of the tax bracket and losing a pick next year? And which pick would we lose next year if we busted the allotment to sign Trey Williams? First round?

    Thanks ahead of time.

    • Oliver says:

      I posted some of the answer to this on the daily farm report from today (read there for more about how much is left to spend on Williams without losing picks). We would have to exceed the allotment by more than 5% to lose any picks. Above 5 and up to 10%, you lose next years 1st round pick. Above 10 and up to 15% you lose next year’s 1st and 2nd round picks. Above that you lose those picks for the next two years. The luxury tax is 75% on any overage up to 10% above slot. It increases to 100% on the overage if a team exceeds their slot total by more than 10%.

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