The 2008 Draft Signings Thread

[Vinestal]

Listening to Pirates radio today, they are saying that Boras has decided to rip up Pedro Alverez's contract saying it was agreed to after the deadline. Pirates are claiming thats incorrect and that his contract was actually into the mlb's offices before another contract who is also a Boras client. Sounds like an absolute fiasco. Basicly Boras wants to renegociate a new contract for more money.

[Guest]

Listening to Pirates radio today, they are saying that Boras has decided to rip up Pedro Alverez's contract saying it was agreed to after the deadline. Pirates are claiming thats incorrect and that his contract was actually into the mlb's offices before another contract who is also a Boras client. Sounds like an absolute fiasco. Basicly Boras wants to renegociate a new contract for more money.

 

What the heck? Yowza.

 

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08240/907355-13.stm

[YearofDaCubs]

And some people think Boras is good for baseball? I think it's time MLB starts to slot for the draft.

[TruffleShuffle]

And some people think Boras is good for baseball?

 

people think that he's generally good for his CLIENTS, but not necessarily baseball.

[Guest]

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/news/2008/266761.html

 

Pedro Alvarez officially on the Pirates' restricted list.

[Outshined_One]

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/news/2008/266761.html

 

Pedro Alvarez officially on the Pirates' restricted list.

 

What an absolute nightmare.

 

Baseball America has confirmed with multiple sources that the No. 3 overall pick Eric Hosmer (another Boras client) and the Royals agreed to a $6 million bonus after the deadline.

 

. . .

 

Pirates officials indicated frustration earlier this week that Alvarez had not yet reported for his physical or for an introductory press conference, and now the stalemate has reached new territory—a sort of holdout after the signing deadline. In his statement, Coonelly singles out Boras for blame, saying he's "disappointed" with Alvarez but crediting Alvarez with making the Aug. 15 deal happen in the first place.

 

Boras used a similar strategy in 1993 during Alex Rodriguez's negotiations. Rodriguez signed with the Mariners shortly before going to class at the University of Miami in late August, and on Oct. 14, Boras submitted a grievance, backed by the union, that the Mariners didn't make clear the terms of the contract he signed. The grievance asked that Rodriguez should be allowed to renegotiate his contract or void it and become a free agent.

 

You know, I have to wonder if this was part of Boras' plans all along.

[RedFlash]

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/news/2008/266761.html

 

Pedro Alvarez officially on the Pirates' restricted list.

 

What an absolute nightmare.

 

Baseball America has confirmed with multiple sources that the No. 3 overall pick Eric Hosmer (another Boras client) and the Royals agreed to a $6 million bonus after the deadline.

 

. . .

 

Pirates officials indicated frustration earlier this week that Alvarez had not yet reported for his physical or for an introductory press conference, and now the stalemate has reached new territory—a sort of holdout after the signing deadline. In his statement, Coonelly singles out Boras for blame, saying he's "disappointed" with Alvarez but crediting Alvarez with making the Aug. 15 deal happen in the first place.

 

Boras used a similar strategy in 1993 during Alex Rodriguez's negotiations. Rodriguez signed with the Mariners shortly before going to class at the University of Miami in late August, and on Oct. 14, Boras submitted a grievance, backed by the union, that the Mariners didn't make clear the terms of the contract he signed. The grievance asked that Rodriguez should be allowed to renegotiate his contract or void it and become a free agent.

 

You know, I have to wonder if this was part of Boras' plans all along.

 

I have no doubt that Boras had this in mind.

 

In general I have no problem for Boras trying to get the best for his clients, but it seems to me that Boras will cross the lines of ethics (ie the ARod situation when he was drafted) to get the job done, and that is what I disapprove of Boras. I wish more teams would act like Brian Cashman when it comes to dealing with Boras clients, in that you want to talk contracts leave Boras out of the equation.

 

In some ways, I wish Scott Boras would be "Jerry McGuire'd" already.

[TruffleShuffle]

and so the debacle begins...

 

No. 2 overall pick Eric Hosmer has been pull out of today’s game with Idaho Falls of the Pioneer League. This happened at the commissioner’s request, and is obviously related to the grievance filed by the union related to the Pedro Alvarez deal, and the Pirates‘ official response, which noted that Hosmer’s deal with the Royals came into the commissioner’s office even later than Alvarez’ did.

 

An ugly situation just got a whole lot uglier, and I bet we’re not even close to done yet. Plenty of time between now and the hearing date of September 10.

 

Update: While the Royals have yet to comment, the commissioner’s office has, at least temporarily unapproved Hosmer’s contract, pending the September 10th hearing and the results within. While this certainly makes sense given the facts, it still seems like MLB extending their middle finger to Boras, when in the end, if Boras wins, it just gives him one more client he could end up getting extra money for. Just like the deadline extensions that were handed out, MLB fails to see the big picture at times, it seems.

 

Aside No. 1 – How mad you think the Royals are at the Pirates for dragging Hosmer’s name into this mess?

 

Selfish Aside No. 2 – I sure hope this gets figured out before I have to start team prospect lists.

[Guest]

Mark Peel sighting with an interesting question:

 

When I was flipping through the latest issue of Baseball America, I came to the draft signing list. I already knew the Cubs had signed 26 of their top 27 picks. They usually sign a lot of their highest, but this was better than usual. I also noticed that other teams had locked up a very substantial percentage of their draft lists starting from the top, led by the Cardinals who have come to terms with all but one of their first 30 choices. Is it unusual to see so many teams sign such a high percentage from the top of their draft lists, or have I just been missing this all these years? If it is unusual, do you think it has anything to do with the most recent draft changes?

 

Mark L. Peel

Arlington Heights, Ill.

 

I asked Greg Levine, BA's technology manager, to crunch the numbers in our draft databases for the last three drafts to see if Mark was on to something. As it turns out, Mark was. While there was little change in the signing percentages for rounds 1-10 and 11-20, there was a significant increase in rounds 21-30. This year, 73 percent of those players signed, compared to 64.7 percent in 2007 and 63.3 percent in 2006. The numbers in rounds 31-50 have bounced around, from 28.7 percent in 2006 to 37.6 percent last year to 34.7 percent this summer.

 

Below are all of the percentages:

 

http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/9566/trafficun7.jpg

 

I can't pinpoint any reason why the percentage in rounds 21-30 would have been up this year compared to others. While it's true that MLB told teams to worry more about ability and less about signability in 2008, most teams take fliers on players with high price tags in the first 20 rounds rather than afterward.

 

Teams signed about the same number of draftees this year (964 of 1,504) as they did in 2007 (943 of 1,453), and I think it was more coincidence than anything that they signed more of them from higher on their draft lists this time around. The elimination of the draft-and-follow rule means that clubs aren't taking players in the middle rounds to speculate on them rather than sign them, but that rule first disappeared in 2007 without affecting the signing rate in those rounds.

[Vinestal]

Was the Pedro Alvarez situation ever resolved? Werent they suppose to be meeting with a mediator? I never heard anything about it. Anyone heard any news? Im just currious.

[Rob]

Was the Pedro Alvarez situation ever resolved? Werent they suppose to be meeting with a mediator? I never heard anything about it. Anyone heard any news? Im just currious.

 

There was a meeting with an arbitrator on Sept. 10th... but from what I understand, there was too much material to be covered in one day, and they were going to work on getting another date scheduled... which could take weeks.

[jersey cubs fan]

Was the Pedro Alvarez situation ever resolved? Werent they suppose to be meeting with a mediator? I never heard anything about it. Anyone heard any news? Im just currious.

 

There was a meeting with an arbitrator on Sept. 10th... but from what I understand, there was too much material to be covered in one day, and they were going to work on getting another date scheduled... which could take weeks.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3602002

[wvcbxl]

Was the Pedro Alvarez situation ever resolved? Werent they suppose to be meeting with a mediator? I never heard anything about it. Anyone heard any news? Im just currious.

 

There was a meeting with an arbitrator on Sept. 10th... but from what I understand, there was too much material to be covered in one day, and they were going to work on getting another date scheduled... which could take weeks.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3602002

 

Lemme get this straight: the MLBPA files a grievance over a contract because it is a couple of hours late, then agrees to withdraw it in exchange for approval of a contract that is over a month late.

Glad to read they have no problem with credibility. :roll: