2010 Cubs Picks & Signings Thread

[Guest]

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/?p=2742

 

John Manuel thinks the Cubs will sign 2 of Wells, DeJesus and Rhoderick. Doesn't think Pinckard or Stites will sign. Manuel says some scouts think Wells was a potential 3rd rounder but came on too late for most scouts (Trey McNutt redux?).

[toonsterwu]

All the signs seem to point to Ben Wells signing. I'd guess at least mid 6 figures number, with a shot at low 7 figures. A lot of folks thought he had a good chance to become a first round pick with another year or two (assuming positive development).

 

I really want the kid in the org. For all the talk about how his velocity came late, I'd point to the fact that he added a couple inches and a lot of pounds over the course of his senior year. Expectations are that the boy can get bigger. He has a classic power pitcher's body, and may be only scratching the surface on his potential.

[davell]

I want Wells signed bigtime as well. But, color me completely underwhelmed if all we do is sign him and one of Rhoderick or DeJesus. Especially since it appears as if Rhoderick is only going to be getting 125,000.

 

If this winds up being the case AND we don't make any other splashy international signings either, I really hope someone brings this up at the Cubs Convention next year to Ricketts. This has been an awful year on the major league front to begin with, so spending on the farm would have been the best thing to do this season. And with the talk of the increased budget to begin with, I'm actually thinking that that was said, based strictly on the fact that our draft position was higher and it was a necessity to spend more anyway. If we're going to model ourselves after the Red Sox, I want to see some actual results and not just talk from here on out, as far as our farm goes.

 

In a way, this is already reminding me of McCourt. He said the exact same thing......We're going to build from within, blah, blah, blah. And all he's done is take the inherited players they've already had in their system when he bought the team and gotten them to the majors(what ones weren't already there anyway). And in the process, spent less than any other team in baseball on the draft and international signings since he bought. The players we currently have are completely irrelevant to this equation and if Ricketts starts talking about guys already in the system and not what's going to BE in the system, I'm going to gag. I understand this was a weak draft, but there were ways to spend smartly nevertheless and it could have boosted our system up a notch or two possibly. Same with international signings.

[Wrigley Rat]

The Cubs are hoping to sign multiple high-round picks, and paying special attention to Matt Stites, a 33rd-round pick from Jefferson (Mo.) Community College, Mark Buehrle's alma mater. He opened eyes in the Cape Cod League and the Cubs would love to keep him from honoring his commitment to Missouri. The highest unsigned guys are sixth-rounder Ivan DeJesus, a high school outfielder from Puerto Rico, and Ben Wells, a high school pitcher from Arkansas.

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/08/your-morning-phil-garcia-bullpen-draft-picks.html

[craig]

It will be interesting. Unfortunately it often takes a while to find out, so even with the deadline, it's not like we'll know everything definitively tomorrow, the way it works with deadline trades or whatever. We'll probably still be left hanging. And with it being late August, we won't find out by virtue of having these guys show up in minor league games anymore. So if DeJesus or Wells signs, we'll probably hear about it, particularly Wells and particularly if he overslots some.

 

But if they sign somebody analogous to Struck last year, it may not be easy to find.

[Guest]

And the funny thing is, Struck was an overslot.

[davearm2]

It will be interesting. Unfortunately it often takes a while to find out, so even with the deadline, it's not like we'll know everything definitively tomorrow, the way it works with deadline trades or whatever. We'll probably still be left hanging. And with it being late August, we won't find out by virtue of having these guys show up in minor league games anymore. So if DeJesus or Wells signs, we'll probably hear about it, particularly Wells and particularly if he overslots some.

 

But if they sign somebody analogous to Struck last year, it may not be easy to find.

Amazing that this is true in the proverbial information age. We're talking about a major American professional league and its primary player draft for cripes sake. You'd think every major sports/news outlet would have this information.

[Outshined_One]

Ben Wells signs with a $530,000 signing bonus.

[Guest]

I believe that's second round money. Certainly more than anyone besides Simpson and Golden.

[Outshined_One]

Add Rhoderick, Harman, and Smith to the signees.

[Guest]

I believe Rhoderick signed but DeJesus did not. Amongst the late rounders, Casey Harman signed (lefty from Clemson) and Brian Smith (40th rounder) signed. Matt Stites did not sign. Sorry, no links.

[Outshined_One]

I'll go ahead and say it.

 

What a [expletive] disappointment.

[Guest]

I'll go ahead and say it.

 

What a [expletive] disappointment.

 

It's not a big surprise. The Cubs didn't have an awful lot of potential overslots and it looked like Brooks Pinckard, Bryan Harper and Clayton Crum weren't even on the radar. They got Wells and didn't get Stites.

[wvcbxl]

I'll go ahead and say it.

 

What a [expletive] disappointment.

 

Because a couple didn't sign? Isn't that to be expected?

DeJesus is a bummer because of what round he was picked, but other than him I'd say it's about par for the course.

[Tryptamine]

I'll go ahead and say it.

 

What a [expletive] disappointment.

 

Because a couple didn't sign? Isn't that to be expected?

DeJesus is a bummer because of what round he was picked, but other than him I'd say it's about par for the course.

 

 

I think it's more a disappointment because of the promises of building from within. Unless there is a major investment into the international prospects, that statement feels like it was lip service.

[Outshined_One]

I'll go ahead and say it.

 

What a [expletive] disappointment.

 

It's not a big surprise. The Cubs didn't have an awful lot of potential overslots and it looked like Brooks Pinckard, Bryan Harper and Clayton Crum weren't even on the radar. They got Wells and didn't get Stites.

 

This was an underwhelming draft from the get-go. Despite making selections on the cheap, the Cubs decided to tighten up even more when it came to signings. Didn't they save a few million in the Ted Lilly deal? Didn't the Ricketts promise to follow the Boston Red Sox model? I mean, for heaven's sake, the Red Sox are currently sitting at $11m in signing bonuses. They'll probably more than triple what the Cubs spent when all is said and done. Where is the money for draft spending that was promised? $3.5m as a draft budget is a complete and total joke for a major market team like the Cubs. That's only $300k more than the signing bonus the Cardinals gave to their first rounder.

 

Tim Wilken has had prior success, but for heaven's sake, give the man a draft budget that allows him to get more than a bunch of reaches, guys with depressed stocks, late pop-up prospects, and organizational filler. Yeah, he finds diamonds in the rough, that's great, but there are still plenty of potentially high-level talent players who are well-known and will cost money to sign. I really do not think this is a sustainable method of building and maintaining a farm system.

 

At least last year they had the excuse of the sale as the reason for the $4m budget. What the hell is the excuse this year?

[davell]

Very happy with the Wells signing, but in all honesty, if I look at it, all they did was give him the rest of the slot money that Simpson didn't get from his first round deal. It's been reported that Rhoderick was going to make 125,000, so it's not like that's some massive overslot obviously. Harman probably cost them some money, but he certainly didn't break the bank. No idea whatsoever on Smith, but unless he was some sort of surprise Logan Watkins type signing, then we didn't do much of anything, as far as I'm concerned.

 

Missing out on Stites, crum, Harper, Brooks and Muno is borderline unacceptable, considering what we spent on this draft, if you ask me.

 

Like I said earlier, if we don't make some sort of splashy international signing between now and the end of the year, I'm going to seriously start to question Ricketts' motives. I really hope someone takes him to task on the lack of spending in the single area where we could have helped the future of this organization this season. There was money available from trading Lilly and Theriot(and even Fontenot for that matter) and there was money supposedly available for us to be buyers at the deadline, if we were in contention as well. What happened to this money? Where was it spent? And I'm not going to buy the fact that this was a weak draft class, because of what the Red Sox, Pirates, and a few other teams did with their picks as well.

[Wrigley Rat]

I guess I'll be the bad guy. I too am disappointed that we didn't sign all of those guys, but...

(1) Just because there was money available from trades (Lilly, Theriot, Fontenot) and potential late season pick-ups (that we didn't need) doesn't mean that money needs to be spent now. Maybe that's budgeted for a free agent 1B or SP.

(2) If you make a habit out of signing everyone for whatever they demand, agents see that trend and demand ridiculous salaries. I would prefer not to sign completely unproven players for 7 figures, expect for my first rounder(s). And the Cubs have not had the best of luck with those guys in the past (Chris Huseby, etc.).

(3) At my count, we signed 29 out of our 50 draft picks which is slightly higher than usual. As much as I would prefer quality over quantity I do realize that we cannot sign every prospect that fell down the draft board. I'm just happy we got Wells, Rhoderick, Harman, and Smith before the deadline!

[Wrigley Rat]

So do any of these guys fit into a Top 30 Cubs Prospect List? I would imagine that Wells might be somewhere in there.

[Illini Iceman]

It is also possible that some of these guys didn't want to sign because either they really wanted to go to college or they think they can improve their stock for next year and get drafted higher for even more money than they could get as an overslot this year. For all we know the Cubs made strong overslot offers to a few of these draft picks and they just chose not to sign for their own reasons.

[Guest]

It is also possible that some of these guys didn't want to sign because either they really wanted to go to college or they think they can improve their stock for next year and get drafted higher for even more money than they could get as an overslot this year. For all we know the Cubs made strong overslot offers to a few of these draft picks and they just chose not to sign for their own reasons.

 

Yeah, it sounds like they misjudged DeJesus's interest in college. Pinckard has the talent to have gone much higher and the Cubs seemed to show less interest him (he didn't show well in the summer?) so it makes sense that he was likely to return for his junior year. Bryan Harper had a solid commitment to South Carolina and was supposedly unlikely to sign with any team besides Washington. Stites sounded like he had outlandish demands a la Alex Wilson a few years ago.

 

To me, this was more of an indictment of the quality of the draft (as Wrigley Rat said). I didn't want them to overpay for the sake of overpaying. That's why I wasn't disappointed (outside of Pinckard and maybe Crum). You need to draft the guys who deserve it (a la Boston, Toronto, Pittsburgh, etc.). The odds of a super slot succeeding is already low, but when you super slot obscure guys like Chris Huseby and Logan Watkins who are not on most teams' radars, the success rate will probably be lower.

 

I didn't believe Ricketts when he said they'd spend on the farm. I don't think they'll spend on IFAs. They have already spent more on a big ticket Latin guy than they have in recent years. They have spent in Asia; hopefully they won't reduce Steve Wilson's budget.

[Guest]

So do any of these guys fit into a Top 30 Cubs Prospect List? I would imagine that Wells might be somewhere in there.

 

Yeah, Wells for sure. Harman probably got overslot money but he'll have to prove himself at a few levels before he gets anywhere near a top 30 list given his stuff. I know nothing about the Candian kid but I imagine he's very raw.

[Guest]

It sounds like Ben Wells got a big league deal (though I want to see independent confirmation from BA because local newspapers have shown they can sometimes be clueless on the intricacies of the MLB draft):

 

But it also includes an unusual provision that guarantees that in 2013, Wells will be included on the Cubs' 40-man roster. That means he'll go to spring training with the Major League club that spring with a chance to make the 25-man roster.

 

http://www.bryantdaily.com/post/Bryants-Wells-signs-contract-with-Cubs.aspx

 

Would be ridiculous to give a 3rd round value an MLB deal. You'd think 100,000 extra would have been a wiser investment than a big league deal for a HS kid.

[CubColtPacer]

It sounds like Ben Wells got a big league deal (though I want to see independent confirmation from BA because local newspapers have shown they can sometimes be clueless on the intricacies of the MLB draft):

 

But it also includes an unusual provision that guarantees that in 2013, Wells will be included on the Cubs' 40-man roster. That means he'll go to spring training with the Major League club that spring with a chance to make the 25-man roster.

 

http://www.bryantdaily.com/post/Bryants-Wells-signs-contract-with-Cubs.aspx

 

Would be ridiculous to give a 3rd round value an MLB deal. You'd think 100,000 extra would have been a wiser investment than a big league deal for a HS kid.

 

Wouldn't a big league deal put him on the 40 man roster right now? It just says that he would get put on the 40 man 2 years from now. I'm not sure how you guarantee that in a minor league contract but from my limited understanding that would point away from it being a big league deal.

[Guest]

Oh you're right. Still very odd. I don't like big league deals unless they are moderately advanced college guys or top 10 pick HS kids.