2017 Actual MLB Draft Day(s) Thread

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Alex Lange will start tomorrow for LSU at the College World Series. The game will be on ESPN.

[davell]

My delusions of grandeur having Little and/or Lange signing for a bit under slot are gone. Michael Rooker just got slot from the Twins at 1.935, for pick 35. Didn't expect that out of a 4th year junior, not to mention, I thought he was getting taken in the 30's BECAUSE he'd come cheaper.

[davell]

https://twitter.com/Savermetrics/status/875826294499328000

[jersey cubs fan]

https://twitter.com/Savermetrics/status/875826294499328000

everybody loves ramsey?

[Hrubes20]

Alex Lange will start tomorrow for LSU at the College World Series. The game will be on ESPN.

 

Here's hoping he develops a stomach bug tonight and can't pitch over the weekend, and that LSU loses out. I HATE that drafted players are still potentially subject to the whims of a college coach.

[toonsterwu]

My delusions of grandeur having Little and/or Lange signing for a bit under slot are gone. Michael Rooker just got slot from the Twins at 1.935, for pick 35. Didn't expect that out of a 4th year junior, not to mention, I thought he was getting taken in the 30's BECAUSE he'd come cheaper.

 

Little has some bargaining leverage. I could still see Lange a touch under as he's made no secret he's gone, but my guess is it comes in around slot.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Lange's given up 3 and is in the third. When I've been watching, he's working 91-94 but I've mostly been watching the Cubs game.

[cubsclapp]

I went back and watched it after the Cubs game. He was sitting 91 most of the game... everything builds off his curveball, which really is filthy. Sharp break, just drops right off the table.

 

It's easy to see how there are questions about him holding up as a starter. Herky jerky and everything looks near max effort, and is mainly a two-pitch pitcher but his changeup is supposed to be coming along. But I also then wonder how much velocity he can really add as a reliever with how much effort he's already putting into his pitches as a starter.

 

Anyway, that curveball alone can make him useful (think Justin Grimm), and he definitely competes. Interesting prospect for sure.

[davell]

The Braves tried an extremely interesting draft strategy this year. Now, they've got a ridiculous amount of depth in their system and this likely played into it somewhat. But still, its extremely interesting.....

 

Forget the rankings of the players too. Forget the amounts each individual got actually for a second.....The Braves had a draft budget this year of 9,881,200. They spent 9,945,000 on THREE players.

 

They gave Kyle Wright 7,000,000 at pick 5. Which is 1,292,700 over the slot of that pick. In the second round, they took OF Drew Waters and actually SAVED money at that spot somehow. Slot on that pick was 1,674,600. Waters received 1,500,000. So, a savings of 174,600 on the pick.(for a guy that I honestly figured would get 2M+) Then, in the 3rd, they take a HS RHP Freddie Tarnok(ranked 170 by BA, unranked by MLB) and give him 1,445,000. Slot is 709,000, so they went over by 736,000 on the pick.....

 

The rankings, the perceived value, that's not the real story here. They took an unknown JC guy in the 4th and senior signs in 5-10. They've got 400,000 or so to sign their 4-10th round picks.

 

I love this strategy. You're not likely to get major leaguers out of those rounds anyway. Putting all your money on just a few guys seems like a bad idea in some ways, but you've got rounds 11-40 to spend up to 125,000 on guys again.....

 

In our case, let's assume we still took Little and Lange at 27 and 30. Still took Estrada too, since he's easily getting the 3rd highest bonus in our class....

 

I'd trade the rest of our class, Abbott, Thompson, Uelman, Velazquez, Thomas, Filiere, and the two senior signs for one of Enlow or Allen.

 

So, would you rather spread it out, as we did, or sacrifice the depth for one extra top 30ish player? For me, I'd rather grab the potential impact guy. Obviously, the draft board has to set up, and this is clearly revisionist....But, I'd love to take this type of shot at some point over the next few years.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I went back and watched it after the Cubs game. He was sitting 91 most of the game... everything builds off his curveball, which really is filthy. Sharp break, just drops right off the table.

 

It's easy to see how there are questions about him holding up as a starter. Herky jerky and everything looks near max effort, and is mainly a two-pitch pitcher but his changeup is supposed to be coming along. But I also then wonder how much velocity he can really add as a reliever with how much effort he's already putting into his pitches as a starter.

 

Anyway, that curveball alone can make him useful (think Justin Grimm), and he definitely competes. Interesting prospect for sure.

 

I know he doesn't have the consistent mid-90s velocity from his freshman year but I'm hoping he'll be more 92-94 next season. That's what he started this season at.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/savermetrics/status/876635461585821696[/tweet]

[CubsWin]

The Braves tried an extremely interesting draft strategy this year. Now, they've got a ridiculous amount of depth in their system and this likely played into it somewhat. But still, its extremely interesting.....

 

Forget the rankings of the players too. Forget the amounts each individual got actually for a second.....The Braves had a draft budget this year of 9,881,200. They spent 9,945,000 on THREE players.

 

They gave Kyle Wright 7,000,000 at pick 5. Which is 1,292,700 over the slot of that pick. In the second round, they took OF Drew Waters and actually SAVED money at that spot somehow. Slot on that pick was 1,674,600. Waters received 1,500,000. So, a savings of 174,600 on the pick.(for a guy that I honestly figured would get 2M+) Then, in the 3rd, they take a HS RHP Freddie Tarnok(ranked 170 by BA, unranked by MLB) and give him 1,445,000. Slot is 709,000, so they went over by 736,000 on the pick.....

 

The rankings, the perceived value, that's not the real story here. They took an unknown JC guy in the 4th and senior signs in 5-10. They've got 400,000 or so to sign their 4-10th round picks.

 

I love this strategy. You're not likely to get major leaguers out of those rounds anyway. Putting all your money on just a few guys seems like a bad idea in some ways, but you've got rounds 11-40 to spend up to 125,000 on guys again.....

 

In our case, let's assume we still took Little and Lange at 27 and 30. Still took Estrada too, since he's easily getting the 3rd highest bonus in our class....

 

I'd trade the rest of our class, Abbott, Thompson, Uelman, Velazquez, Thomas, Filiere, and the two senior signs for one of Enlow or Allen.

 

So, would you rather spread it out, as we did, or sacrifice the depth for one extra top 30ish player? For me, I'd rather grab the potential impact guy. Obviously, the draft board has to set up, and this is clearly revisionist....But, I'd love to take this type of shot at some point over the next few years.

Enlow or Allen for me, easily. But then, I'm an upside guy. This FO sure seems to like to minimize and spread the risk. I mean, it's smart and I get it, but... as a fan it's boring. I want guys I can get excited about.

 

Now, the Cubs scouting and development staffs have been pretty good. Maybe they think they can have their cake and eat it, too (so to speak). They've had some success developing a 12th round pick (Trevor Clifton) and a 9th round pick (Charcer Burks) into top 10-ish prospects. In addition, they've had guys like 16th rounder Jason Vosler, 11th rounder Michael Rucker, 10th rounder Dakota Mekkes, 7th rounder Craig Brooks, 14th rounder Chesny Young, 18th rounder David Bote and even 10th rounder Ryan Williams (before his shoulder fell off) all improve their stock into guys worth watching.

 

So maybe their strategy is working. Get as many guys with a decent floor and the right make up and let their instructors go to work on them. The only thing that bothers me is the lack of ceiling for prospects like that. Especially TOR ceiling which many think Enlow has. At this stage and with the Cubs major league team being in the position it's in, I was really hoping they'd take a chance on an upside starter in the 2nd round especially since they went with college arms with their two first rounders.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Some overslot prep arms who just signed: Jacob Heatherly signs for $1,047,500. Michael Mercado signed for $2,132,400.

[Hrubes20]

Some overslot prep arms who just signed: Jacob Heatherly signs for $1,047,500. Michael Mercado signed for $2,132,400.

 

Estrada should be around the Heatherly range, if not a little lower. Heatherly was more highly touted than Estrada by pretty much everyone.

[CubsWin]

Sounds like Meredith is the Estrada back up plan, to me. It'd be awesome, if you could get him AND Estrada somehow obviously.

FWIW, according to a blog called The Clemson Insider, Meredith has confirmed he will attend Clemson. CCDT now has him marked in orange. Nothing set in stone yet obviously.

 

That leaves Prep RHP Hunter Ruth as the highest BA ranked prospect (135) yet to communicate his intentions to sign. Perhaps he's the back up plan to Estrada.

[davell]

Sounds like Meredith is the Estrada back up plan, to me. It'd be awesome, if you could get him AND Estrada somehow obviously.

FWIW, according to a blog called The Clemson Insider, Meredith has confirmed he will attend Clemson. CCDT now has him marked in orange. Nothing set in stone yet obviously.

 

That leaves Prep RHP Hunter Ruth as the highest BA ranked prospect (135) yet to communicate his intentions to sign. Perhaps he's the back up plan to Estrada.

 

Honestly, it probably means Estrada has agreed to a number. But, I remember a quote from Meredith saying if the Cubs met his number on the last day, he'd drop what he's doing and sign. No idea how often kids have enrolled and then went pro a few weeks later.....But, I could see it happening here.

 

As for Ruth, I really liked him going into the draft. Perhaps there's a shot he'd rather rehab with a professional team than thru his college? Very wishful thinking on my end, because you'd figure he'd have been an early round pick, if that was the case.....But yeah, he definitely COULD be the Estrada backup plan. I'd be a bit surprised though if his number isn't higher than Meredith's though.

 

In the end, I'm just wanting to see some numbers on our guys, so we can get a slightly better idea of what's going to happen.

[CubsWin]

Sounds like Meredith is the Estrada back up plan, to me. It'd be awesome, if you could get him AND Estrada somehow obviously.

FWIW, according to a blog called The Clemson Insider, Meredith has confirmed he will attend Clemson. CCDT now has him marked in orange. Nothing set in stone yet obviously.

 

That leaves Prep RHP Hunter Ruth as the highest BA ranked prospect (135) yet to communicate his intentions to sign. Perhaps he's the back up plan to Estrada.

 

Honestly, it probably means Estrada has agreed to a number. But, I remember a quote from Meredith saying if the Cubs met his number on the last day, he'd drop what he's doing and sign. No idea how often kids have enrolled and then went pro a few weeks later.....But, I could see it happening here.

 

As for Ruth, I really liked him going into the draft. Perhaps there's a shot he'd rather rehab with a professional team than thru his college? Very wishful thinking on my end, because you'd figure he'd have been an early round pick, if that was the case.....But yeah, he definitely COULD be the Estrada backup plan. I'd be a bit surprised though if his number isn't higher than Meredith's though.

 

In the end, I'm just wanting to see some numbers on our guys, so we can get a slightly better idea of what's going to happen.

Me too. I read the same quotes about Meredith, so it might mean that the Cubs came to an agreement with Estrada. Let's hope so. It's highly unlikely the Cubs wouldn't have taken him that high without knowing what it would take to sign him and that they'd be able to meet it. They do so with all their top 10 picks, calling a few rounds before they plan on taking a guy and double checking he'll still sign for the amount discussed. They (and all other teams) have it all planned out. I'm not too concerned about not signing Estrada, but, like you, I'm holding out hope they can sign as many of the junior college and prep guys as possible.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

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[davell]

Love that we saved a bit on Little. Wasn't really expecting that.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

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Nice. $173,300 savings.

[craig]

I thought they'd save a little more, was guessing $2.0 flat. Oh well.

 

On Meredith, he can easily back off of Clemsen in the event Estrada doesn't want to sign.

 

But I think this will be pretty standard, like it is every year under the new CBA. You get your first ten, you get most of your college picks after that, and you don't sign anybody 20-or-younger taken after round 20. It's just the way it is.

 

And I don't want to, really; because that would mean Estrada was a screwup and wasn't going to sign.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Sam Carlson got $2 million. I think the Cubs could've pulled that off if he had fallen to their 2nd round pick.

[Hrubes20]

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Nice. $173,300 savings.

 

$291,965 with 5% overage.

 

Sam Carlson got $2 million. I think the Cubs could've pulled that off if he had fallen to their 2nd round pick.

 

I really don't like Carlson's delivery. You could pound a nail with his head whack.

[CubsWin]

 

If anyone has access or can find the scouts' takes, that would be cool.

The "scouts take" on Cubs picks from The Athletic (really nothing new):

 

With their second-round pick, the Cubs selected righty Cory Abbott out of Loyola Marymount in California. Scouts say the righty has a fastball that sits in the low 90s, but has enough movement to generate a significant amount of groundballs. His curve also is a groundball-inducer, but he has a quite a bit of a back stab, which leads to a lack of deception. His upside is a strike-thrower who generates a lot of grounders and works in the back of a rotation.

 

According to scouts, Estrada’s stuff slid back a bit after a strong summer as his velocity dipped and the results did as well. However, when he’s at his best, Estrada has both stuff and feel to pitch, with a solid changeup to complement a fastball that can touch the mid-90s.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

If anyone has access or can find the scouts' takes, that would be cool.

The "scouts take" on Cubs picks from The Athletic (really nothing new):

 

With their second-round pick, the Cubs selected righty Cory Abbott out of Loyola Marymount in California. Scouts say the righty has a fastball that sits in the low 90s, but has enough movement to generate a significant amount of groundballs. His curve also is a groundball-inducer, but he has a quite a bit of a back stab, which leads to a lack of deception. His upside is a strike-thrower who generates a lot of grounders and works in the back of a rotation.

 

According to scouts, Estrada’s stuff slid back a bit after a strong summer as his velocity dipped and the results did as well. However, when he’s at his best, Estrada has both stuff and feel to pitch, with a solid changeup to complement a fastball that can touch the mid-90s.

 

Weird to reference a curve when Abbott's big out pitch is his slider (which he famously learned by watching video of Noah Syndergaard).