2021 MLB Actual Draft Day(s) Thread

[toonsterwu]

If there's a discussion elsewhere and I missed it, sorry.

 

That said, this Rocker situation irks me. No, it has nothing to do with the Cubs.

 

Barring a late turn of events, it sounds like Rocker's basically being given no options. The Mets aren't giving obligated to give him any offer, since he skipped league medicals/MRI.

 

He's losing leverage, risking arm health from extra innings (to go along with the fact that he might have elbow issues) . Their side seems to argue it's not that serious and have other orthopedists backing it up. I get the Mets concern. His advisors probably made the wrong decision to have him skip the league MRI, which would've forced the Mets to offer something to be eligible for the compensation pick.

 

I don't know what the answer is. What I do think is that, with the draft now at 20 rounds, instituting a trade system becomes more reasonable. Obviously, this was a post-draft flare up. It would force a rethinking of the pool system in some ways, but I wonder if there's a way to institute some draft-rights trade system. None of this works for the player. The easiest way to have avoided this sticky issue for any team drafting would be to make mandatory league physicals/medicals/MRI's, but I don't know how MLB would do that.

[CubinNY]

If there's a discussion elsewhere and I missed it, sorry.

 

That said, this Rocker situation irks me. No, it has nothing to do with the Cubs.

 

Barring a late turn of events, it sounds like Rocker's basically being given no options. The Mets aren't giving obligated to give him any offer, since he skipped league medicals/MRI.

 

He's losing leverage, risking arm health from extra innings (to go along with the fact that he might have elbow issues) . Their side seems to argue it's not that serious and have other orthopedists backing it up. I get the Mets concern. His advisors probably made the wrong decision to have him skip the league MRI, which would've forced the Mets to offer something to be eligible for the compensation pick.

 

I don't know what the answer is. What I do think is that, with the draft now at 20 rounds, instituting a trade system becomes more reasonable. Obviously, this was a post-draft flare up. It would force a rethinking of the pool system in some ways, but I wonder if there's a way to institute some draft-rights trade system. None of this works for the player. The easiest way to have avoided this sticky issue for any team drafting would be to make mandatory league physicals/medicals/MRI's, but I don't know how MLB would do that.

Could his fall be due to clubs thinking there was something up with his arm? I don't know enough about the draft to have a strong opinion, but I don't like that the Mets will get the 10th pick back in next year's draft when they probably had an idea that something wasn't right or he wouldn't have been there. Maybe the Mets lowballed him with that knowledge so it was a low risk for them. Whatever, it's fishy.

[toonsterwu]

I doubt his fall had anything to do with that. His peak was arguably his freshman year. He was still a very, very good pitcher that flashed elite stuff at times, but the consistency wasn't there for a variety of factors. You can almost make a case that Rocker's ceiling is still higher than Leiter, but Leiter's ceiling is close and his floor is higher. I mean, pre-draft, the talk was maybe around the 6th pick area, so it's not a major fall.

 

Mets also offered him an over-slot 6 million deal, contingent upon passing medicals. Something flared up. I don't begrudge the Mets for being concerned with whatever their doctors told them. That said, this situation is definitely not in Rocker's favor. He either goes back to Vanderbilt or goes the Indy League route, and tries the draft in another year. Thing is, he loses leverage, he adds innings, and if he truly has some sort of issue, there's some added health risk. Certainly, part of this is on his advisors. I get it - you have a top pick, you don't want his medicals passed around (or something along those lines). If he had done the league MRI, I think the Mets would have had to offer him 40% of slot, which is roughly 1.9 million, roughly early 2nd round pick value.

 

I'm not sure what the answer is, but none of this looks good, IMO. Obviously, I think most people will gloss over and not care about it, and in the grander scale of things, it's not an issue that's going to keep me up at night. It's just a bad situation.

 

Also, I think the compensation pick system would give the Mets the 11th pick.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

While Rocker didn’t do the league’s MRI, Boras forwarded independent medicals to the league before the draft (shoulder and elbow MRIs). He does this for all his clients.

[toonsterwu]

I thought there was a report that said the Mets didn't get one pre--draft? Either way, that report, however valuable, is irrelevant relative to league rules on the compensation pick.

 

The league MRI aspect might not really matter in that Boras likely would've taken him another route instead of signing for 1.9 or so, but I don't like the fact that the player had no choice in this.

[We Got The Whole 9]

I saw somebody claiming to have some inside knowledge on the matter say that the MRI the Mets received was unreadable, there was so much scar tissue in there, and that he received over a dozen cortisone and other inflammation-suppressing shots over his time at Vanderbilt.

[UMFan83]

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/college/gcu/2021/08/02/alhambra-ace-daniel-avitia-not-signing-cubs-pitch-gcu/5458579001/

 

Grand Canyon University's pitching staff got a big boost with recent Phoenix Alhambra High School ace Daniel Avitia deciding not to sign with the Chicago Cubs and, instead, honoring his letter of intent to the NCAA Division I school.

 

Avitia, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, pitched the Lions to the 6A championship game in May tossing a complete-game, no-hitter against Sunnyslope and beating nationally ranked Hamilton 3-2 in the playoffs.

 

He was selected by the Cubs in the 19th round of the 20-round Major League Baseball draft in July.

 

"Mostly, they didn't give me the money I wanted," said Avitia, who was asking for $300,000. "The best position for me is to go to GCU and get in the top rounds (after his junior season)."

 

Avitia said that the Cubs wouldn't go any higher than $125,000 in negotiations.

[Tim]

With the other commitments, I think $130k would have been the highest we could go (iirc).

[SouthernmostCubFan]

With the other commitments, I think $130k would have been the highest we could go (iirc).

 

$130K and change. Hambley, the pick before Avitia, took a $200K offer so that saved them some money for Triantos.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Pretty good read about the creative deal the Cubs made with their 20th round pick:

[craig]

Thanks Cal and Greg. Very interesting. The distinction between college-tuition-now versus college-tuition-assistance *after* a career fails is interesting.

 

I admit I'm a little disappointed in one way. I'd thought maybe he's skip the 3rd quarter each year, and effectively miss almost none of the minor-league spring-training=plus-season.

 

Cubs seem fairly serious about the process and the prospect. Pretty cool. I love the uniqueness and creativity. Obviously the odds are remote. But it would be such a cool story if he worked out, and developed into a good big-leaguer years down the road.

[CoolHandLuke]

Awesome story.

 

Blake Hawksworth, apparently one of his pitching coaches, got a shout out. Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time.

 

Had him in my minor league system in a Diamond Mind sim league way back when.