MONDAY: Barnum has agreed to a $950K bonus, reports Keeley. The contract will become official once he passes his physical.
SUNDAY: The White Sox will sign supplementary first round pick Keon Barnum pending a physical on Monday, reports Laura Keeley of the Tampa Times. Barnum, a high school first baseman out of Tampa, will forego his scholarship to the University of Miami to join the White Sox organization after being selected 48th overall.
The White Sox were close to reaching an agreement with Barnum on draft night, according to Chicago's director of amateur scouting Doug Laumann. The recommended bonus for the selection is $1.05MM.
Mike Axisa contributed to this post.
Great pick by Chicago here. He can be in the big by ’15! What a steal by a savvy draft team strategy. However, the biggest steal of the entire draft was Courtney Hawkins! I’m dumbfounded that he was sitting there at 13 for the White Sox! Kenny Williams had to have fallen out of his chair in a joyous seizure. This guy has guaranteed perennial all-star potential written all over him! The White Sox have quickly movedthemselves out of the worst farm system spot, folks. Just these two alone are cornerstone future builders. If they also nab Soler, the White Sox easily take the cake as having the best draft (Soler wouldn’t count, but you get the idea) this year. A complete 180 of their crappy farm system.
I didn’t think this was a good pick at all when you had Matt Smoral on the board They probably could have got Keon with a 2nd or 3rd round pick. After nabbing Hawkins, getting Smoral and Chris Beck(round 2) would have been huge. And Hawkins is no guarantee…no prospect is. They still have a pretty crappy farm system and the rest of their draft this year after Hawkins and Beck wasn’t that inspiring….and I’m a Sox fan.
I could be wrong, but from what I’ve read they didnt go after Smoral because he would have demanded too high of a signing bonus. After Hawkins fell to them, they knew he would demand a large chunk of what had been allotted for them, so they were put in a position where they needed to select a guy who would sign for under the recommended bonus.
I agree with you. Sox hate H.S. pitchers. Too risky. Keon will be a stud. Beck will fill a 2 or 3 spot in rotation. Viciedo – LF – Mitchell – CF – Hawkins -RF – Barnum – 1B – Beckham, Alexi, Morel – SP Sale, Beck, Danks, Castro, Molina. Closer – Reed. What a awful farm system.
I don’t know about a complete 180… 2 prospects does not a farm system make. And as for Soler, I’d LOVE it if the Sox got him, but the chances of that happening aren’t looking great. Unless they are quietly moving on him after losing out on Cespedes and Concepcion (I really wanted them to get Concepcion… imagine a rotation 3-4 years down the road headlined by Sale, Concepcion, and Molina… whew). But honestly, they need catching and infield prospects (and as always, pitching) more than they need outfielders. But Soler would of course be nice to have.
You meant Conception, right?
I remember seeing it spelled with 3 C’s, but I could be mistaken
Wait Conception is a player?
Uh, yeah lol. Highly regarded SP prospect from Cuba, signed by the Cubs earlier this year. And it is in fact spelled Concepcion.
Let’s face it fans, Major League Baseball has come to realize that the way to survive the present situation with the decline in attendance & poor economic times, of the country,is to restructure the way they do business.Within the next decade,you’ll see a complete reversal in the way they conduct their approach to stay afloat & still turn a profit!