The Rays announced they’ve come to terms with first-round draft choice Carson Williams. An infielder from a California high school, Williams will receive a $2.3475MM signing bonus, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com (Twitter link). That’s a touch below the $2.4939MM slot value that accompanies the 28th overall selection.
A UC-Berkeley commit, Williams drew some disparate opinions from public evaluators. While Baseball America and FanGraphs each slotted the right-handed hitting shortstop among their top 40 prospects pre-draft, Keith Law of the Athletic placed him 101st. Williams has a chance to be a power-hitting shortstop, but it seems there’s some divisiveness regarding the consistency of his hit tool.
Tampa Bay has now wrapped up deals with both of their Day One picks. The Rays signed Competitive Balance Round A selection Cooper Kinney last night.
I’m going to trust the Rays judgement on this. High schoolers are such a lotto pick.
People need to realize the rays don’t actually draft that well, especially at the top and high school players. Blake Snell is the last 1st rounder of note to hit. In 2010 and 2011 they had 12 or 14 total 1st round picks and hit with only Snell. Their most productive draftee is 31st round pick Kevin Kiermaier (Junior College) next are likely Ryne Stanek and Shane McClanahan. If you look at the Longoria, Moore, Hellickson deals they didn’t do that well. But they deal in volume. They hit enough in trades and the international market to cover for their drafting and they do an amazing job hyping their trade bait.
It amazes me how many shortstops are signed by teams with an abundance of shortstops already in their system. In addition to the draft, a majority of the highest paid IFA’s from this last class were shortstops as well. One team signed (4) IFA shortstops to over $400K bonuses each! I guess the think if they can handle shortstop, they can handle any other position outside of catcher.
Being a shortstop as an amatuer is one way to maximize your value, and it’s also a position where at that level you often tend to put the best athlete. Any current shortcomings are glossed over by sheer talent. Ages 18-23 shows a huge amount of physical growth in people. Some grow out of the position…some don’t. But it’s easier to go from SS to other positions physically…than the other way around. A lot of things in play between 18-23 that are beyond talent. It’s amazing the difference I’ll notice between the same player with 5 years maturity. It’s boy to man.
Rays drafted Ford Proctor as an infielder he’s catching at AA.
Kid that’s the only time you will see money from TB!