The Angels and Braves each agreed to terms with their first-round draftees this afternoon. One other notable signing from this afternoon:
- The Rays agreed to terms with Competitive Balance Round A selection Adrian Santana, reports Carlos Collazo of Baseball America (Twitter link). The 31st overall pick receives a $2.00295MM bonus that checks in a bit shy of the pick’s $2.67MM slot value. A high school infielder from South Florida, Santana ranked 38th on the pre-draft rankings at MLB Pipeline and 39th at BA. The switch-hitter draws praise for his speed and advanced defense at shortstop but comes with questions about the offensive impact present in a 5’11” frame. He had been committed to the University of Miami.
> $2.00295MM
$2,002,950.
That’s such an odd number for a contract total. How do they haggle over or decide on these totals?
Team: “$900!”
Agent: “$975.”
Team: “$925!”
Agent: “$960”
Team: “$940!”
Agent: “$955?”
Team: “$945!”
…. zzz …
???
1 for you, 1 for me. It’s a bowl of peanuts.
Funniest thing I have seen all month
“… but comes with questions about the offensive impact present in a 5’11” frame …”
And this boys and girls is why teams make stupid choices based on assumptions.
“a bit shy” is an understatement. It’s 25% under slot.
From my understanding, after visiting batterypower, and their excellent Braves draft coverage they’ve basically signed almost all of their picks already…
All they have left to sign is their 11th, 12th, and 17th Roind picks, and by all accounts those picks are expected to sign fairly soon as well…
The Braves didn’t go after a ton of high upside guys, that would require then to go overslot, but they got a few overslot interesting names, and I’m definitely intrigued to see how this draft turns out.
Personally, I think they got quite a few guys that possess some very strong carrying tools, and I am thinking they feel like somethings you cannot teach, like a mixture of 80 grade speed and big power from a prep kid, and then a 6’8″ prep righty they’ll be able work with. Also, the Braves took alot of hitters that have advanced approaches at the plate, big walk totals, and yet also big hit tools.
Even if some of these talented draftees seemingly do not possess the most “in-game” power, I feel like with some mechanical adjustments and after being put in a professional setting, the Braves also feel they can add some power to these young men’ game, and very well could be the difference between them just never really making after AA and/or contributing to the big league squad..
Also, with some of their draftees advanced approaches to hitting and pitching I feel like it’ll allow them to climb through their system fairly quickly if the Braves feel they’re ultimately lacking some depth in High A and Double A…