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Astros To Sign A.J. Reed

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TODAY: Reed will receive the full slot value of $1.35MM, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com.

YESTERDAY: The Astros have agreed to terms with second-round choice A.J. Reed, reports Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston (via Twitter). Reed says that he will formally sign on Wednesday.

Though the terms of the bonus were not disclosed, Reed — a junior first baseman from the University of Kentucky — was chosen with the 42nd overall pick, which comes with a $1.35MM slot value (via Baseball America). That was precisely where he should have been taken, according to the talent rankings of ESPN.com’s Keith Law (who placed him at 42nd overall) and Baseball America (41st).

MLB.com was even more bullish on Reed, saying that he offers a rare combination of consistent contact and real pop at the plate. He is regarded as a strong defender, though he lacks the foot speed to play off of first. Reed is also an accomplished collegiate pitcher, but profiles to carry much more value off the mound.

Draft Signings: Mader, Strahan, LaValley, Johnson

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Here are today’s draft signings, with a tip of the hat to Baseball America for providing the assigned bonus values for every pick in the first 10 rounds…

  • Marlins supplemental third-round choice Michael Mader has agreed to sign for the slot bonus of $499.5K (plus a college scholarship), tweets Cotillo. The JuCo lefty, who landed at 185th on Baseball America’s list of the draft’s top prospects and 186th on MLB.com’s version, had been ticketed to throw for FSU.
  • The Reds have announced the signing of thirteen picks, including third-rounder Wyatt Strahan and fourth-rounder Gavin LaValley, tweets Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. That pair were taken with choices carrying $558.7K and $411.9K slot values, respectively, though signing terms are not yet known. Strahan, a junior righty from USC, cracked the top 100 prospects in the view of Baseball America. LaValley, a Canadian high-school first bagger, landed at 118th on MLB.com’s ranking.
  • High school righty Cobi Johnson, the 71st overall prospect in the draft according to Baseball America, has tweeted that he will honor his commitment to Florida State rather than agreeing to terms with the Padres. Johnson was obviously viewed as a hard-sign player, as San Diego chose him in the 35th round (seven rounds after taking Jonny Manziel).
  • J.D. Davis, the first player taken on the draft’s second day (75th overall), has agreed to an at-slot, $758.6K bonus with the Astros, reports Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. A two-way player for Cal State-Fullerton, Davis will start his career at third base for the Houston organization.
  • The Brewers have agreed to terms with their third round selection, right-hander Cy Sneed, MLB Daily Dish’s Chris Cotillo tweets.  Contract details aren’t known, though the slot price for the 85th overall pick is $641.8K.
  • The Brewers signed their sixth-rounder, high school right-hander David Burkhalter, Tabby Soignier of the Monroe News Star reports.  Burkhalter’s bonus was worth $200K, a below-slot signing for Milwaukee given that the 176th overall pick has a $251.9K assigned value.
  • White Sox tenth-rounder Jake Jarvis confirmed via his Twitter account that he had signed with the club.  MLB.com’s Joe Popely notes that there was a perception that Jarvis was possibly unsignable due to the high school second baseman’s commitment to Texas A&M.  Terms of Jarvis’ deal are unknown, though the 288th overall pick has a $141.3K slot value.

Draft Signings: Twins, Royals, Rangers, D’Backs, Cubs

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Here’s a roundup of today’s key news regarding signings from the draft.

  • The Twins have agreed to a slightly below-slot bonus with 9th rounder Max Murphy, tweets Cotillo. The Bradley outfielder will get $130K, just over $20K below his slot amount.
  • A few more drafted players have agreed to terms with the Royals, per Pete Grathoff of the Kansas City Star (Twitter link), though bonus amounts have not yet been reported. High school shortstop Dawon Burt (fourth round; $420K slot) and Texas A&M righty Corey Ray (fifth round; $314K slot) are both in agreement, joining sixth-rounder Logan Moon (see below).
  • The Rangers have agreed to terms with fourth-rounder Brett Martin on a $475K deal, MLB.com’s Jim Callis tweets. The deal comes in $67K above the $408K bonus pool value of the pick. The lefty Martin hails from a Tennessee junior college.
  • The Rangers have also agreed to terms with tenth-rounder and Abilene Christian catcher Seth Spivey for $10K, tweets MLB Daily Dish’s Chris Cotillo. The signing would allow the Rangers to save about $128K against their bonus pool, which would appear to help them balance their budget after the Martin signing is complete.
  • The Diamondbacks have signed third-rounder Matt Railey, the outfielder himself tweets. Railey, a Florida high-schooler, had a commitment to Florida State. There is no immediate word on his bonus, but the pool value of the pick is $603K.
  • The Cubs have agreed to terms with third-rounder and Virginia Tech catcher Mark Zagunis for $615K, Cotillo tweets. The deal saves the Cubs about $100K against the draft pool value of the pick.
  • The Astros have agreed to terms with eighth-rounder Bobby Boyd, MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart reports. There is no immediate word on a bonus for the junior outfielder from West Virginia University, but pool value for that pick is around $163K. McTaggart also reports that the Astros have agreed to terms with tenth-rounder Jay Gause, a junior pitcher from Faulkner University. The pool value for Gause’s pick is $142K.
  • Georgia high school lefty Mac Marshall plans to head to LSU rather than going pro, the pitcher himself tweets. MLB.com had ranked Marshall the No. 66 prospect in the draft, but he was not taken until the 21st round by Houston, surely due in large part to teams’ awareness of his reluctance to sign.
  • The Reds have agreed to terms with fifth-rounder Tejay Antone, a tall righty from a Texas community college, at the bonus-pool figure of $308K, Cotillo tweets. Antone had planned to head to Auburn next year if he didn’t end up signing.
  • The Royals have agreed to terms with sixth-round pick Logan Moon, Cotillo tweets. The senior outfielder from Missouri Southern will get less than the bonus pool value of about $235K.

Astros Close To Deal With Brady Aiken

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The Astros are close to a deal with top overall draft pick Brady Aiken, Mark Berman of FOX Houston reports. Aiken’s father Jim says his son will soon travel to Houston to make the deal official.

“I would say we have a verbal agreement in place,” says Jim Aiken. “Next thing is to hammer out the details of the contract and hopefully that’ll be done in the next week or two.”

The pool value of Aiken’s pick is about $7.92MM. There has been some speculation about the possibility that Aiken will take less, which would allow the Astros to spread some of that money to later picks. Aiken, who hails from Cathedral Catholic High School in California,  is committed to UCLA.

Aiken’s stock rose this spring, and he gradually emerged as the top overall talent in the draft. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams noted when the Astros picked Aiken, Aiken already has good velocity for a lefty, and he has the potential to have a plus curveball and changeup to go along with a plus fastball. He also has outstanding command for a high school pitcher.

Quick Hits: Athletics, Phillies, Red Sox, Denorfia

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The Athletics have been successful recently because they excel at finding role players, and because manager Bob Melvin helps keep them happy, Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes in a piece contrasting the A’s with the Yankees and Mets. “(Melvin) has a good feel of the heartbeat of the clubhouse. You can look around and see when a guy is unhappy, and he calls him in the office. The rest of us might not even know he is doing it,” says Nick Punto. The A’s also get lots of mileage out of players acquired from outside their organization, like Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss and Jesse Chavez. Being in a lower-pressure environment may also help the A’s, who managed to keep their GM in place and take the time to build a top team despite not having a winning season from 2007 through 2011. Here are more notes from around the big leagues.

  • The Phillies deny that they make a mistake in including prospect Domingo Santana on a list of potential players to be named in the 2011 Hunter Pence trade with the Astros, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com reports. A story in the Houston Chronicle last week stated that Santana had been placed on the list of potential PTBNLs by accident. “There was no mistake,” says Phillies GM Ruben Amaro. “If someone said that, they are misinformed because it’s absolutely, unequivocally wrong. It’s false.” Then-Astros GM Ed Wade requested that Santana be placed on the list, Amaro says.  Santana, 21, is now a top prospect with the Astros, hitting .292/.368/.485 so far this season with Triple-A Oklahoma City.
  • The biggest problem in the Red Sox’ disappointing season has been its outfield, Tim Britton of the Providence Journal writes. Britton suggests that the team’s decision to allow Jacoby Ellsbury to leave appears defensible, but there weren’t many good backup plans available if Jackie Bradley Jr. struggled, which he has. In addition, Daniel Nava has played poorly, and Shane Victorino has had injury trouble. In hindsight, Britton suggests, the best reasonable move might have been to acquire an outfielder like Chris Denorfia of the Padres in a trade.
  • Denorfia could be a hot name on the trade market this summer, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports predicts (scroll down). Denorfia can play all over the outfield and hit lefties, and he’ll be a free agent after the season. The Padres, meanwhile, have struggled, going 27-34 so far. Denorfia is hitting .265/.313/.368 in 167 plate appearances so far this season, although he’s hit better than that in four straight seasons before this one.

Post-Draft Links: Aiken, Schwarber, Davidson, Verdugo

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The first day of the 2014 draft is complete, and as many expected, the Astros selected high school left-hander Brady Aiken with the No. 1 overall pick. The team is in no hurry to sign Aiken, however, the Houston Chronicle’s Evan Drellich reports (Twitter links). Still,the Astros are understandably excited about the player they drafted. “This is the most advanced high school pitcher I’ve ever seen in my entire career,” says GM Jeff Luhnow. “He has command like I’ve never seen before.”

Here’s more from the draft’s first day…

  • The Cubs turned some heads by selecting Indiana catcher/outfielder Kyle Schwarber with the fourth overall pick, but scouting director Jason McLeod told reporters that Schwarber was No. 2 on the team’s draft board all along. ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers quotes McLeod (on Twitter) as saying that Schwarber trailed only Aiken on their board, though as the Chicago Sun Times’ Gordon Wittenmyer tweets, McLeod did acknowledge that the pick will save them some money. The Cubs are expecting him to sign quickly.
  • Braves top pick Braxton Davidson says he will sign rather than attending UNC, tweets David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Davidson’s slot — No. 32 overall — carries a $1.7054MM value, per Baseball America. I spoke with Davidson as part of MLBTR’s Draft Prospect Q&A series.
  • Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish hears that the Dodgers and No. 62 overall pick Alex Verdugo already have an agreement in place, and the ASU commit will not be attending college (Twitter link). VP of amateur scouting Logan White tells MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick that Verdugo, a two-way prospect, will start as a center fielder and convert to pitching if he doesn’t hit well (Twitter link).
  • MLB.com’s Corey Brock spoke with Padres scouting director Billy Gasparino and got the impression that the team will shift its focus on jump on some arms tomorrow (Twitter link). San Diego drafted a pair of bats today in UNC shortstop Trea Turner and prep outfielder Michael Gettys.

Charlie Wilmoth contributed to this post.

Astros Select Brady Aiken First Overall

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The Astros have officially selected high school left-hander Brady Aiken with the first overall pick in the 2014 draft. Aiken was rated as the top draft prospect on the board by Baseball America, ESPN’s Keith Law and Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis of MLB.com. Other players thought to be in the mix with the first overall selection were North Carolina State left-hander Carlos Rodon, high school right-hander Tyler Kolek, high school shortstop Nick Gordon, high school catcher/outfielder Alex Jackson and Louisiana State right-hander Aaron Nola.

Aiken becomes the first high school left-hander taken in the Top 5 picks since the Orioles selected Adam Loewen fourth overall in 2002, and he’s the first high school pitcher to go 1-1 since the Yankees selected Brien Taylor back in 1991. While those facts illustrate some of the risk and uncertainty with high school pitchers, scouts tend to agree that Aiken is among the best talents — if not the best talent — in this year’s class.

Aiken’s fastball sits in the 92-94 mph range and has touched 97 mph, per Mayo and Callis. BA praises his athleticism — he was his football team’s quarterback earlier in high school — as well as his “fluid delivery with minimal effort” and his ability to command all three of his pitches. Law notes that Aiken’s changeup might be his best pitch, adding that his fastball and curveball give him a chance for three plus pitches when he’s at his best.

Aiken will only further bolster an Astros farm system that has become one of the best in the game over the past few years under GM Jeff Luhnow, scouting director Mike Elias and the rest of the Houston front office. The Astros have selected first overall for three straight years now, with Carlos Correa and Mark Appel being their previous No. 1 overall picks in that stretch. Some of their highly regarded prospects, such as George Springer and Jon Singleton, have graduated to the Majors this season, giving Houston fans hope of a bright future. Aiken and the remainder of Houston’s picks will join a farm system that still includes Correa, Appel, Michael Foltynewicz, Lance McCullers Jr., Delino DeShields Jr., Domingo Santana and many other well-regarded prospects.

The No. 1 overall spot in the draft this year carries an assigned pick value of $7,922,100, per Baseball America. The Astros don’t have to spend the entirety of that sum on Aiken if they can reach a deal with him and his adviser (he is reportedly being advised by Casey Close of Excel Sports Management). However, the team is also free to go over slot should it be necessary, from a negotiation standpoint. As BA’s J.J. Cooper reported in April, the Astros have $13,362,200 to spend on their draft pool this season, and they’re free to use that money as they see fit within the first 10 rounds.

Draft Rumors: Rodon, Marlins, Freeland

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As the draft approaches, we’ll keep tabs on the latest news and rumors right here:

  • Top college arm Carlos Rodon is said to be asking for a bonus of over $6MM, reports Scout.com’s Kiley McDaniel (via Twitter). In McDaniel’s view, that makes Brady Aiken a strong favorite to go first overall to the Astros. The top overall slot comes with an approximately $7.9MM allotment, with the second choice landing at just over $6.8MM.
  • Sitting at number two, the Marlins “appear to be focusing” on Rodon, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. Rodon, who was born in Miami and is of Cuban descent, has been widely tied to the second slot in recent mock drafts. The Fish will not hesitate to add power arms due to the recent injury to Jose Fernandez, reports MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. If we saw a guy who looked like Jose out there again, we’d go right after him,” said VP of scouting Stan Meek. “We want exactly that kind of guy.” Meek said that there was little to take away from Fernandez’s Tommy John procedure, other than the inherent risk in hard throwers: “[W]ith the velocity guys are throwing with today, you just can’t predict who is going to go down.”
  • Evansville southpaw Kyle Freeland has “bad” medicals, a scouting director tells McDaniel (Twitter link). That has led some teams sitting late in the first round to decide to pass on Freeland, says McDaniel, who notes that the Rockies could still grab him with the eighth choice (potentially at a cut rate). In the introduction to its most recent mock draft, Baseball America noted that a clean MRI for Freeland has not cleared up concerns with his elbow for all clubs.
  • Here are some more general draft sources to read through as you warm up for the evening: In a post that ties together all of his draft materials, McDaniel provides a wealth of information, including the latest on the rumored signability situations of various well-regarded prospects. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca cites several industry sources who like the draft’s pitching depth, especially at the high school level, and breaks down the best available players. In a piece for Baseball Prospectus, Kevin Whitaker explores what he calls the “coattail effect”: the tendency of less-touted players to see a bump in their draft stock by playing with higher-rated teammates. Rob Neyer of FOX Sports provides a fascinating oral history of the Cardinals’ productive 2009 draft, including plenty of information from current Astros GM Jeff Luhnow. Dave Cameron of Fangraphs writes that, while the data shows that high school arms are generally riskier than those that have seen time at college, it does not suggest that a prep pitcher should never be taken first overall. Colleague Tony Blengino explains how teams’ draft boards are put together and utilized.

Minor Moves: Rhiner Cruz, Rusty Ryal

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…

  • Astros reliever Rhiner Cruz has been allowed to sign with Japan’s Rakuten Eagles, tweets Ben Badler of Baseball America. The 27-year-old righty had a 2.25 ERA through 20 Triple-A innings this year, and owns a 5.31 ERA with 6.6 K/9 against 4.7 BB/9 through 76 1/3 career MLB frames. He originally came to Houston as the first pick in the 2011 Rule 5 draft.
  • Former big leaguer Rusty Ryal has landed a minor league deal with the Phillies, reports Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish (on Twitter). The 31-year-old hasn’t appeared in the bigs since a 2009-10 stint with the D’Backs but had been hitting well in 125 plate appearances for the independent Atlantic League’s Sugar Land Skeeters. He’s a career .273/.321/.430 hitter in 1166 Triple-A plate appearances.

AL West Notes: Astros Draft, Appel, Harrison, Angels

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While GM Jeff Luhnow and scouting director Mike Elias recognize how much three straight No. 1 overall picks have helped the Astros organization, the duo said in a press conference yesterday (video link) that they’re hopeful they won’t be in that spot again in 2015. Elias discussed the club’s approach to picking first overall: “We enter the year with a pool of players who we deem to be candidates for the pick. It’s usually about seven players long, the list. And we try to hang with those players as long as we can, reasonably, into the spring. We want to get as much info on these guys as possible so that we’re not blindsided if one of them storms up the list at the end, or if one of them might fall off the list for whatever reason.” Luhnow adds that while the first-round picks add huge value, “you really make your money on the draft in the later rounds.”

Here’s more out of the AL West …

  • While it is far too soon to judge last year’s draft results, Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper explains why the Astros’ Mark Appel’s early-career struggles could actually be cause for concern about his true ceiling. Appel, a college hurler taken first overall last year by Houston, has been knocked around in the low minors — putting him in the company of high-end busts. College arms that have gone on to dominate at the big league level, says Cooper, have tended to overpower lower-level competition easily with their combination of stuff and polish. What is most troubling, Cooper says, is that those stats have coincided with scouting reports that paint Appel as more of a mid-rotation arm.
  • Rangers pitcher Matt Harrison underwent disc fusion surgery today, reports Anthony Andro of FOX Sports Southwest (via Twitter). That means, of course, that he will not attempt to rehab and pitch through his back issues. While Harrison sounds determined to have a go at a comeback, so long as it is a viable possibility, success seems far from given at this point.
  • Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes that while the Angels have delayed a tough decision by optioning Jarrett Grube to make room for the returning Josh Hamilton, something has to give soon. By this weekend, the team will need another pitcher, and either C.J. Cron or Grant Green — both of whom have hit very well — is likely to be optioned. Fletcher calls Raul Ibanez the elephant in the room, noting that the veteran DH’s numbers haven’t improved since he’s been platooned. Ibanez’s roster spot was said to be secure as recently as May 19, though he’s batted just .143/.226/.286 since that time and is hitting .147/.259/.272 overall.

Jeff Todd contributed to this post.

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