Wow. Hypothetical: would you rather have Bryant and a wasted Aiken pick, or Appel plus next year's #2?
Not sure how Casey Close shouldn't get sued and disbarred (or kicked out of the agent's pool) for malpractice. Aiken will never see that $5M again.
Someday I would love to hear the actual ins-and-outs of that negotiation and how/why it went totally south. There has to be more to the story, and in my brain I'm picturing Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross-level ****.
Complicates my hypothetical. Would then have to wait and see if there are any above-slotters this year on money saved from the #2.
If I could only choose one of the two on my death bed, I'd still be more curious to hear what crazy atrocities Vogelsong claims to have witnessed.
That reminds me...they need to let that loudmouth re-weigh in on his thoughts about the slimy front office ripping off singleton.
Amusingly, Vogelsong already seems to have been booted from the rotation in SF after 1 terrible start. Through 10 total innings, he already has given up 20 hits and 9 walks.
Yes, probably much more. I also have a feeling that Close "advising" Nix as well made it more than what it would have been had he just been with Aiken. Maybe once the Astros are an extreme success story, Brady writes a tell-all smear-campaign book to try and make his $5 million back. (a "Jordan Rules" type book.)
The Vogelsong thing still frustrates me so much. He's happy to make unsubstantiated claims about the big bad Astros and all their unorthodox ways, but he won't give facts or details. He's basically immune to criticism this way. Meanwhile, the Astros have signed Feldman, Neshek, and Gregerson over the past two season without so much as a hiccup. If the Astros' ways were so off-putting, I doubt we'd have heard from Neshek/Gregerson this offseason that the negotiations were easy and comforting. My unsubstantiated guess is that Vogelson's medicals were also bunk, and he didn't believe the team.
This, too. Meanwhile, I hope the Astros are pitching a Singleton deal to every prospect that isn't a sure bet in the majors (i.e., most prospects). That Singleton deal may turn out to be a dud, but from the team perspective you only need 1 out of every 4 of those deals to work out to call it a success.
there was an article earlier stating that the Astros basically lowered their offer to Vogelsong after doing his physical and having some concerns regarding his medical evaluation...I think he was 'offended' that they reneged on their original agreement and left Houston in a huff.
So... I stumbled across this on Twitter moments ago. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Draft Notes: Rankings,*Aiken <a href="http://t.co/Rui14KiQIN">http://t.co/Rui14KiQIN</a></p>— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) <a href="https://twitter.com/mlbtraderumors/status/606144571290972160">June 3, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Brady Aiken and his medical status still remains something of an enigma, McDaniel writes. The unsigned first-overall pick of a year ago is coming off of Tommy John surgery. Bob Nightengale of USA Today suggested yesterday that the Astros had actually found a small tear in Aiken’s elbow, while earlier reports indicated that he had an unusually narrow UCL. As McDaniel notes, others believe that Houston was scared off by structural issues in the elbow. His current draft status will depend in part on just what issues are there, as well as his progress in the UCL replacement. McDaniel says that Aiken’s camp has released medical information, but done so in an unusually constricted way. All said, it’s impossible to get a read on where he’ll land, though his talent is great enough that he’s expected to land a seven-figure bonus regardless.
I have to imagine if Aiken's camp is being even the least bit secretive or restricting in releasing medicial information that it is going to send up huge red flags for all teams. There would be no reason to hide or withhold information on him unless there was a true reason to believe he might not fully recover.
This guy cost him self at least 3-4mil. Even super talented guys with no injuries don't make it to the Majors. He made a huge mistake.
