Good point. I'll stop holding my breath on that one. But maybe I'll sell the idea to 20th Century Fox and they can make a movie out of it.
Wait I just realized the headline of that Nix article says "Rejected by Astros." Ummmm, what? Even after the Aiken stuff, we still offered him nearly double his slot value to come play for us. His arbitrary price tag is the only thing that prevented him from signing. Every other team had the opportunity to take him 5 times and passed. We're the ONLY one that didn't "reject" him. Everyone is talking about the money Aiken left on the table, but Nix would have to go at least in the first half of the third round to make up what he turned down from us. That's no guarantee either.
The theory is that had Nix not had a pretty firm price tag (and backup college commitment), he would have been taken earlier. Much like the Astros ended up valuing the #2 pick over damaged Aiken (at his original contract) + Nix, Nix valued his UCLA commitment over anything less than 1.5 million. His college eligibility then came into question after he agreed to a deal, and then was completely eliminated once he signed the grievance after said deal was forced to be taken away. It was MLB's convoluted slot system that resulted in these repercussions... and the Astros had to settle or risk losing this year's draft picks if the arbiter ruled in Nix's favor that he should be awarded the agreed to contract.
I understand all of that, but he was not "rejected." He chose to turn down more than $600,000 to play baseball. It's not on the Astros that he and his agent weren't able to maintain eligibility. Other prospects manage to negotiate and still make it to school.
Do other prospects agree to terms, take and pass physicals, and get flown out to sign... and then when they don't, go back to school? (the answer is no, because Nix is the first one for this to ever happen to). I agree he wasn't "rejected" by the Astros, but the Astros weren't completely "innocent" in this ordeal, hence the 6-figure settlement to make it go away.
The Astros had no choice. MLB could have stepped in and make an exception but that would actually require forward thinking from the commisoner's office. MLB escapes scrutiny in these situations where as the NFL or even the NBA don't because the sport isn't as popular. Everyone else but MLB took a hit on how all of this happened.
There is supposely no bad blood between Nix and the Astros. I wouldn't be shocked to see the Astros draft Nix again with the understanding that he would agree to it. Especially with the Astros having so much in their pool.
Nix actually isn't happy with the Astros and refused to sign the paperwork to be re-drafted. Funny thing is, it worked out well for Nix, he got paid, and is likely going to get even more this year.
More like they had too much to potentially lose if the judge sided with Nix... and he did likely have a viable case, despite the Astros "maintaining contact with MLB the whole time." Nix doesn't like the Astros just like some people end up disliking a quality restaurant that they happened to get sick at (due to some unfortunate timing and unforseen circumstances).
I'm sorry, but if I'm going to throw a ridiculous price tag out there then hire someone to "advise" my negotiations, I'm going to be damn sure that one of the conditions for this "advisor" is to make sure I'm still eligible to attend college if negotiations fall through. Now, if the "advisor" were to say that they reached a point of no return and there was nothing they could do to regain eligibility I could agree. But that would also require the "advisor" to acknowledge that the Astros were in a similar point of no return where they were forced to change their offer, and we all know how that went. Not sure why Astros fans are the only ones who recognize how dirty Close did these two kids.
It was an unprecedented and unfortunate set of circumstances that led to this. It was more than simple "negotiations"... in everybody's minds (including the Astros), the deal was done.
No guts no glory. The Astros tried to get creative and almost pull out a major haul. But thing fell apart and now they draft againg in 2015. its a redo scenario unique to baseball. Can't blame Nix or the Astros. Each followed their own best interest. But Media is pissed off at the Astros. Probably the whole tear it all down to rebuild could set some prcedence, and we could be seeing a lot of sucky baseball, if other teams buy into that philosophy. But the Aiken injury would have been worse for the team. Nix and Marshall have 1st round potential, but were 3rd and 4th round talents in 2014; hence why they were not taken before. Kind of glad that Aiken did not take offer Astros gave him.
Hate to see anyone hurt. But the more details come out, the more it looks like the Astros had *real* reason to worry--not that they were just trying to screw a kid out of a couple million so they could land another draft pick over slot.
Aiken was reported to have an abnormally small UCL. In TJS, the grafted ligament is directly anchored to the ulna and humeral bones but also then sutured to the anterior 1/3rd of the native UCL for support. What I (and other people I imagine) don't know is how that affects healing and later the function of the entire elbow to bear valgus stress. The grafted ligament theoretically should be bearing all the valgus stress during the pitching motion, but it's never been studied to what degree. That's why people can say there's something wrong (anatomically) and possibly nothing wrong performance-wise (because there isn't precedent one way or the other).
I feel for the kid if this all turns out to be true....all rumors.... http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2015-mlb-draft-rankings-april-edition/ 24. Brady Aiken, LHP, IMG Post-Grad (FL) Video: Aiken is a massive question mark at this point. He has that #1 overall ability in him and he’s recovering from Tommy John surgery, so many fans just assume he’ll go from a top 3 pick to a top 10-15 pick and that’s that. There is persistent, consistent and detailed buzz coming from many sources that there is more to Aiken’s injury than just a clean surgery like Erick Fedde, Jeff Hoffman or Lucas Giolito from recent years I won’t repeat the specific rumors, but the worst versions of it say there are career-threatening issues at play, while others say it’s merely an increased risk of further injury going forward. All 30 teams will get Aiken’s medical before the draft, the details will likely leak to the media and the answers that no one has at this point will come out before decisions have to be made. Either these rumors are bunk and Aiken will go 7th-10th overall as some expect, or he’ll get taken off a bunch of draft boards altogether and I’ll be forced to rank him somewhere around 40, with no telling where he’ll go or how much money he’ll get. I decided to split the difference and put him him in between those two possible scenarios.
