You answered your own question. How do you think the Yankees feel about Brien Taylor? I see your Drew Stubbs and raise you a Troy Patton.
Nevin was one of the highly rated college players the year he was drafted. There were no real big names (e.g. Prior, Mauer, Drew) that came out that year so signability wasn't much of a factor. Jeter was taken 6th that year out of high school McKnight was taken with the 22nd pick and Stubbs was a 3rd rounder. Why do you even bring those guys up?
I don't know a ton about the MLB Draft, but I remember that one because the 'Stros had the #1 pick. Correct me if I'm wrong or if my memory is failing on this, but I thought Jeffrey Hammonds was considered the consensus #1 at the time, but wanted too much money so the Astros passed on him. Sort of the Scott Boras-type client at the time. He ended up going #4 to Baltimore. It's been mentioned in this forum before also, but Derek Jeter went 6th in that draft and apparently the Astros scout in Michigan lobbied hard for the Astros to take him, but word was Jeter wanted $1 million for a bonus, and Houston took Nevin who agreed to $700,000. The scout quit as a result. You can read about that here : http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=olney_buster&id=1863947 Nevin turned out to be a pretty good ballplayer though ... for someone else of course. I think I remember (if memory serves) that he went like 4-for-70 or something outrageous at the plate in the majors one year, and they sent him back down to Triple-A and he went ballistic ... real unprofessional.
Troy Patton is going to be MONEY... and for the amount we're paying him as a 19 year old, he better be MONEY! I hope he gets up to Corpus before the end of the year.... That would definitely put him on the "fast track".
That's pretty much it. The Astros picked the most signable player. Most people believed Jeter and Hammonds were the top 2 players but Nevin was the most signable. As far as why I brought up McKnight. McKnight was a player most people pegged in the 3rd and 4th. Houston negotiated with him early so they took in the 1st round - not based on talent but signability. My point is when you are frugal at the major league level and extend that to your farm system, you'll get burned sooner or later. Gerry Hunsicker built a consistently winning team on a mid-low market budget. Hunsicker is now gone, Clemens will soon be gone as will Biggio and Bagwell. We have some good young players but not superstar status prospects. Per Baseball America for 2005, out of the Top 100 prospects, we only have 2 (Chris Burke 60 and Astacio 80). Ive been an Astros fan since 1977. McMullen signed Nolan Ryan. McLane signed Drabek and Swindell. McLane signed Pettitte and Clemens. Those were exceptions that masked their frugality. We have never had an owner whose primary objective was to win. That has always been frustrating.
Well, apparently Jason Lane thought the weather was a factor in NY. "As bad as we did in New York, a few of our balls got knocked down by the cold. Today was a much more pleasant day," he said. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=250415117
Lefties with arms like his are golden...we miss you Carlos! (Wandy Rodriguez seems to be filling this description, too). RIET- I get where you're coming from. I could be wrong, but was McKnight the year when there were more strike/lockout concerns? Baseball America is fine and dandy, but take it with a grain of salt. Systems are usually cyclical. We just went through a time when we brought up 4 blue chip pitchers in like 1 year (Wade, Roy, Redding, Carlos). Only one is pitching well right now. Remember the vaunted Mets gunslingers of Wilson, Isringhausen, and Pulsipher? We managed to pull 2 starting outfielders out of our AA team this year who are doing ok early in the season. We pulled a pretty good end game in Qualls/Lidge straight from our system not too long ago. Guys in the lower levels like Einertson and Patton are showing loads of promise- even take a look at our Round Rock rotation- Zeke, Wandy, Carlos, Buchholz, Gothreaux. Not many teams can put up 5 legit major league prospects in AAA. Patton will be on the way, and Nieve is supposed to light up AA. We have a young shortstop entrenched if he would ever hit, a rookie 2B to take over for Biggio, and a highly rated catcher in AA. What concerns me is the dearth of corner infield prospects, and that Luke Scott is seemingly our best run producing prospect if/until Einertson comes around.
sheesh .... mark prior was drafted by the yankees initially but wanted a ridiculous signing bonus so the yankees declined, so prior went to usc. thats exactly what drew stubbs did, he wanted something to the effect of a 1 million dollar signing bonus and used UT as leverage. kazmir was easily a top 3 talent in the 2002 draft, but fell to 15th cause he wanted too much money. that's why gm's/owners (not just mclane GASP!) are always hesitant about drafting high school players because they always use college as leverage to get a larger signing bonus -- meaning they would waste a high draft pick on someone who would never play for them. using early picks and drafting based on signability is not only common but also wise.
It is utterly neanderthal to interrupt a good session of McLane bashing and whining with facts. Please get some manners. {/tongue-in-cheek}
Please. If everyone were afraid of drafting high school players, they wouldn't be drafted. Minnesota took Joe Mauer even with the risk that he was one of the top HS football players in the country and committed to play football with FSU. And the Twins are not the Yankees. Certain organizations take college players because they believe the players will be ready to compete sooner (Huston Street) - not because they can offer them less money. As far as Kazmir, he ended up signing for "only" $2.15 million which was less than some of the people drafted ahead of him got. He was obviously bluffing otherwise he probably wouldve been a top 3 pick. He was giving mixed signals as to what he wanted and what he was willing to accept. Also, teams are often scared to draft pitchers with small builds. They are often high risk potential for arm injuries.
Don't mind if I do, thank you. The point was that it is common for organizations to pass on the risk of drafting less signable players, not that "everyone is afraid to draft high school players." But, I was wrong. McLane is a cheapscate. I've seen the light.
nice post and all but youve avoided the inescapable detail that a considerable percentage of players that are drafted by a team do not end up signing and playing with that team. which is why it's smart to make sure you can sign a player before you choose to draft them, especially if its a top pick.... you cant just throw out money to every high end prospect that demands it
Naw, man, let's just face it--we're just naïve homers who are happily oblivious to the glaring and ugly realities that: --Ausmus and Everett are destroying our playoff chances this year --Bagwell and Biggio are destroying our ability to build a competitive team in the feature --McLane is a cheapscate who, meddling like Jerry Jones, ran off his best and most knowledgeable front office guy --McLane has secretly made $50 million on the Astros while reporting 6-figure losses on an annual basis--the damn book-cooker!! The first 8 games are evidence enough--this anemic offense will cost us 80 games! You mark my words!!!1
Well, that's it. I saw last night's game and I'm convinced we're World Series bound. We made the 27 Yankees look weak. We're clearly dominant. So I was right, fools. All you fools who doubted...you were wrong. Wallow in it. This team is awesome. Victory is mine...how sweet it is!!! p.s. get off Adam Everett for one day. he was 2/5 with 2 runs scored last night. i was pissed at the pop up bunt on the squeeze...but he had a good night last night. p.p.s. there are but a handful of owners who approach any given year without financial implications in mind. think yankee fans are criticizing Big Stein because he didn't pursue Beltran? some owners take a one-year stab at being great...others build with some level of consistency...still others don't try at all. but to pretend that mclane is alone among MLB owners who take financial considerations into mind when building a team is just silly. they all do. every single one of them. obviously those with higher revenue streams don't have to worry about it as much.
Minnesota took Mauer for two reasons (other than the fact he is a great talent): 1. He was a local kid so they felt they had an excellent chance to sign him, which they did. 2. They felt Prior was unsignable. Tony McKnight helped the Astros acquire Mike Williams which helped in a playoff run. Nevin has had a better career over Hammonds, so it could be argued that he was the right choice.
