6-189: Brett Phillips, CF <iframe src='http://mlb.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=21769037&width=400&height=224&property=mlb' width='400' height='224' frameborder='0'>Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe> MLB.com
Interesting they picked him in round 4. No compensation in round 4 if he doesn't sign (as opposed to round 3). Hope they get these guys signed. If the <$5 million number for Correa is right, that's a huge coup. It's a brilliant strategy in a draft where the top guys were all clustered -- save on the signing bonus, and that $2.2 million is essentially the slot for the #15 overall pick. See if you can spread that excess between McCullers, Virant, Ruiz, et. al, and you've essentially added top 3 round picks because you could sign them and other teams couldn't. Major credit to Lunhow and co. if they get all of this talent signed. It's interesting -- before I was lamenting the lack of Harper/Strasburg talent in this draft. But if they were in this draft, they probably sign for above slot -- and then you're either losing picks in future years or drafting college juniors/seniors who will sign for under slot to make up the gap. This way, we can actually rebuild the system, perhaps a year sooner than we would've otherwise thought.
Here is a link to The Crawfish Boxes write-ups for the first 11 rounds (all 15 picks show, but they do not have any info on 12-15 at the time of this post): http://www.crawfishboxes.com/2012/6/5/3065345/2012-mlb-draft-day-2-open-thread
I liked what I saw on the broadcast yesterday. He sounds like a confident but humble kid who is really motivated to be a great player. I am impressed by the references to his academic work. Not that his high school is Kinkaid or that you have to be a genius to be a good baseball player, but the fact that he was willing to put in the time to get a 4.0 and 1560 on his SAT demonstrates an impressive work ethic. I can't imagine many 17-year olds who are going to be top 5 draft picks in their sport doing the same thing here. Here's to him fulfilling his potential and becoming the cornerstone of the franchise.
Makes him more likeable too...easy to sell to the fans as someone that's easy to root for, ultimately. Good stuff.
