Then why did they draft this guy? If it was widely known that money was going to be the issue and thus the reason why he dropped to the 13th round, then why bother drafting him at all? I don't know how much Jones wants, but if the Astros did sign him he'd most likely be a 3-4 year prospect since he has a lot of raw skill. Kind of disappointing that they just completely wasted a a draft pick in a year when they didn't have a first or second rounder. And if the hold up with Dietrich was him "falling up" the stairs, whats the holdup with Eibner?
I'd say by the 13th round, its worth the gamble. If he does sign, you've got a hell of a steal of a pick - if he doesn't, oh well, it's just a 13th-rounder.
Well the latest according to 790 is that the Astros will most likely not sign their 3rd (Dietrich, 3B) and 4th round (Eibner, P) picks. Purpura was quoted as saying that he is pessimistic about signing them and that there is a large gap between the numbers the team is offering versus what the players want. I couldn't be more mad and disappointed about this situation. The Astros need to build up their farm system badly and yet are going to let their 3rd and 4th round picks get away in a year when they had no 1st or 2nd round picks. I don't know what the numbers are but I do remember the spin that Purpura and co. put on not having 1st and 2nd round picks was that there was extra money to sign the rest of their picks. Not signing their draft choices this year is very discouraging when you think about the fact that (barring FA signings and arbitration) the Astros could have 5-6 picks between the 1st, sandwich and 2nd rounds in next year's draft. If their not willing to spend the money to sign a 3rd and 4th round pick and slot or slightly above slot money, then what makes you think they will sign a potential top 10 pick where it costs millions not hundred-thousands? Quit being cheap and get 'em signed.
Drayton is cheap our Astros we all love are just a buisness to him, the reason they had the 4th highest payroll was a one time chance to cash in on Clemens and Pettitte/Bagwells backloaded contracts
Tired, dumb, wrong, and oft disproven (your take, not you ). Cat, your assignment (like I can give you those) is to find out what gives? What were these guys' demands, and were other teams able to land their 3rd and 4th rounders? How did the Astros manage to get 2 guys with crazy demands, or were their demands that crazy? Do the Astros have a history of lowballing draft picks?
In signed draft-pick news, Colin DeLome went 1-for-2 in the New York-Penn League All Star Game yesterday. I think he could do better than Jason Lane, right now.
Well the agents for these players probably realize that the Astros had no 1st or 2nd round pick and can get more money since the Astros didn't have to spend that money on higher slotted players. Drew Stubbs. The Astros allegedly had a deal in place to pay Stubbs higher than slot money and the commissoners's office balked and informed Drayton that they didn't like this move. Drayton then tried to offer Stubbs less than what was negotiated and he attended UT and went onto become a first roun pick for our division rival Cincinnati Reds.
At least tell the whole story. In 2003, they gave 13th round pick Jimmy Bartheimer $750,000. When they selected Stubbs in the 9th round the next year, Selig came a callin' and asked/demanded that he be paid slot money...about $450,000. Then, in 2005, they gave 9th round pick $550,000 because they didn't want to lose out on another top prospect at the expense of McLane's friendship with Selig.
Did they cave at Selig telling them what to do? Did they lose out on a prospect that could potentially help this team in the future? The answer to both of those is yes. The Astros can sign players at whatever rate they want. They lowballed Stubbs, whether it was at the commissioner's request or Drayton's, they lowballed him and didn't sign him.
Drew Stubbs may still turn out to be a fine player. He will be 23 after this season and is currently on the Reds lower Class A team hitting .263 with 126 Ks in 429 at bats. He is third on his team with a .361 OBP and 6th with a .417 slugging (9 HRs, 25 doubles, 4 triples). At this point, the Astros made a wise decision.
The questions was asked if they had a history of being cheap. You chose to point out 1 instance in which they were asked by MLB to not pay a 9th round pick $900,000. I was merely pointing out the other instances this decade when they paid more than slot money. Should they have done it anyway? Who knows. There is just no way to tell how a draft pick is going to turn out in baseball.
stubbs was a 3rd rounder, not a 9th rounder. mcclane was asked not to exceed slot value. he didnt. stubbs was the #1 position player 3 years later. no news from baseballamerica of signing anyone. guess purpura didnt sign them. in the grand scheme of things, what's a few hundred thousand? 3rd round money would be around $275,000, and since we didn't sign anyone for above slot this year and had no 1st or 2nd rounder, why not throw another 100k at him? dietrich was rated as being a 3rd rounder to begin with, so i dont see how his bonus demands would be crazy like $2 million or something like that. eibner was a raw pitcher and pretty much went where he should have as well. he would have fetched around $150-200k in the 4th round. might as well give him another $100k if it gets him to sign. if they werent worth signing for those amounts, why take them in the first place?
It's Official! We didn't sign Dietrich or Eibner. Thanks, Tim. Poopoora should go by Timmy Zzzzz...cuz it's like he's sleeping on the job. Didn't sign the picks, didn't even look to make trades, (listening to trade offers and actively looking for trades are totally different, and Tim didn't look for anything. He just sat back and listened to offers and was unwilling to bargain.) and he got fleeced by Colorado.
There is no excuse for not signing any of these picks. how do you go through your draft and have a zero for the first four rounds.
i don't see what the big deal is. if the Astros offer them what they consider a fair offer and the players don't like it and choose to go to school, how is that Tim Purpura's fault? it's not like either Eibner or the other guy were DESTINED for greatness
You just slipped off the slope. This is the type of attitude that got baseball salaries out of whack in the first place.
right....cuz of a lousy 100k to a draft pick where bonuses have already gotten out of whack, and last year's #109 pick got $400k, #110 got $305k, and #111 (Dietrich's pick) got $270k...the #109 pick was a highschooler, the #110 pick was a college junior, and the #111 pick was friggan Ricky Orta who was had a career ERA over 5.00 at Miami and was coming off a season where he went 2-2 6.18 $375k seems fair for 3rd round if slot was $275k for Dietrich's pick, and we were probably offering around $250-300k. With our crap farm system, you need all the talent you can get. i would have gone up to $450k, which would have been equal to the value of picks #75-90 (also in the 3rd round). Again, in the grand scheme of things, a $100k is peanuts to a major league ballclub, who just paid $100m to Carlos Lee. that $100k may be the difference between us looking for another 3B in 5 years or Dietrich coming up into his rookie year or his 2nd year, in which Oswalt and Berkman would be entering their decline and Carlos Lee would be in his last year. not to mention we have no offensive players projected to come up and make an impact after JR Towles next season. So yeah...maybe it takes that kind of attitude to have a winning ballclub. look at everyone else. baseball america even did a study where clubs who opted to sign picks who accepted below slot money usually didn't collect on their investment, while teams who opted to sign players who wanted more than slot value usually did get rewarded for spending a little extra money. bottom line, you get what you pay for...and we didnt pay anything.
