Article: Draft Board v.1.0 (2/17)

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Gunn: The Twins will have a few different strategies they could choose from. One would be saving money like the Astros did last year. I don't think it would be their top choice, but something they considered (it's alluded to in my interview with Sean Johnson).

 

Big City: The 2014 top prospects right now are LHP Carlos Rodon, NC State and C Alex Jackson, CA HS. There are also two other highly-regarded college pitchers - Tyler Beede, Vanderbilt and Nick Burdi, Louisville. The Twins took Burdi out of high school.

[jimbo92107]

Mark Appel may be a Scott Boras client, but he'd also be the best starting pitcher in the Twins organization the moment he set foot on the Target Field grass. His mechanics remind me of Mariano Rivera, with an incredibly direct transfer of power from body to baseball. He looks like he could dominate the league for a decade. Draft him and pay him, like Mauer. He's not just a horse, he's a derby winner.

[cmb0252]

The whole boras/appel thing is way over blown. If the twins rank him as the best talent at 4 and he is there, take him. Just like last year with Buxton the twins need to take the best player available regardless of position/agent.

 

At this point I'm really not that high on any of the top three pitchers. I prefer gausman last year to any of them but wouldn't be disappointed if the twins took one at 4. If Bryant can prove he is a 3b and not a 1b he gets my vote. I love his power.

[FrodaddyG]

The whole boras/appel thing is way over blown. If the twins rank him as the best talent at 4 and he is there, take him. Just like last year with Buxton the twins need to take the best player available regardless of position/agent.

Until you factor in the draft pool limitations. If Boras/Appel are asking for the moon again, you're risking either killing your flexibility for the rest of your signings, or punting the pick until the following year.

[beckmt]

This is about taking the best player available. Do not compromise or mess this up.

[cmb0252]

If boras/appel are asking for an irrational number he can go to the independent league. Just like he went back to college this year. It is Boras' job to get Appel the money he is asking for and it is the job of our scouts to figure out if they can sign him or not. As fans we hate the business side of baseball but it is part of the game.

 

I don't feel bad for the pirates organization at all. They didn't think Appel would be there and never talked to boras beforehand about his demands before taking him. That's on their front office. Do I feel bad for the fan base? Definitely. Tallion/Cole/appel would be a nasty 1-2-3 punch.

[FrodaddyG]

If boras/appel are asking for an irrational number he can go to the independent league. Just like he went back to college this year. It is Boras' job to get Appel the money he is asking for and it is the job of our scouts to figure out if they can sign him or not. As fans we hate the business side of baseball but it is part of the game.

So which is it, "the Boras thing is overblown", or "take him and if he doesn't like it, he can go to the Indy league"?

[cmb0252]

So which is it, "the Boras thing is overblown", or "take him and if he doesn't like it, he can go to the Indy league"?

Both? Scouting isn't just grading tools but gagging signability. Especially in this new CBA. If Appel is there at 4, is the highest player on their board, and feel there is a good chance to sign him you take him. If the scouts gagged his signability wrong and he goes to the Indy leagues that's on us. At this point we don't know what it will take to sign Appel, much less if the Twins will even have him rated that high, so I don't see the point of saying not to draft Appel because Boras is his agent.

[nicksaviking]

I don't feel bad for the pirates organization at all. They didn't think Appel would be there and never talked to boras beforehand about his demands before taking him. That's on their front office. Do I feel bad for the fan base? Definitely. Tallion/Cole/appel would be a nasty 1-2-3 punch.

 

Shame on Pittsburgh for not acquiesing to the almighty Scott Boras.

 

Boras obviously did talk to some teams about what kind of salary he wanted, that's why everyone knew Appel was going to try to eat up nearly all of a teams draft allowence. Pittsburgh took a chance that Appel would tell his agent to go die and accept the best offer they could make instead of going back to school and risk it. Pittsburgh knew what Boras was asking for, they thought they'd take a gamble, it didn't work.

 

Boras is bad for baseball, advising young men like Appel to make obscene demands and then if they don't get it, go back to school or play independant ball. It's a huge risk for the player but hardly any sweat for Boras. Betting $6 million dollars is nothing for a filthy rich dirtball like Boras, but he's talked a guy who has nothing into taking the gamble.

[ashbury]

If boras/appel are asking for an irrational number

 

"My client wants Pi million dollars a year, or there's no deal."

 

/ sorry, I had to

[cmb0252]

"My client wants Pi million dollars a year, or there's no deal."

 

/ sorry, I had to

Haha, I'm glad you did. Cracked me up.

 

Pit did take a chance on Appel and it didn't work out. It is the front offices job to gage signability. Just like it is Scott Boras' job to advise his client. No one forced Appel to hire Boras. Also, a huge risk for the player? Most players maybe but not Appel. Quoting John Sickles today; "With a Stanford education and his family background, Appel could walk away from baseball and it wouldn’t impact his quality of life. He’s never going to have to work at McDonald’s or wonder how he’s going to pay the rent."

While I'm not a huge Boras fan lets not act like the Billionaire, with a B, owners weren't the ones who pushed for a amateur spending cap into the CBA. Poor billionaire owners who tried to limit the amount of money 17-22 year old kids could make comes back to bite them in the butts. I feel so bad for them I might cry.

[FrodaddyG]

Quoting John Sickles today; "With a Stanford education and his family background, Appel could walk away from baseball and it wouldn’t impact his quality of life. He’s never going to have to work at McDonald’s or wonder how he’s going to pay the rent."

Obviously there's lots of non-baseball jobs that will offer him $5M before he works a day for them.

[nicksaviking]

While I'm not a huge Boras fan lets not act like the Billionaire, with a B, owners weren't the ones who pushed for a amateur spending cap into the CBA. Poor billionaire owners who tried to limit the amount of money 17-22 year old kids could make comes back to bite them in the butts. I feel so bad for them I might cry.

 

I don't feel bad for the owners either, I could care less if they make a dime, but the fact is they will and they aren't going to let signing baseball players cut into their profit margins. Can the owners afford these huge contracts that have come about the last 15 years because of agents like Scott Boras (mostly Scott Boras)? Of course but they're just passing the buck and marking up ticket/concession/memerobelia prices and rates they charge advertisers and broadcasting companies. The broadcasting companies of course won't take the hit so they pass the buck to the consumer too. Boras isn't bad for the owners because at the end of the day everyone just passes the check to the low man on the totem poll; us. Boras is bad for baseball.

[diehardtwinsfan]

let's not blame player salaries for high ticket prices. Those prices are going to be whatever people are willing to pay, regardless of what the players make... The only thing the CBA is doing is capping their expenses.

[ashbury]

let's not blame player salaries for high ticket prices. Those prices are going to be whatever people are willing to pay, regardless of what the players make... The only thing the CBA is doing is capping their expenses.

 

This. I was on a riff the other day about scalpers pocketing the difference in street price versus face value, or the owners getting more via their new pricing policies. I could have made my post even longer by observing that the money is there for the taking, regardless of who ends up getting it. We're not being priced out of Twins tickets because of greedy owners or greedy players. We're being priced out by schmuck stock brokers and anyone else with large disposable income who can bid up the price regardless of what I'm willing to pay. Baseball is only the collective middleman.

[maxisagod]

Obviously there's lots of non-baseball jobs that will offer him $5M before he works a day for them.

cmb0252 is referring to the comment section of this link:

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2013/2/22/4013450/2013-mlb-draft-top-100-draft-prospects

You right not many will offer you 5M or 100,000 dollars; that would set you up with a great windfall for the rest of your life. The point Sickels seems to be making is if you already have a large fiscal safety net in the form of a well off family,and a Sanford eduction, and then you turn down millions from the Pirates it may not just be because your agent is greedy, there may be an element of pride. What if all the questions and photos of him with Andrew Luck makes him feel his value is much higher than the team who drafts him? There are lots of professional athletes who after being offered a large payday might feel responisable or compelled to take it in order to support and give back to family and friends who have very little. Appel may not have that sense of responisablity knowing there a good chance he'll be able to provide for himself and others no matter what.

[Twins Twerp]

The point isn't that the money is not available from owners. The point is that it handcuffs the rest of your draft. Not only does it handcuff you, it sounds like it could be impossible to sign Appel. The Pirates shifted as much money around as they could and still could not pay the bonus demands without losing next years pick. I think most owners would ok with giving him his above slot bonus, but GM's would have to draft a bunch of college seniors with no upside to be able to sign him. Now the question will soon become, do you punt on the rest of your draft to sign this guy...

 

If you think Appel is a sure fire top of the rotation guy, maybe you do. How often do you actually get multiple major leaguers out of a draft? I think TR (or whomever signs off on draft day) would have to consider coming away from the draft with one top 25 prospect in all of the minors and no other players.