Blue Jays: 2013 MLB Draft Signing thread

[Angrioter]

UFA-Corey Gorman LHP

 

The 40 rounds of the Major League Baseball draft came and went without Coughlin graduate and University of Scranton pitcher Corey Gorman's name being called.

 

But a call did eventually come, as the Toronto Blue Jays signed the lefty to a free agent contact. He will report to the Blue Jays' minor league facility in Dunedin, Fla. on Tuesday for two weeks.

 

"It's pretty surreal. I'm excited, that's for sure," Gorman said. "I just never thought this would really happen, but now I have to take advantage of the opportunity."

 

Gorman said he was not recruited by a single school coming out of high school. He walked on following his freshman year and embarked on a four-year varsity career that ended with him being the Royals' ace. Following the 2013 season, Gorman was named Landmark Conference Pitcher of the Year. In 10 starts, he went 3-4 with a 3.55 ERA, striking out 78 batters in 63⅓ innings.

 

Gorman said scouts from the Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays and Washington Nationals came to watch him pitch this past season and that he threw for the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox in the weeks leading up to the draft.

 

"I wasn't too worried about it," Gorman said. "I was following it here and there, but I wasn't anxiously waiting by my phone. If they called me, they called me. There was nothing I could do about it."

 

The Blue Jays called soon after the draft ended and offered Gorman a contract, which he accepted without hesitation. He will have to leave his job as a credit analyst at First Liberty Bank in Olyphant, which he started this past Monday. But that is a small price to pay.

 

"I feel like I have an opportunity that not too many people get, so why not take advantage of it," Gorman said. "I'm not nervous about it."

 

 

 

UFA Koby Kraemer 3B/IF

 

Senior Koby Kraemer inked a professional contract with the Toronto Blue Jays organization following the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft, continuing the baseball career for the Terre Haute native and South Vigo High School product.

 

Kraemer joins junior Sean Manaea (Kansas City Royals – Competitive Balance Round A) and senior Devin Moore (Chicago White Sox – 27th round) as members of the 2013 Indiana State baseball team that have the opportunity to continue their baseball careers at the professional level. Manaea has until mid-July to sign with the Royals or return for his senior season with the Sycamores.

 

Kraemer began his career at Indiana State as a two-sport athlete, playing both baseball and football beginning in 2009. After suffering a knee injury and sitting out the entire 2010 baseball season, Kraemer focused solely on the diamond from 2011-13, totaling 188 hits and a .290 batting average since his sophomore season. For his career, Kraemer totaled 201 hits, 40 doubles, 11 home runs, 112 runs batted in and 125 runs scored as a Sycamore.

 

A three-time First Team MVC Scholar-Athlete selection, Kraemer was also a Second Team All-MVC pick and a member of the MVC All-Defensive team this past season.

 

The Toronto Blue Jays also signed a member of the Sycamore baseball program as a free agent last season, adding right-handed pitcher Brandon Dorsett following the 2012 MLB Draft.

 

The Indiana State baseball program has sent 17 individuals onto the professional ranks since 2009 and is currently on a run of five consecutive years with multiple Sycamores being drafted, the program’s longest stretch since a seven-year run with multiple draft selections from 1983-89.

[Angrioter]

Rowdy Tellez 1B

"That's what it is," Tellez said after a Monday workout, declining to confirm a signing-bonus goal exceeding $1 million. "The weekend was still a joy. Just to be drafted is an honor. There's like 400,000 kids playing high school baseball in this country, and only so many get drafted. There was nothing wrong with the weekend. We had a certain number out there, and teams were hesitant, and we take it from there."

 

What's next for the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Tellez? He said he's bound for USC on scholarship, unless the Blue Jays surprise him with a signing bonus too good to pass up.

 

Tellez put on a good face despite the disappointment of not getting picked on the first day – or the second day – because he had spent the past three years gearing for this event.

 

On the eve of the draft, Tellez was flown to Los Angeles for a workout at Dodger Stadium. From LAX, he flew to Oakland to take swings for A's executives. And then the Giants. On Tuesday, he crushed a 435-foot batting-practice shot in Seattle. Major-league clubs don't bring in 30th-round picks for workouts. They bring in high rounders for a peek.

 

Tellez said he is in good spirits because baseball is all about challenges. He plans to respond. He also knows how to play this new game a bit now, too.

 

"I'll either go to USC, which has won more national championships than anyone, or go professional if the Blue Jays are close to my number, and then go play in the minors with the same goal of making it to the bigs, so what's to lose?" Tellez said. "Either way, I'll have a blast. Two paths to get to the same place."

 

Tellez said he will continue to refine his craft – his swing, his defensive skills, his body. He knows he can get better. He'll also continue to network. Tellez reached out in recent months to regional baseball greats.

 

He spoke to brothers Leon and Leron Lee, the Grant High stars of the 1960s who became icons in Japan. After watching Tellez hit a home run in a playoff game at Sacramento City College, Leon Lee said, "The kid has a major-league future." Tellez talked to Derrek Lee, Leon's son. Lee was a first-round pick out of El Camino High in 1993 and enjoyed a long major-league career.

 

Monday, Tellez chatted for 90 minutes with Geoff Jenkins, who can relate to draft heartache. Jenkins was a power hitter, like Tellez, at Cordova High. He was picked in the 24th round in 1992, some 22 rounds lower than he had hoped. Jenkins instead went to USC, where he hit 45 career home runs and drove in a school-record 175 runs during an All-America career. He emerged better for the experience.

 

"The best thing you can ever do is go to college and grow," Jenkins said years ago.

 

Three years later, Jenkins was drafted by the Brewers in the first round, ninth overall. He logged 11 big-league seasons, hitting 221 homers. He's now a coach for an independent team in Arizona.

 

"Geoff's become a really good friend," Tellez said. "He said USC was the time of his life, met some of his best friends there and is still close to people there. That made me feel good."

 

Longtime Cordova coach Guy Anderson said Tellez, too, can learn from this experience.

 

"Geoff was really disappointed he didn't go higher out of high school, but look how it turned out," Anderson said. "The thing about college is it's good for you, and if you're good, you can eliminate two or three years of the minor leagues. I think it's just outstanding that Tellez and Geoff talked. Local guys look out for each other. Geoff cares about baseball, and I do know this: If you love the game of baseball, the game itself will love you back. Tellez will find out."

 

Drop dead Geoff

[ace3113]

Got any nice clips you like? Want to watch some video on him in the morning. A catcher to replace JP would be so amazing.

 

What's up with all these Jacobs? Marisnick, Anderson, Brentz, haha.

 

That would be great. Crazy athlete.

 

I tried to find the clip I was talking about, but I think it got taken down. It was basically Jackson taking BP. Every time he hit the ball it sounded like a gun shot off the bat. Then he had one monster hit during a game at bat.

[ace3113]

Sounds like he might be signable for the right number. He must think the number is realistic within our bonus pool allotment or what's the point talking about it. Please get him signed AA. He's a really underrated hitter, and we don't have lefty power like his in our system.

[ReturnOfTheYeti]

Drop dead Geoff

 

I dunno, to me I'm just glad that he's even open to considering to sign. Granted though, the amount that he is "thinking of" just might not be feasible. Who knows, I think if any one can find the wiggle room, AA can.

[Angrioter]

Finally

 

$96,100

[ace3113]

So we ended up signing Evan Smith ?????????????????

 

Nice. Too bad we only saved 90k but hopefully we can stinge couple other guys so we can get one of Brentz or Tellez to sign.

[Angrioter]

Nice. Too bad we only saved 90k but hopefully we can stinge couple other guys so we can get one of Brentz or Tellez to sign.

 

$96,100

[DuckDuckGose]

Nice. Too bad we only saved 90k but hopefully we can stinge couple other guys so we can get one of Brentz or Tellez to sign.

 

It definitely seems like AA is hoping to get most of the guys in round 3-10 underslot to make a run at one of Tellez or Brentz. No way he has the cash to sign both unless Bickford signs way below slot value (which he wont).

[ReturnOfTheYeti]

It definitely seems like AA is hoping to get most of the guys in round 3-10 underslot to make a run at one of Tellez or Brentz. No way he has the cash to sign both unless Bickford signs way below slot value (which he wont).

 

Something I'm wondering...maybe this doesn't make sense - and it might now as I only have a peripheral vision on the slotting and how this works. I understand that next year is expected to be a significantly better crop than this year. Might the low-ball Bickford below slot and if signs, great, and if not, then they get the additional pick next year, as well being able to allocate the funds they would have spent on him to Tellez and/or the other guys that fell in the draft?

[Abomination]

Something I'm wondering...maybe this doesn't make sense - and it might now as I only have a peripheral vision on the slotting and how this works. I understand that next year is expected to be a significantly better crop than this year. Might the low-ball Bickford below slot and if signs, great, and if not, then they get the additional pick next year, as well being able to allocate the funds they would have spent on him to Tellez and/or the other guys that fell in the draft?

 

If you don't sign a player, then you lose the money allocation for that slot.

[ReturnOfTheYeti]

If you don't sign a player, then you lose the money allocation for that slot.

 

Oh okay, so it's only if you go much under-slot when the player is signed that it would be used on other picks? I think before the money allocation wasn't lost and could be fully reallocated. Thanks!

[Angrioter]

http://www.bluejaysmessageboard.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=182&d=1370885928

[DuckDuckGose]

Something I'm wondering...maybe this doesn't make sense - and it might now as I only have a peripheral vision on the slotting and how this works. I understand that next year is expected to be a significantly better crop than this year. Might the low-ball Bickford below slot and if signs, great, and if not, then they get the additional pick next year, as well being able to allocate the funds they would have spent on him to Tellez and/or the other guys that fell in the draft?

 

I can see AA wanting a pick in the top 10 next year, it's supposed to be a deep draft. However if you fail to sign a pick you cannot shift the funds to the later round picks. If you fail to sign a pick the allotted slot value is subtracted from your draft budget.

 

Bickford is going to go right around slot value or slightly over though. Therefore whether the Jays sign him or not (unless somehow they ink him well over/under slot which again I can't see happening) doesn't really impact their ability to sign Tellez or Brentz.

[imsorry4beatinU]

So we ended up signing Evan Smith ?????????????????

 

Whoever posted about Evan Smith writing on Twitter he was going college got the wrong Evan Smith.

 

This is from BBB comments

The guy the Jays drafted is listed from Mary Montgomery High in Alabama. His twitter says St. Catherine’s College, and has Florida and Kentucky as locations

He's also committed to Faulkner CC not Chattanooga state.

[imsorry4beatinU]

$96,100

 

Don't forget, the extra 5% without penalty

[Angrioter]

 

 

Save money

$96,100 (Evan Smith)

$150,800 (Patrick Murphy)

[imsorry4beatinU]

 

150800 plus the extra 5 %

[Angrioter]

150800 plus the extra 5 %

 

$246,900 plus the extra 5%

[DuckDuckGose]

$246,900 plus the extra 5%

 

~$570k

[imsorry4beatinU]

$96,100+ 5% ($22,305)=118,405 (Evan Smith)

$150,800+ 5% ($32,540) = 183,340 (Patrick Murphy)

 

I think I did that right..the grand total saved is $ 301,745 on those two players!!

[ace3113]

$96,100+ 5% ($22,305)=118,405 (Evan Smith)

$150,800+ 5% ($32,540) = 183,340 (Patrick Murphy)

 

I think I did that right..the grand total saved is $ 301,745 on those two players!!

 

We're going to have to save at least 600k-700k more to have a legit shot at any of Brentz, Lauer, Tewes, or Tellez.

[ace3113]

Patrick Ebert ‏@PGPatrickEbert 1h

 

Not surprisingly No. 1 2014 prosp. Alex Jackson putting on show during BP - lightning quick hands/bat speed, loft power, lasers #PGNational

[Angrioter]

[Deadpool]

 

Yeah, that also makes me think that the article linked on BBB was more speculative than reality based.

[GD]

So what the f*** is up with Tellez? Is he signing or not? PLEASE ROWDY WE'LL BE YOUR BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

[Angrioter]

[Abomination]

So what the f*** is up with Tellez? Is he signing or not? PLEASE ROWDY WE'LL BE YOUR BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

 

We won't know about the hard to sign guys for a while. Once the team locks up the others, they'll know how much they can offer. They can't offer a bunch over slot until they know that they can free that money up.

[Angrioter]

[Angrioter]

Brian Parker

 

Value guys that slipped…

“We took the approach this year that we were trying to get a few of those guys. I think we’re hoping to save some money in the top 10 to give us some flexibility later. Brentz is someone we hope to talk to this summer, Lauer is another one, Tewes is a third one. Those are three kind of high school pitchers that we have some interest depending on what happens for us in the top 10 those would be some guys we’d look at.”

 

On going in with a set plan or with multiple ones…

“A little bit of both. You go in with a plan and then you adjust. I think it’s obvious one of our plans was to target pitching. We’ve traded a lot of pitchers in the last year and we weren’t going to pass on position players if they were better but it just so happened we were able to get some of the arms we liked and had interest in. It was a focus to try to add as much pitching as we could so we were able to do that.”

 

On high number of high school arms that were taken…

“I think that’s just how it played out on the board. We had some college guys we liked but when it came our time to pick the best one was the high school guy. We didn’t go all high school because that’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to mix it up, it just so happened it ended up going to high school. There were some college guys that we were very high on and would have considered in a lot of the higher round spots.”

 

Lots of high school arms in the system as well…

“It’s one thing we do well. When you do something well, it’s try to get as many of those types of guys as we can. Dane Johnson our pitching coordinator and our Minor League staff in general has done a pretty good job of developing those types of guys, whether it’s high school or college, we’re looking for a certain type of thing and those are the types of guys we got.”

 

Lack of diversity in the portfolio concerning?

“We took some college arms that we like a little bit later. Matt Boyd and Graveman that we took in the top 10, they’re college seniors but they’re actually very successful college seniors at big time baseball programs. Those are two college starters that we like and we think can mix in with the high school guys. They’re both pitching in the Super Regionals this week and they might be in the college World Series next week. I think we mixed some of those guys in a little bit later. When you’re at the top of the Draft you don’t want to pass on a better player or a better talent because we’ve already taken three high school guys and we don’t want to take another. We just wanted to get as many guys as we could.”

 

Sign quick part of drafting strategy?

“Absolutely. I think the sooner we can get these guys, especially the high school kids, the sooner they get into our system and get going the better. If our guys can get their hands on them Day 1, that’s better not only for what they can do this year but where they can go next year. It helps them this year but more importantly it gives them a jump start on where they’re going to be placed next year too.”

 

Confident in advance of Bickford in signability…

“I think it’s one of those things, especially higher in the Draft, the top few rounds, you really need to know on that kind of stuff before you take a kid. We did our research, we did our background on him and the other guys at the top of the Draft and we feel good, we started talking to him and his adviser, we feel good but obviously things happen. It’s of those things where we feel with where we’re going.”

 

On strategy of going underslot on some guys early to pay guys after 10th round…

“It’s more case by case. If we were able to get a guy for a little less than we could use that money later. In some cases, we might pay a later guy more than an earlier guy but it’s more in relation to the top 10 rounds. That’s where the money is counted by MLB and that sort of thing. Without the extra picks, we had to see what was there when it came our time to pick. I know they had a lot of the comp picks early last year, we didn’t have that, we had to just wait and see who was there when we picked.”

 

Also some leftovers from a scrum with Alex Anthopoulos…

 

Balance between selecting pitching/position players.

“There is. We didn’t set out to take nine arms in the first nine picks. But we didn’t want to force it. A lot of times you sit there going ‘well, do we need a shortstop? Do we need a third baseman?’ There’s so many failures in the draft. If you start trying to draft by needs, other than when you’re filling you’re organization, that’s where you make mistakes. You really have to take the best player available.

 

“Position players are tough, and not that many teams have success with it. And that’s why you’ll see most position players come in the first two round of the draft. There was a position player we would’ve loved to have, but he didn’t fall to us… There’s always players that we like. All of our draft picks in the past, I don’t think we’ve been able to select the first player on out board, but you do have to take the best player available. It worked out that way. …it just fell that way.”

 

Allocation of resources same as 2012…

“No. This year it seemed like there were fewer signability players that we were very high on. There were two players that would’ve been well over slot deals. Guys we would’ve loved to have. One of them we would’ve strongly considered with our tenth pick. He just wanted to go to school. Another one we would’ve strongly considered with the 47th pick, same thing, wanted to go to school.

 

“We would’ve paid them, especially the 47th pick, well above slot. They just didn’t want to play in any capacity. You look at Smoral last year there was a price point to forgo him going to school. … It was all reflective on what talent was available at the draft. We did feel like that with the 10 pick we’d get a good player, but we didn’t think the depth was there that had been there in the past.”

 

Bickford signing…

“We’re not concerned about it. … with all that being said there’s no guarantees. We’ll try hard to sign him. We believe he wants to play pro. I say this each year, you can lift all my quotes for the first two or three years. The same ones apply. We’re optimist, we’re going to do our best, and we hope to get him signed.”

 

Seniors signed 6-10, strategy?

“There was some strategy to that. Last year, I think we went on a round 3-10, 4-10, and I think last year they were all $1,000 seniors. Here, the talent level was close. There was a bunch of players that we felt, because of the way the draft is set up and the pool of money would not go into the top 10, although they were top 10 to us, so there was added upside to save that pool money on 6-10, and be able to take them after the 10th round. But it gave us flexibility. …Now that the money has been saved in those top 10 rounds, that’s the key. You can reallocate however you want after the 10th.”

 

Anyone in particular?

“Plenty. There’s players that we took 11-30 that we would’ve taken in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth. There was questions on their signability. They were a little vague on what the dollars would be. So we had a good sense they would slide. And now we have the ability to move around. We still took players that we liked. There’s no question that the fact they there were seniors were a huge part of them being selected.”

 

High number of school picks…

“We looked at a lot of college players as well. At the 47th pick we had a college player lined up, got taken a few picks ahead of us, so we went with the high school player. It just worked itself out that way. We didn’t go into it saying high school or college. There’s certainly some college players that went ahead of 10 that we would’ve loved to have at our pick at 10. It just worked out this way. Everyone says the same thing, best player available, you factor in the risk. But, that’s just the way it worked out for us.”

 

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