metafour

Exactly. Orioles fans are completely delusional. Oh, he's a Rule 5 guy and therefore he obviously just missed (by a laughable margin)....why is he on the team then if he can't even keep the ball from going behind a batter? Better yet, if it was accidental then why didn't he make some sort of gesture to indicate "my bad"? I'd assume that would the first thing a no-name Rule 5 pitcher would do after throwing a ball behind a star player IN A BLOWOUT. The whole thing is so obvious it is laughable that they are actually trying to spin the "accident" excuse. Its a blowout, the inning prior Encarnacion launched a ball into the 5th deck, and in comes a no-name pitcher the very next inning and launches a ball behind Bautista who they've been "targeting" for two years now...with a ball ending up behind him just a week ago! Nothing suspicious there at all.

To be fair, we could be one of the ~15+ teams that do nothing of significance in this market. We'd still be getting the "best" player in this class, and even if we don't sign multiple other million+ dollar talents I'd bet we'll land several other mid to high six-figure signings with promise. Isamael Cruz and company have done a very good job.

Gatewood wasn't available to us as he went in the Compensation first round.

Unlikely. The whole "promote 20 year olds from A-ball" thing isn't likely to stick as an actual strategy.

He also struck out Michael Gettys twice today. Gettys was having a pretty good start to his season as well (for a kid with major hitting question marks). That sequence of picks in the 2nd round will be interesting to follow for us moving forward. Reid-Foley, Monte Harrison, and Michael Gettys back-to-back-to-back. All three had first round talent/tools.

MiLB is showing Silverstein now as well.

He's pitching in extended spring training. Its all rehab work still.

So MiLB is listing Tirado as the probable starter for today's game....

Told you guys 100 times that Labourt > Smoral.

He took a job with Perfect Game and just kind of disappeared. It was announced today that he was hired as the National Prospect Writer for D1 Baseball; which seems to be a new site headlined by a few ex BA (Aaron Fitt) and PG (Kendall Rogers) guys.

17 year old who hit for a .754 OPS in the DSL last year. Signed for $250K, ranked #21 IFA in the 2013 IFA class by MLB.com. Will be one to track in the GCL this year.

Chris King ‏@StatsKing 10m10 minutes ago Every time I see Matt Morgan this spring he's throwing out runners. Just hosed Tromp pretty easily #BlueJays

This. The agreements almost always stick. Usually in cases where they don't stick it is because of a failed physical or something.

Not really. He's out for the season, but it shouldn't affect him at all long term as a pitcher. Guys in the NFL who are sprinting, changing directions, and moving piles of 240+ pound monsters are coming back from ACL injuries. A baseball pitcher is putting much less "strain" on their knees by comparison, which is why you don't see pitchers blowing out their knees while pitching.

There are no reports from anyone with any credibility that link him to having a deal with anyone but the Blue Jays, even after that White Sox workout. If other fan bases are "thinking" that their team has him locked up, then their thinking can be described as nothing more than wishful at this point. The difference is that there is general industry consensus linking us to him. As Krylian mentioned; he's probably trying to drive the price up after his hype started to grow.

Kiley McDaniel mentioned in his chat yesterday that as of now it actually looks like the Phillies plan on spending more than the Dodgers. No one ever really brings up the Phillies here.

We can't compete for Moncada anyway so this is a pointless discussion. With tax, Moncada is likely go draw ~$60+ million I'd estimate. Rogers isn't shelling that money for a prospect, period.

I get over Giolito by realizing that had we actually landed him we very likely don't end up with Stroman with the very next pick. With Giolito being a well-over-slot signee I doubt we would have risked #18 on Stroman who was actually falling himself from where he was "projected" to potentially go. We probably instead go with an under-slot kid at #18 to help make up Giolito's bonus.

I saw that bust happening a mile away. That "profile" of player is so easy to see as failing, and there is seemingly one of these in basically every draft: I'm talking about the clearly-not-elite "experienced" collegiate shortstop who either profiles as average at best offensively, or average at best defensively (sometimes both LOL), yet whom people still proclaim as a first round talent despite them CLEARLY not possessing the tools to ever be more than an average or replaceable MLB player. This player typically struggles his junior season after lofty preseason expectations; but they'll always have supporters because "they hit really well as a sophomore" or something similar. Levi Michael, Deven Marrero, Russ Adams, Christian Colon, Grant Green, Reese Havens are all examples of this "guy".

Cole simply wanted to go to college. The Yankees were prepared to pay him WELL over slot, with the planned offer being $4 million I believe. He never even negotiated with them. Kid was from Newport Beach and probably had money growing up; kids like that can afford to have fun on a major college campus for 3 years versus riding around on a bus through crappy US towns to play minor league baseball in front of no one. Nola and Bryant were simply kids who believed they could go to college and increase their stock; and both ended up being correct. We drafted Nola's older brother as well in that same draft in hopes of having them both sign, but both ended up going to LSU (his brother returning). Nola was a home-town kid who was born in Baton Rouge, the city which houses LSU's campus. With Beede there were conflicting reports about us potentially disagreeing with a medical situation that may have popped up during negotiation. Without knowing who "changed" their offer/demand, in those situations there is a somewhat present need to bite the bullet and be confident to walk away from a kid for future negotiation power alone. You don't want to be the team that agents know they can push around and extract extra money from.

Norris was an extremely polarizing prospect by the time the draft actually took place. His command and velocity were both all over the place to round out his senior season of HS ball (and ironically that translated to his Pro debut as well). Despite him still being "ranked" 15th online, it wouldn't surprise me at all if numerous teams had moved him down significantly on their boards, at which point his supposedly huge bonus demands likely took him off the board completely.

McDaniel just tweeted that the '15 IFA class is deeper than it was last year. Good news for us if we actually plan on going big.

I remember when Law was adamant that Norris' streak of improved starts "meant nothing", now he ranks him #18. Dude is a wad; can't stand people who take black/white stances on things they absolutely can't predict either way.

How generous of you to offer us him for a "fair price". Theo Epstein was 'traded' for Chris Carpenter. A 26 year old relief pitcher. How does the price look now you f***ing baboon? You don't think the Red Sox tried pulling the same s*** your f***-head owner is doing LMFAO? "The Red Sox reportedly had aimed high in their initial demands, requesting Cubs ace Matt Garza and even All-Star shortstop Starlin Castro, but the Cubs shot down those options."

Why can't you believe it? We gambled on a premium athlete with a lot of inexperience and it didn't pan out, it happens every year. I will point out that D.J. Davis was an under-slot signing which opened up a lot of versatility for our draft that year; namely being able to draft and sign Matt Smoral in the comp round for a well over-slot bonus.