2017 MLB Draft

[Neddy]

I know a 30th rounders aren't considered to be a serious prospect, but have you guys seen Chris Roller's CC stats? the guy was hitting better than .400 with better than .700 slugging. he stole 32 bags in 34 attempts. better than .500 OBP to boot. I know the competition is highly questionable, but he was practically Ted Williams plus Rickey Henderson in his league. all those stats came in just 50-ish games.

[Ranma]

You guys know I wanted us to draft Cole Bellinger albeit with designs of him being an eventual 2B than RHP, but he was supposedly a hard sign. I still wanted to take a flyer on him, but was not as bummed missing out on him than Alex Scherff. He probably signed for over the $125,000 allotted for his draft slot, so I wonder how much the Padres got him for. I just knew Logan White would convince him given his history of convincing previous Dodger draftees to sign on the dotted line.

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However, White has been known to be persuasive in convincing kids to join the Dodgers organization back in the day, but I'm not sure he'll be involved in such negotiations for the Padres now.

[Ranma]

My apologies, guys, as I'm sure you're getting tired of me harping about Alex Scherff, but the more news I come across about him, the more it irritates me. He officially signed for $700,000 and he just made Baseball America's 2017 High School All-America (1st) Team. We presumably could have paid him slightly more than the amount designated for Dodgers third-round selection Connor Wong without paying him more than the $822,500 received going to fourth-rounder James Marinan.

I know we're trying to divert funds to pay Jeren Kendall, but seriously, how much money does this kid need when he still has to learn how to make contact? The difference between what we gave our fifth-round pick and what the Red Sox gave theirs was a little over half a million dollars. It may be easier said than done, especially with over-slot deals for Kendall and Marinan, but we should have found a way to find money for Scherff given that relatively paltry amount.

By the way, none of our top draftees among the first 3 rounds--including second-round pick Morgan Cooper--have signed as of yet. I'm going ballistic if any of these guys don't sign when Scherff just put his name on a contract for the Red Sox.

MLB.com (6/30/17)

2017 Draft: Signing and Bonus Tracker


Carlos Collazo, Baseball America (6/27/17)

High School All-America Team: Gore, Adell Lead Top Preps

[Ranma]

Jim Callis, MLB.com (7/5/17)

With the Draft signing deadline fast approaching, six first-round choices have yet to agree to terms. But sources indicate all six should finalize agreements by 5 p.m. ET on Friday, as should the vast majority of the 19 remaining unsigned players in the top 10 rounds.
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The Dodgers and Cubs have the most unsigned selections in the first 10 rounds, with three each. Kendall, Texas right-hander Morgan Cooper (second round) and Houston catcher Connor Wong (third) all are expected to come to terms with Los Angeles.
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First round
2. Reds: Hunter Greene, RHP/SS, Notre Dame HS (Sherman Oaks, Calif.)
15. Astros: J.B. Bukauskas, RHP, North Carolina
20. Mets: David Peterson, LHP, Oregon
23. Dodgers: Jeren Kendall, OF, Vanderbilt
25. Nationals: Seth Romero, LHP, Houston (dismissed from team)
30. Cubs: Alex Lange, RHP, Louisiana State
Supplemental first round
31. Rays: Drew Rasmussen, RHP, Oregon State
Second round
62. Dodgers: Morgan Cooper, RHP, Texas
Third round
82. Diamondbacks: Matt Tabor, RHP, Milton (Mass.) Academy
100. Dodgers: Connor Wong, C, Houston
Fourth round
128. Orioles: Jack Conlon, RHP, Clements HS (Sugar Land, Texas)
131. Red Sox Jake Thompson, RHP, Oregon State
133. Nationals: Cole Freeman, 2B, Louisiana State
Fifth round
145. Angels: Jo Jo Booker, RHP, Miller HS (Brewton, Ala.)
165. Cubs: Nelson Velazquez, OF, PJ. Education HS (Carolina, P.R.)
Sixth round
173. Phillies: Dalton Guthrie, SS, Florida
192. Indians: Mike Rivera, C, Florida
195. Cubs: Jeremiah Estrada, RHP, Palm Desert (Calif.) HS
Tenth round
301. Astros: Kyle Serrano, RHP, Tennessee

Six First Rounders Unsigned as Deadline Approaches

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[Ranma]

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Eric Longenhagen, FanGraphs.com (7/6/17)

The Dodgers have yet to sign any of their first three picks, Vanderbilt CF Jeren Kendall, Texas RHP Morgan Cooper, and Houston C/INF Conner Wong. Kentucky RHP Zach Pop, the team’s seventh rounder, signed but for an undisclosed amount. If we assume he signed for something close to slot, then Los Angeles has about $4.2 million to get those first three signed. Kendall’s slot is for $2.7 million, Cooper’s just over $1 million, Wong’s $537,000.

Daily Prospect Notes: 7/6

[Ranma]

I'm certainly relieved that we signed 33 of our draft picks including all those drafted in the first 10 rounds, but you're going to see me complain again a little bit later. In the meantime, this draft's success was primarily dependent on signing Kendall and we did. In fact, we got him cheaper than anticipated at just under $200,00 over slot for a total signing bonus just under $3 million. This is a slam dunk considering he was considered a top-5 talent who fell down the drat board due to signability concerns.

Also, as expected second-rounder Cooper was signed under slot and I suspect we'll see him have surgery in the near term. Third-rounder Wong signed and this is where I'm scratching my head. As I mentioned, I actually liked him at that particular draft slot and he was ranked around there on a draft board or two. While I previously stated that I suspect Wong of playing hard ball in negotiations, I still expected him to come under slot. Instead he was paid just a littler over slot and $137,000 more $162,900 less than what Alex Scherff signed for. Now the argument could be made that if Scherff was taken at the spot, he'd ask for similar money given to Wong, which is not an unreasonable assumption.

However, this doesn't change the fact that we passed over Scherff for Wong. I want to repeat what I've said before that I have nothing against Wong since he fits into the mold of versatile catching prospects this organizations finds appealing, but Scherff was rated much higher and ended up signing for relatively little.

This draft seemed to have a lot of players picked to shave money off most of our top 10-round picks in order to divert funds to Kendall, but it turns out that it didn't take that much to bring him onboard. Interestingly, 11th-rounder Amaya got almost double what his selection slot is allotted for. I have nothing against Amaya either as he sounds like another nice get, but the whole result seems a little underwhelming overall.

Again, this draft initially is a winner by signing Kendall and adding more to our depth, but I wanted to add another highly rated prospect in Scherff to make it a a really good one. Scherff over Ottesen in the 5th round or Wong in the the 3rd round. We finally went with a swing-for-the fences selection in the first round while still adding quality depth with most of our remaining picks,
but we inexplicably failed to jump at an available opportunity to select someone who I was particularly high on. It is further infuriating that we could have and should have taken Scherff with selections used on prospects that don't look like they'd be particularly missed too much if they departed.

In any case, outside of snubbing Scherff, I don't see any other particular losses in the 7 draftees who did not and will not sign. I really didn't want to complain about this draft given how well it went overall, but I can't help but question and be critical of this one blemish I see in not properly prioritizing a particular favorite of mine with regard to capitalizing on a rare available opportunity to add arguably another first-round talent at a lower draft position. We just didn't make the most of our opportunities in this instance.

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Dustin Nosler, DodgersDigest.com (7/7/17)

The entire draft was contingent on Kendall signing, and even though it took until the final day, it was worth the gamble. I thought the bonus might be a little more considering we got to deadline day without a deal, but who am I to criticize an agent and team for haggling over $200,000? Cooper came in under slot while Wong came in at just over slot.
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The Dodgers also signed 17th-rounder Nathan Witt and 20th-rounder Donovan Casey — both of whom I was expecting would go back to school. They didn’t, and that makes the draft class even stronger.

Dodgers Sign Top Draft Pick Jeren Kendall, Others Ahead of Deadline


Eric Stephen, TrueBlueLA.com (7/7/17)

Dodgers 2017 MLB Draft Tracker

[Quake Griffin]

Whats the word on James Marinan signing for double his slot value?


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[Ranma]

Whats the word on James Marinan signing for double his slot value?

The Dodgers seem to value Marinan about as much as Cooper, which coincides with Hood's ranking of him as well. Callis also considered Marinan to be worthy of a second-round selection so there seems to be a consensus among the experts I trust. Cooper signed for $870,000 as the 62nd overall pick while Marinan signed for a similar amount of $825,000 when Hood had him ranked right after that selection slot at 63rd overall. Granted Cooper probably gave a discount because he might need surgery in the short term, but they both seem to be practically of the same value based on the experts I've cited.

Both Callis and Mayo like the Marinan pick and the kid seems to be a late-riser similar to Mitchell White last year but not as polished despite a potentially better fastball. Talk of him having a feel for spin, which is big for this organization, has him more like Dustin May as a prospect. Seems like a good value at this draft slot.
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Jim Callis is really high on the Dodgers' selection of Jeren Kendall as his favorite pick of the draft calling it a "tremendous value". However, he also noted during the 6/16/17: 2017 MLB Draft Recap podcast for MLB Pipeline that he was surprised that Alex Scherff was taken in the fifth round as he considered him a first-round arm calling him an absolute steal at that selection slot. He mentions his impressive fastball and advanced changeup while noting concerns about his lack of feel for spin, unpolished delivery, and makeup question marks since his dad was the one who directed him to change high schools every year.

In the same podcast, Jonathan Mayo noted that the Dodgers made a high-upside pick in James Marinan in the fourth round as a prep pitcher who continued to perform after "popping up" on scouts' radars. Unlike my initial projection, Mayo figures he will be an over-slot signing that he feels slipped down the draft board as a second-round-worthy talent.

[Ranma]

I have to say that that Jacob Amaya's signing reminds me of Joc Pederson's back in 2010. Granted it's not as much as what Joc signed for but that was before MLB instituted assigned slot values to draft picks. Both were 11th-round selections with commitments to Southern California schools with Amaya set for Cal Sate Fullerton and Pederson for USC. Both also have bloodlines with the Dodgers organization as well given that Joc's dad had a cup of coffee with the big league team in 1985 and Amaya's grandfather was a career minor leaguer.

I'm not saying they're the same level of talent. Just that they share similarities in background.

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[Ranma]

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