Official 2008 MBL DRAFT

[Pharmcat]

very encouragin news, its amazing how much this farm has come from the last 3-4 years

[nykgeneralmanager]

According to Baseball America, Chris Smith has signed. Huge, huge news.

[Jakespeare]

I have a feeling that it any Cole signing will go down to the wire.

[nykgeneralmanager]

I think that a deal with Cole will be reached well before the deadline, but Selig will hold it on his desk until the deadline like he always does with any bonus that is overslot, which Cole will most definitely be. It sucks and isn't fair because these kids end up losing a summer of playing in the minors, but thats how he does it and its another reason that the financial side of baseball is such a mess.

[Pharmcat]

marshall signed

[nykgeneralmanager]

Marshall is a really nice signing, 850k to buy him out of his commitment to Rice. He has an incredible arm. Interestingly there were other teams interested in drafting him in the 3rd round (Sox, Mets, Royals among others) and he told them don't take him because there was a 0% chance he'd sign with them, we were the only team he would pass up Rice for.

There are reports that Boras is asking for $10 million for Cole, which is just ridiculous. It would be the highest signing bonus ever, and even though he would've been a top 10 pick if Boras wasn't his agent and he wasn't a signability case, you still can't set a bonus record with the 28th pick. Should be really interesting in terms of what happens as the deadline gets closer.

[Jitpal]

I would imagine Cole will sign for Porcello type money. I don't see the Yankees passing up his type of talent for $1-2 million. -Jitpal

[Pharmcat]

yea cole will get signed, no worries

[rappa]

yea cole will get signed, no worries

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...-over-yankees/

If Kandi didn't say he would sign then this wouldn't be a problem. He never says anything of truth ever!

[PR07]

Cole is not signing. Bummer.

[cmaff051]

How the **** does he not get signed? Heads need to roll at the Yankee's Scouting department. It's absolutely absurd that a team that charges $100 a ticket can't sign its first round draft pick.

[Pharmcat]

no cole, and that means this is one of the worst draft yanks have had, aside from marshall, no one has any upside to write home about

[nykgeneralmanager]

Cole not signing had nothing to do with money, he made a personal decision. There is no doubt that the Yankees were misled back in June. Now we'll have two 1st rd picks next year.

[SARGO127]

We'll have like 8 1st rounders next year.

[Pharmcat]

Cole not signing had nothing to do with money, he made a personal decision. There is no doubt that the Yankees were misled back in June. Now we'll have two 1st rd picks next year.

mislead by cole, didnt pick up kennedys attitude problem, nothing good in the IFA this year, this scouting dept seems to be doing nothing + of late except for taking kickbacks or watever that scandal is going on

[nykgeneralmanager]

Cole not signing had nothing to do with money, he made a personal decision. There is no doubt that the Yankees were misled back in June. Now we'll have two 1st rd picks next year.

mislead by cole, didnt pick up kennedys attitude problem, nothing good in the IFA this year, this scouting dept seems to be doing nothing + of late except for taking kickbacks or watever that scandal is going on

There wasn't anything we could've done about Cole, there was zero indication from him or Boras back in June about his decision...it was definitely something new that really couldn't have been prevented. As for Kennedy's attitude, same thing...there was no such indication for them to pick up on. If anything, the attitude came after he dominated all 3 levels of the minors in a four month span, it wasn't anything before the draft.

But you're right about everything else, the IFA class was a joke but supposedly the Yankees are in on two big time guys who are turning 16 this month but were too young to be signed on July 2nd...but we'll see about that because we've heard a lot of things.

Overall the draft wasn't that bad, but it looks horrible when you don't sign your 1st or 2nd round picks. The issue with the baseball draft is that you cannot give these kids medical exams before the draft, and the Yankees found something wrong with Bittle's shoulder after the draft. I guess the only good thing is that we'll get those two picks back next year thanks to the new rules of the draft, so we will be absolutely loaded in next year's draft. Two first round picks and two second round picks BEFORE any of our free agents even leave. We signed a lot of signability cases that we went overslot for, so the draft was pretty good minus the disaster of Cole and the disappointment of Bittle's injury.