OT: Donavan Tate taken 3rd overall
Not that it matters anymore, but Donavan Tate was picked 3rd overall in the MLB draft by San Diego.
He committed to North Carolina for football this past season. I knew he was a good baseball prospect, but I didn't know 3rd overall good.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/draft2009/news/story?id=4246340
TomVH beat me to this post, but I agree. I heard he was going to be a high draft pick as well, but not this high. I wonder if the money will be good enough to lure him away from college football, a la Joe Mauer or someone else (numerous examples could apply here).
henson...
In fact,he could excel at any sport if he were to put in the time and work. Football was only a hobby with him.
realistically? its like the NFL draft, right? They pay mostly based on your slot. So choosing baseball later isn't going to improve his first paycheck very much.
I guess if he loves football more and thinks he can make more money later its a choice, but it seems like a pretty no brain decision.
That's not necessarily true. Porcello was paid more than most of the players in the first round and he was taken 27th or so if I recall correctly. It depends on leverage. Tate has a shitload of leverage because once he steps foot in class, he can't be signed and the team that drafted him will lose his rights. He might not get the Scott Boras special (that is, a major league contract) but he will get an offer that will be hard to refuse. I doubt that he would have been drafted this high if the team that took him didn't realistically think they could sign him.
still only made top 10 money or so, right? You're right though. If I recall Porcello got that money because a lot of teams evaluated him as a top 10 talent, but were worried about Boras screwing them over in contract negotiations.
Right. That's why the Tigers got him so late. I think that the Nationals would have passed on Strasburg for the same reason if they wouldn't have been buried for doing so.
No, the Nats will sign him. They've been running a tight budget the last few years and because they haven't made any big acquisitions except Adam Dunn, they have the money. The only way this deal doesn't go through is if Strasburg nixes it, and let's face it, he'll probably be the ace of an NL team in a big city from day one. Pretty sweet deal when you'll get the kind of money he will. The Nationals would have passed on him if they didn't think they'd be able to sign him ... and remember whoever passed on Prior back in the '01 draft did exactly that.
don't sign him, they'll get the 2nd pick next year for not signing him I believe. If it works like I think, that'd be two picks in the top 5 next year for them. They'll sign him though. He's the best pitching prospect in the draft in a long long time.
He still might not want to get hurt and risk his future ability in baseball.
He signed a record 7.3 million contract guaranteed over 4 years.
No telling what he will be like in the second half but so far he has been great. Worth every penny.
Yeah, I can't imagine him walking away from the money. I had a buddy taken 30th overall, in the '03 draft, and he got $900,000 signing bonus. I can't even imagine what the #3 gets, and seven years later. Probably 2-3 million.
Last year's #3 pick, Eric Hosmer got 6 million, but he was a Boras guy. #4 guy, Brian Matusz got 3.2 million, but he was a college guy and had less leverage than Tate had. I'd guess 4 million plus.
he got like 200,000 signing bonus, not that it helps
Guys that teams know for sure are unlikely to sign regardless usually don't get drafted in the first round. A guy a year ahead of me in high school was one of those -- everyone knew he was going to Stanford, so rather than blow a pick on him in the mid to late first round or any other top round, he fell way down. The top programs that double as top academic schools (Stanford, Rice, Vandy) don't lose many guys to the draft.
I'm sure Tate was picked with the assumption of signing him. That said, high school guys getting a major league deal is usually a bad idea. Porcello was regularly mentioned as "the best right handed high school pitcher prospect since Josh Beckett". Tate is a great athlete with a sky-high ceiling but he needs some real development time. Porcello is the rarity.
Bryce Harper is the rarity.
while watching the Big Ten Championship(in AA). I remember hearing Sam bitch about this "kid", that He was here to Scout. Sam stated " can you believe this kid wants $300,000 to sign?". That "kid" was Barry Larkin. Sam also told me that when He was the Coach of the Minn. Twins He coached Billy Martin as a player. I asked what Billy Martin was like to coach and He smiled and said that when the team took a bus ride just to mess with the "boss" Billy would always sit in the owners seat just so the team owner would have to ask Billy Martin to move. Sitting next to Sam for a weekend of baseball was a weekend well spent. Yes, I got Sam Mele's autograph and Barry Larkin's autograph on the same program-who could of known?
has to fit unto their recruiting class.
Tate when this early. I told people back when we were recruiting not to get your hopes up even if he committed to Michigan because I always thought he was a top 10 pick who would end up playing baseball. This is another guy UNC won't have to fit into their class. He's playing baseball. I was just hoping he'd somehow fall to Detroit at #9. Either way, we still got a good young arm in Jacob Turner to hopefully add to the rotation in 3 or 4 years.