NoMaas’ Yankee Draft Blog

Gerrit Cole does not sign. Cole was a dynamic pitching prospect the likes of which the Yankees haven’t drafted since Brien Taylor (this includes Hughes and Joba). Losing him is a huge blow, but if it was simply an issue of being mislead, it’s tough to kill the Yankees over this one. With that said, it’s not a great night to be a fan of the draft.

I’ll be back with more tomorrow and in the coming days to do summary and follow up, but overall the draft is not a poor one. The Yankees took some talent and went over slot several times to land kids with high upside. Just because they signed earlier doesn’t make them any less talented or desirable. The Yankees had a very solid but unspectacular draft. At first glance, having everything to do with ceilings and nothing to do with how it actually pans out, I’d say the draft is a C+/B-.

I reserve the right to ammend that as I review it in more detail, though. Back with more later, but for now sleep beckons.

I wish things would have turned out better tonight, fellow draftniks.

Baseball America has the details, and the numbers were just about exactly what I’d thought they’d be:

As reported earlier, the Yankees signed 27th-round draft pick Gordon Lassiter. Baseball America since has learned that his bonus was $600,000, the equivalent of slot money for the 68th overall choice (second round).

I’m still hoping that either Cole signs, or the Cole bounty gets spread around a little and we get a few more of the guys whose pricetags were too high.

Just under three hours left…

Hey, Gerrit Cole: The top college pitcher in this draft, the 5th overall selection, and a lefty to boot, has signed today for a $3.2 million bonus.

No one believes you that it’s not about the money - you’d be getting more than the top college pitcher this year. For whatever reason you could possibly give for not signing (besides some kind of mental condition), we all know it’s a front.

Hopefully the Yankees will sign you, but if they don’t bend to an insane money-grab, I won’t be surprised (see: Inoa, Michael). In the end though, we know this is all about the cash.

As a former Yankee legend once said: It must be the money.

We’ve all seen the picture by now, but in case you haven’t here is the now infamous phot of an 11 year old Gerrit Cole in Arizona before Game 6 of the 2001 World Series.

(Photo courtesy of Deadspin)

Do you honestly believe that the following sequence of events has taken place?

1) Cole admits to checking info about his status prior to the draft, and that without performing well, he wouldn’t have the prospect status that he does. If a kid was even close to thinking that he would never actually entertain the notion of a negotiation, do you think he would care much about his draft status?

2) Cole is from a family that traveled hours to watch their favorite team in the World Series. He’s admitted the sign was not his, that he picked it up from a couple of other Yankee fans that had left, but he’s wearing a Yankee jersey and hat in an opposing team’s stadium for the most important game of the year. So he’s basically been picked by his favorite team.

3) Cole is clearly going to be getting upwards of $4 million if he signs. This isn’t a case where the team is offering first round slot money of any kind, and that inlcudes the first overall slot. He’s getting what will end up being one of the 5-10 best bonuses in the draft.

4) Cole has no reason to go to school assuming the reason he doesn’t want to sign has to do with some kind of social anxiety disorder. The kid is a BASEBALL player. He already throws 98 MPH and is from the BASEBALL hotbed of SoCal. He’s only going to UCLA because of a BASEBALL scholarship. His stated goal in the above interview is to play BASEBALL in the Major Leagues. What is he going to do at UCLA? Become an astrophysicist? A chiropractor? A veterinarian?

5) There is no way the Yankees would take a shot in the dark on a kid in the first round. None. They had to have gotten some sort of confirmation prior to making the pick, either through the family or through Boras, that Cole was ammenable, in some way, to signing.

His goal is to play in the Majors, he’s been given the opportunity to do so by the team he grew up rooting for, at a payscale that even the best college pitchers would love to see, and he supposedly doesn’t want to negotiate.

It doesn’t add up. Something is going on behind the scenes.

Believe he’s going to Westwood only when it becomes official. And if it does become official, question the kid’s mental fortitude and/or decision making ability. Not because he chose to go to college, but the manner in which he did so. Alex Meyer and Sonny Gray both informed teams quite clearly before the draft that they had no intention of signing professional contracts, and would not be worth drafting in the first round (or at all for that matter). Gerrit Cole gave indicators prior to the draft that he was interested, and now supposedly won’t even negotiate. If it all comes true, there’s something very wrong with the kid and or his family’s ethics.

…and many times people who cover baseball for a living trip up when they try and undertake covering the Rule 4 draft. It’s understandable because the rules of the draft itself are so inherently different from any other of the major sports, but sometimes in an attempt to offer up news on a subject that they aren’t familiar with mainstream writers create confusion instead of information.

Today in his blog, Peter Abraham of The Journal News calls into question the wisdom of Gerrit Cole’s father to control negotiations with the Yankees.

Last week came word that the player’s father was running the show instead of Scott Boras. That’s certainly the family’s right. But it’s usually best to leave such things to the pros.

Actually this is totally incorrect, as Scott Boras is Cole’s advisor, not his agent. If Boras were to act in the capacity of an agent in this case, Cole would lose the ability to attend UCLA at all. When it comes to MLB draftpicks, at the very least the PERCEPTION that the negotiations are going through the family has to be in place. Reports that Cole’s dad are running negotiations are not at all curious, and are actually quite common. Another Yankees draftee in 2008, 10th rounder DJ Mitchell, had his negotiations presided over by his mother.

Many die hard draft fans will remember the case of Matt Harvey from last year. Harvey was the prep RHP from Connecticut who was comitted to UNC and fell due to signability concerns. When the last week of the signing period came, the Angels said they had not heard back at all from Boras after attempting to contact him.

“We’ve made several attempts to contact the family through Scott’s office, and they’ve had absolutely no interest in talking to us,” Bane said. “Neither Scott nor the family has negotiated one dime with us. They’ve refused to answer our calls.”

Notice how Eddie Bane, the Angels scouting director, words his quote - he was trying to contact the family.

The follow-up paragraph makes the position more clear.

Boras said his office “has not received any calls from the Angels regarding Harvey,” and even if it did, NCAA rules prohibit him from dealing with the Angels directly. He can only advise Harvey, who has signed a letter of intent with college power North Carolina.

Now, of course there are ways around it, but the bottom line here is that it is not in the least bit curious that Gerrit Cole’s father is being publicly saddled with making the decision here. It is actually the thing you should expect to hear.

Whether or not the decision is good or bad is another issue, but there are rules to the MLB draft, and the news of Gerrit’s father making the decisions falls in line perfectly with them.

In my conversations with Damon Oppenheimer both Ben McMahan and Chris Dwyer had large pricetags that the Yankees were unwilling to meet. If Gerrit Cole does in fact attend UCLA, that frees up $4 million+, and the increases that the Yankees would have to make in order to sign these two probably totals less than $500K.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, as Dwyer and McMahan were not signed because of money/injury - it had nothing to do with the Yankees finding flaw in their performance. So, if there’s suddenly several million dollars unused, do they use a small portion, maybe 10% of it, to bring in two more prospects?

As disappointing as Cole not signing would be, this has certainly made the 2008 signing period the most interesting one in recent memory.

As first reported last night by the NY Times’ Tyler Kepner, Yankees 1st-round pick and high school fireballer, Gerritt Cole, is rejecting the dollars of the Yankees for UCLA.  This is a stunning development to say the least.  With so many questions from fans about this story, we decided to go straight to the source for further clarification.  Here is what Kepner told us at NoMaas about 10 minutes ago:

From what I understand, the Yankees drafted Cole believing he would sign with them and wanted to play pro ball. Negotiations were not set to start until late, as usual with Scott Boras clients. By the time they really started to talk, Cole and his father said Cole was committed to college and they did not even want to hear offers from the Yankees. I am quite sure the Yanks would have paid over-slot for him, as is their custom, but in the end it made no difference because he didn’t even want to hear an offer. Now, there is still time before the deadline and Boras is known for (literally) last-minute deals. But the impression I got late last night was that this thing was dead, no turning back, and the Yanks will take the pick next June.

Both SI.com and our boy T-Kep over at the NYT are reporting that 1st round pick Gerrit Cole is not going to be signing, and will be attending UCLA to play baseball. Supposedly it’s not about the money, but we’re talking about a kid who grew up a Yankees fan, and has no real chance to get a significant bump in terms of his bonus by attending college.

Two things here:

1) Believe it only when midnight, 8/15 comes.

2) This is a VERY big deal. Don’t let anyone try and convince you otherwise. YES, the Yankees get a comsensatory pick next year, and YES it may be nice to have in light of the Ben Sabathex sweepstakes. However, Cole is insanely talented. He literally had the best fastball of any high schooler in the draft, and maybe any player in the draft, period. It is not a given that a talent similar to him falls next year to the back of the first round, where the compensatory pick will be. Being able to sign a player like Gerrit Cole while picking in the back end of the draft is a privelage, not a right. Gerrit Cole would have instantly been the Yankees best pitching prospect, and possibly could have challenged AJax for top prospect in the system. This will not happen every year, and losing out on having Cole in the farm system is not mitigated to any significant degree by having an additional pick next year.

Again though, refer to point 1 until tomorrow evening.  

With 9th overall pick Aaron Crow having signed with the infamous Fort Worth Cats, news comes of another first rounder contemplating playing independently for a year if he doesn’t get what he’s asking for.

7th overall pick, Yonder Alonso is seriously considering not signing a deal with the Reds. Evidently he’s considering playing for an independent league in the northeast, specifically the tri-state area. Why would a Miami boy turn down a pro contract and risk everything to play a year of minor league ball in an independent league? Turns out the stories we heard before the draft about a special friendship he had with a certain New York Yankee were true:

I talked to Yonder Alonso a little bit ago. He was sticking to his tough stance, saying he wouldn’t sign unless the Reds gave him what he wanted, which is believed to be a big league contract worth $7 million.

I thought this would get done. But what I hadn’t count on is the ARod factor. Alex Rodriguez, that Alex Rodriguez, is Alonso workout partner and friend. ARod has told Alonso if things don’t work to his liking, he welcome to live with Rodiguez next season and play for Newark or Long Island of the Atlantic League. My guess ARod doesn’t live in fifth floor walk-up.

In the entry, Alonso tells the writer that if the Reds stop talks at $3 million, he’ll take A-Rod up on his offer.  The big first baseman from The U is everything the Yankees are looking for to fill the void they will have in the future at 1B. Big power, exceptional plate discipline, and young.

This could be very interesting as the drive to the deadline plays out.

I got such an overwhelming response to the interview with Mr. Oppenheimer last week that I was able to do a follow-up version with him today. I hope you all enjoy this information as much as I do, because it is the kind of stuff that we draft fans have searched high and low for over the years, yet were unable to find.

Lane Meyer: The general consensus is I’ve gotten is that Cole, Bleich, and Lassiter may be complicated negotiations, but have better than even odds of getting done.  Without asking for too much detail, would you say that negotiations in those three cases are going well?

Damon Oppenheimer: We’re still making progress on all fronts with those guys, still trying to work forward.  None of them is a slam dunk, but we’re optimistic and hope that people will make the right decisions.  Again though, none of them is a slam dunk by any means.

LM: Justin Harper has shown you flashes of his potential this summer.  Has he shown you enough though, at this point?

DO: Justin, no, I don’t think so.  I think it’s a situation where he’s going to be going back to school.

LM: Another one of your “California Kids,” Mykal Stokes plays a great CF.  The only information out there on him was that he had an offer to Oregon but had to get his test scores up to officially receive it.  Is there any news on his standing with the Yankees?

DO: Mykal’s going to school.  He’d be a long range prospect - he’s a bit raw. It’s in his best interest to go to school where he can get more reps and more play to develop.

LM: The fact that there are a few quality Type-A free agents out there this summer has us at NoMaas thinking that perhaps Scott Bittle returning to UM isn’t the worst thing that could happen.  Does the fact that you get a replacement pick factor into your negotiations with picks like Bittle?

DO: It gives you a little more to fall back on.  If you don’t sign the player you no longer have the feeling that you’ve lost everything because next year we would have pick number 75A.  With the new system it’s no longer life and death - you aren’t held hostage by the pick’s value, because you can recover some of it the following year.

LM: You said last week that Dwyer, McMahan, and Summers were not likely, but that negotiations were still ongoing.  I’ve nicknamed these three guys “The Gifts,” and draft fans have been hoping for a Christmas/Hanukkah in August.  Is there any realistic chance that the fans get one of these gifts come Friday?

DO: The chances are pretty slim.  McMahan has really been quality throughout this entire process.  His pricetag has never dropped though, and his interest in [The University of] Florida has remained spiked, so it’s probably not going to happen.   Dwyer, well we discussed that one last week, it’s just unfortunate that we weren’t able to evaluate him. Matt is more than likely to end up at Irvine.  We see the tools, but they’re raw, and we don’t want him spending two years in Gulf Coast.

LM: Is that something that you actively try to avoid as an organization?

DO: Yes, doubling up in Gulf Coast is very hard on guys.  We don’t like doing it.  It’s a great drain both mentally and physically, and it’s better that these kids go to school to develop.  With the young OF talent we have and more Latin American kids on the way, we’re not going to put a kid through that.

LM: I had a reader send me an intriguing question - What would you say the differences are between Cole and Marshall?  Is it mostly about body and projectability at this point?  The more we hear about Brett, the more the gap between the two seems to decrease.

DO: I think you’re going to find out that we’ve got a real, quality prospect in Brett.  The differences between him and Cole are a couple of MPH and a couple of inches in height.  Marshall has a better breaking ball right now and also probably better command of the strikezone.  But I think you’re going to realize just what a quality prospect he is as he pitches.

LM: When do you finally get a chance to rest?

DO: Well, Friday is the deadline and then I leave Saturday morning for the Under Armour Tournament at Wrigley in Chicago.  I’ll watch some of the kids for 2009 there on Sunday, and then Monday I’ll be at organizational meetings about the farm. I don’t think there’s much rest coming anytime soon!

So, it looks like we can add Harper, Summers, and Stokes to officially out, and McMahan and Dwyer are both highly, highly unlikely. If you’ve been following the blog all along, it doesn’t look like we’ll get many, if any, surprises on Friday, but the class as a whole has to be seen as a great success.

When I told Mr. Oppenheimer about the e-mails and comments I received regarding his initial interview at the NoMaas Yankee Draft Blog, thanking him for the information, he was legitimately happy that he could give us information on the draft that we genuinely appreciated. 

I’ll continue to provide information as I receive it, but it seems like the class is pretty well set. The deadline is two days away…