At the stroke of midnight last night teams forfeited their rights to negotiate with unsigned picks, which is a fancy way of saying the kid is going to/back to college. A lot of young men received a life changing amount of money in exchange for agreeing to play a game for a living, and I envy every single on of them.

As expected the Yankees didn’t sign their top pick, SoCal high schooler Gerrit Cole, who instead choose to attend to UCLA. Apparently it wasn’t so much the money that was a problem, rather Cole and his family just really wanted him to go to college. So be it, it’s his right to choose. The Yanks also didn’t come to terms with their second round pick, RHP Scott Bittle out of Ole Miss. He had some shoulder issues, but refused to cut a deal. I hate too see kids turn down ridiculously large amounts of money like this, for their sake it hope it works out for them.

Sandwich rounder and ex-Stanford ace Jeremy Bleich agreed to a $700,000 signing bonus, which is actually below slot by about $160,000. He did miss time with the elbow strain this spring, but he came back to pitch well in the NCAA postseason. That said, he is a Boras client, and those guys never sign for below slot. That’s a good indication that the elbow might still be an issue.

On to the good news. The Yanks cut a deal with 27th round pick Garrison Lassiter yesterday, forking over $675,000 to sign the talented prep shortstop. Lassiter might have the highest ceiling of any player the Yanks drafted thanks to his picturesque swing and electric bat speed, but just about every aspect of his game needs to be refined. He’s an extremely high ceiling player, but also a very low probability guy.

The Yanks will receive compensation picks for their failure to sign Cole and Bittle, officially dubbed picks #28A and 75A in next year’s draft. Since the Nationals were unable to agree to terms with their top pick, Missouri RHP Aaron Crow, they will receive pick #9A as compensation. The Mariners haven’t signed their top pick, Georgia closer Josh Fields, yet, but because he is a senior with no college eligibility remaining the deadline does not apply to him, and he is free to sign at any point until next year’s draft. He will certainly do that at some point. So what all this means is that pick #28A will essentially be the 30th overall pick. We won’t know the actual spot of the 75A pick until the length of the sandwich round is settled via free agency this winter. It could get pushed back as far as #90-100 overall. The compensation picks are protected, and can not be lost as the result of signing Type-A free agents.

When it was all said and done, the Yanks inked 26 of their first 30 selections, at least five of which received over-slot bonuses. The highest bonus paid was the $850,000 given to 6th rounder Brett Marshall, and this marks the first time since 2002 that the Yankees did not hand out a seven-figure bonus. Overall, it’s a rather mediocre draft class, and a lot is hinging on the status of Bleich’s elbow. You can see all of the Yankees picks here, while BA’s Draft Blog has you covered on all fronts.

Damon Oppenheimer & Co. have had finer moments.

So says an anonymous source of Tyler Kepner’s. I don’t buy it, both Mike Moustakas and Josh Vitters pulled the same stuff last year. If Cole does go to UCLA, the Yanks will get pick #28A in next year’s draft, which for all intents and purposes is pick #29. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Frequent RAB commentor Eric Sanlnocencio spoke with Baseball America’s Jim Callis in the latest edition of Baseball Digest Daily’s podcast. The conversation starts around the 19:00 minute mark, and Callis drops some knowledge on some of the top unsigned players, of course touching on Gerrit Cole. The signing deadline is this coming Friday. Check it out.

MLB.com draft guru Jonathan Mayo has posted a small update on the status of the 11 first round picks that remain unsigned, four of which are represented by Boras. He notes that both Gerrit Cole (1st round) and Jeremy Bleich (sandwich round) are expected to sign with the Yanks, however second rounder Scott Bittle is not. A routine physical showed significant wear and tear on the righty’s throwing shoulder about a month ago, leading to an breakdown in contract negotiations. If Bittle doesn’t sign, the Yanks will receive a compensation pick following the second round of next year’s draft. Bleich is the only unsigned sandwich pick now that the Giants locked up Conor Gillaspie.

Update (1:20pm): Pending Pinstripes had a chance to sit down and chat with the recently signed Brett Marshall. Check it out. (can you tell the kid just got out of high school, or what?)

Via Ken Davidoff, the Yanks have signed their seventh round pick, California prep catcher Kyle Higashioka, to a deal worth approximately $400,000. Rated the 77th best prospect in the state by Baseball America, they describe him as a superb defensive catcher with interesting power potential. The deal is roughly $250,000 overslot, and buys him out of a commitment to Cal. Austin Romine, Jesus Montero & Higashioka are an eviably trio of lower level catching prospects. (h/t to Patrick)

Via The Clarion Ledger comes word that contract negotiations between the Yankees and second round pick Scott Bittle have reached an impasse after a physical showed “wear and tear” on his throwing shoulder. No surprise here, Bittle and his agent say he’s fine. The 75th overall pick threw 70.2 innings as Ole Miss’s closer this season, which is right in line with the typical workload of a top college reliever. If the Yanks don’t come to terms with Bittle, they’ll receive a compensation pick after the second round next year as per MLB’s latest draft rule change. Obviously you’d rather have the player now instead of the pick later.

Just for a historical note, the Padres discovered that Tim Stauffer had a fatigued shoulder after signing him to a $2.6M deal as the 4th overall pick of the 2003 draft. Stauffer’s bonus was adjusted down to $750,000, and he’s gone on to have an unspectacular career thus far. He’s currently coming back from Tommy John surgery.

The Roanoke Times has the news. I wrote up O’Brien on draft day, so you can find more info about him here. If he wasn’t a 5′-11″ righthander, O’Brien would be considered a much sexier prospect. He passed on a 98% scholarship to Winthrop, so I suspect his signing bonus is rather large, probably in the $300,000 to $500,000 range, although that’s nothing more than a guess. A solid addition to the farm system. (h/t to Pending Pinstripes)

Update: Lane Meyer points out that O’Brien is also a Type 1 diabetic. Teams tend to be concerned about a player’s ability to hold up over a long season if he’s a diabetic, and I can’t say I really blame them. Current Yankee farmhand Bradley Suttle is also a Type 1 diabetic.

I missed this one while I was out of town at the end of last week. Tim Beckham, the first overall pick in this year’s draft, agreed to a record $6.15M deal, bringing in $50,000 more than The Justin Upton did in 2005. I’m surprised the deal was announced so soon, but Jim Callis doesn’t think the signing will inflate the bonuses for the remaining unsigned players. Last year Rick Porcello received a $3.58M bonus as part of a four-year ML contract that could be worth $11.1M with incentives, the largest deal ever given out to a high school pitcher. Boras will likely milk the Yanks’ teet dry for Gerrit Cole, but I doubt he’ll get a Porcello-esque deal, even if Beckham’s deal causes inflation. I do expect Cole to get more than the $2.1M given to Jarrod Parker recieved as the 9th overall pick, which was the second largest bonus given to a HS pitcher last year.

If that exhilarating Dan Giese-Daryl Thompson matchup in the Bronx doesn’t do it for you, flip on over to ESPN at 2pm EST to check out sandwich rounder Jeremy Bleich try to save Stanford’s season in the College World Series. If the Cardinal wins today, they’ll take on Georgia again tomorrow, winner goes to the CWS Finals. If Georgia wins today, Stanford goes home and Georgia will take on either UNC or Fresno State in the Finals. Talk about the game here if you want, here’s the Game Tracker if you can’t get in front of a TV.

P-Abe notes that the Yanks signed a bunch of draft picks in the last few days, including 5th rounder Chris Smith and 8th rounder (and super sleeper) Dan Brewer. Smith is the kid that hit .708 with a .2100+ OPS as a senior in high school last year, and he’s already getting overhyped. They’re high school stats, throw them right out the window, they’re useless. Pete also notes that 7th rounder Kyle Higashioka was in the clubhouse yesterday and took BP with a team, while NoMaas shows that 6th rounder Brett Marshall was kickin’ it with the team during their recent trip to Houston. Signings for the top 3 guys will probably go down to the wire, but you can see all of the picks & signings here.