River Avenue Blues

River Ave. Blues » 2013 Draft » Page 2

2013 Draft: Yankees sign 18th round pick Dustin Fowler

by 3 Comments

Via K. Levine-Flandrup: The Yankees have signed 18th round pick Dustin Fowler to an over-slot $278k bonus. Since he was drafted after the tenth round, any bonus money in excess of $100k counts against the draft pool, so his “pool hit” is $178k.

Fowler, 18, is a high school outfielder out of West Laurens High School in Georgia. The left-handed hitter and thrower is a raw, toolsy type who has some pop in his bat and plenty of speed. He is also a strong defender in center field. Fowler quit wrestling and playing football not too long ago and is still baseball raw. He also stands out for his very hard-nosed style of play. Dustin is not related to Dexter Fowler, in case you’re wondering.

Keep tabs on the team’s draft pool with our 2013 Draft Pool page.

2013 Draft: Yankees sign seventh round pick Nick Rumbelow

by 3 Comments

Via K. Levine-Flandrup: The Yankees have signed seventh round pick Nick Rumbelow to a $100k bonus. Slot money for the 224th overall pick was just under $161k, so the junior right-hander from LSU saves the team a little bit of draft pool space.

Rumbelow, 21, pitched to a 3.31 ERA with 36 strikeouts and 15 walks in 32.2 relief innings for the Tigers this spring. “He flashes a quick arm with 94-95 mph heat … his top secondary pitch is a curveball that is inconsistent but at times shows power and comes out of the same release point as his fastball,” wrote Baseball America (subs. req’d) before the draft. LSU was eliminated from the College World Series just a few days ago, so the Yankees and Rumbelow had to wait for that to happen before hammering out a deal.

Keep tabs on the team’s draft pool with our 2013 Draft Pool page. Sandwich rounder Fresno State OF Aaron Judge is the team’s only unsigned player from the top ten rounds. Slot is just over $1.67M and New York has $1.989M worth of draft pool space remaining.

2013 Draft: Yankees sign ninth rounder Conner Kendrick

by 7 Comments

Via K. Levine-Flandrup: The Yankees have signed ninth round pick Conner Kendrick to a $115k signing bonus. Slot money for the 284th overall pick is just over $140k, so the team saved a little bit of draft pool money. He is a left-handed pitcher who signed as a junior out of Auburn.

Kendrick, 20, pitched to a 2.13 ERA with 75 strikeouts and 29 walks in 80.1 innings across nine starts and ten relief appearances this spring. “His fastball is solid-average at 90-91 mph, and he has a short, late breaking ball that he throws for strikes. His funky delivery gives him deception, but he is prone to leaving balls up,” wrote Baseball America before the draft (subs. req’d). Kendrick seems likely to move to the bullpen as a pro.

Keep tabs on the team’s draft pool with our 2013 Draft Pool page.

2013 Draft: Yankees sign supplemental first rounder Ian Clarkin

by 74 Comments

Wednesday: The Yankees have officially announced the signing, so it’s a done deal. Clarkin passed his physical and will soon begin his pro career.

Monday: Via Jon Heyman: The Yankees and supplemental first round pick Ian Clarkin have agreed to a $1,650,100 signing bonus, which is exactly slot money for the 33rd overall pick. This was the pick the team received as compensation for losing Rafael Soriano to free agency. The deal is still pending a physical, which he will take today.

Clarkin, 18, is a left-hander out of a San Diego high school. He sits in the low-90s with his fastball and also offered one of the very best curveballs in the draft class. His changeup is advanced for a prepster. Read more about him right here. As you probably remember, Clarkin declared his hatred for the Yankees in a pre-recorded video that was aired during the draft broadcast before saying he would need “life-changing money” to sign. Unsurprisingly, $1.65M has a way of changing minds. I’m pleasantly surprised the Yankees got him signed for slot this quickly.

Keep tabs on the team’s draft pool with our 2013 Draft Pool page.

2013 Draft: Yankees sign second rounder Gosuke Katoh

by 34 Comments

12:38pm: The Yankees have officially announced the signing, so it’s a done deal.

11:08am: Via K. Levine-Flandrup: The Yankees have officially signed second round pick Gosuke Katoh to an $845,700 signing bonus, full slot value for the 66th overall pick. He has already passed his physical.

Katoh, 18, is a high school second baseman out of San Diego. The rail thin speedy slap hitter was considered more of a fourth or fifth round talent heading into the draft, but the Yankees have a tendency to go against the consensus and reach for players they really like in the early rounds. I thought Katoh would sign for something below slot, but apparently not.

Keep tabs on the team’s draft pool with our 2013 Draft Pool page.

Draft Signing Updates: Judge, Kendrick, Webb

by 30 Comments

Yesterday we learned the Yankees agreed to sign California HS LHP Ian Clarkin (1s) to a straight slot $1.65M bonus. Here are some more updates on various draft picks (draft round in parenthesis):

  • Fresno State OF Aaron Judge (1s) has already been offered slot money, reports Jon Heyman. He has yet to accept, however. As the 32nd overall pick, Judge is slotted for a bit less than $1.68M. I’m hopeful this will get done soon, as in this week.
  • Auburn LHP Conner Kendrick (9) has signed, or at least agreed to sign according to his Twitter feed. No word on the bonus, but he’s slotted for a bit more than $140k. Doubt he got any more than that.
  • South Carolina LHP Tyler Webb (10) has signed, which you probably realized when he pitched in last night’s Short Season Staten Island game. Webb was slotted for just over $135k, but he signed for only $30k as a college senior with little leverage. Nice chunk of change saved there.
  • San Diego State RHP Phil Walby (12) and Sam Houston State LHP Caleb Smith (14) both signed for $100k, report K. Levine-Flandrup and Jim Callis. The team announced both signings last week. Slot money for every pick after the tenth round is $100k, with any excess spending counting towards the pool.
  • Oklahoma LHP Ethan Carnes (21) has signed for $75k, reports KL-F. It’s below-slot but there are no draft pool savings here. That stuff only applies to the first ten rounds.
  • Texas HS RHP Shane McCarley (33) will talk to the team about possibly signing this weekend, reports KL-F. He’s a good but not elite quarterback prospect with a scholarship to Old Dominion in his back pocket.
  • Washington State SS Ty Afenir (39) has signed, the team announced. No word on the bonus, but again, anything over $100k counts over the pool. I highly doubt he got that much.
  • The Yankees have signed USF OF/RHP Chad Taylor as an undrafted free agent, reports Nicholas Flammia. No word on his bonus, but anything over $100k counts against the draft pool. UDFA’s almost never get six figures though. Most don’t even get five figures. I don’t know if the Yankees intend to use Taylor as an outfielder or pitcher — he did both in college and spent most of 2013 on the mound — but I guess we’ll find out eventually.

All of the team’s draft selections can be seen at Baseball America, and you can keep track of the draft pool situation with our 2013 Draft Pool page. It looks like the Yankees might wind up with enough leftover pool money to make a run at one or two of their late-round gambles — Missouri HS 3B Drew Bridges (20) and Florida HS LHP Nestor Cortes (36) seem most likely — though, we have to see what happens with Judge and California HS 2B Gosuke Katoh first.