Draft Pick Values

[ashbury]

If I were a player, I would certainly want Boras representing me.. He gets good deals for his clients, and at the end of the day, Mark Appel is Boras's boss. If Appel wanted to sign, he absolutely could have. I don't blame Boras, Appel is back in college because apparently he wanted to for some reason.

 

If you've ever heard him speak, then I think you'll agree he has a broad grasp of the game as a whole, and not simply with a point of view of squeezing every last dollar out of selfish owners. He'd make an excellent commissioner of baseball - not that the owners would ever ever ever hire him for that job, but they would prosper if they did.

[Joe A. Preusser]

If I were a player, I would certainly want Boras representing me.. He gets good deals for his clients, and at the end of the day, Mark Appel is Boras's boss. If Appel wanted to sign, he absolutely could have. I don't blame Boras, Appel is back in college because apparently he wanted to for some reason.

 

Yes, technically Appel is the boss and Boras is the employee. But does it seem likely that an impressionable 22 year old will tell his hard-lined super agent who is telling him to walk to go take a seat and let himself make the decisions? That's a stretch, no?

[diehardtwinsfan]

I highly doubt that Boras called all the shots... Any agent good agent is going to lay out the risks/rewards with a course of action. Appel likely said he wanted as much money as he could get... and Boras said this is the best way to do it, but here are the risks... If Boras didn't do that, he wouldn't be Appel's agent right now.

[Joe A. Preusser]

I highly doubt that Boras called all the shots... Any agent good agent is going to lay out the risks/rewards with a course of action. Appel likely said he wanted as much money as he could get... and Boras said this is the best way to do it, but here are the risks... If Boras didn't do that, he wouldn't be Appel's agent right now.

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Boras the way many baseball fans do. He's clearly a great agent who does his job well. But his philosophy is clearly geared to the hard line, which is a higher risk, high reward strategy. If I have a kid who's never made a cent playing baseball, I'm telling him to get paid first, then worry about the super dollars during his next contract. Who in their right mind would risk injury and the prospect of never ever making ANY baseball money by not taking a deal worth over what Pitt was allowed to pay? Great stragety for a guy who has 20 mil in the bank, not so much for a poor kid just starting out.

[Willihammer]

There is of course the possiblity that what we heard coming from the Appel camp was the truth of it: Mark just wanted to stay at Stanford for his senior year.

 

Even if it was Boras's counsel to decline the Pirate's offer, has Boras ever gotten burned?

[FrodaddyG]

Even if it was Boras's counsel to decline the Pirate's offer, has Boras ever gotten burned?

I think he was the consultant for the aforementioned Matt Harrington during his second go-round in the draft. Can't say that worked out well.

[Dance with Disco Dan]

There is of course the possiblity that what we heard coming from the Appel camp was the truth of it: Mark just wanted to stay at Stanford for his senior year.

 

Even if it was Boras's counsel to decline the Pirate's offer, has Boras ever gotten burned?

 

 

Possible I guess, but if he wanted to stay at Stanford, why hire Boras? And why not send a note to all MLB teams that he wasn't signing. Happens a lot with high school players. I think he wanted to stay at Stanford rather than sign for what he was offered.

 

As for when has Boras been burned, the answer is not often. He is good. The two recent examples that come to mind are:

 

1) Publicly blowing up at Amaro after he balked at the 4-year $44 million deal Boras thought he had for Ryan Madson. Lashing out squelched any chance to recalibrate the deal for less money of fewer years. He then rejected a multi-year offer for Madson from the Marlins. Ultimately, Madson signed with the Reds for one year $10 million. Madson promptly blew out his elbow. Madson has signed this season for $3.5 million with a chance to double that by meeting all incentives.

 

2) The Appel deal. Turning down a $6 million dollar offer and afterward only being able to generate a $3.8 million offer seems like a big miss.

 

All that said, I am not an Appel apologist. He blew it more than Boras. I just expect Boras to be smarter than that. I don't expect it of Appel.

[Jeremy Nygaard]

soon to be 3) Michael Bourn.

soon to be 4) Kyle Lohse.

 

Appel didn't want to go back to Stanford, if he did he would have went on that conference call after the draft with the beat reporters in Pittsburgh and told them so. But he didn't talk at all, because he was heartbroken his plan didn't work.

[kab21]

Other than injury, Apple has the highest floor, though. He could start in the majors right now. He should he a 2 or at worst a 3. There is no downside, performances wise, to drafting him....relative to other players....given what we know today. I have no idea how you pass on a guy that is Likely to be a good starting pitcher. Lots of guys have potential, but Apple has that and a very low likelihood of not reaching that, relative to others risk.

 

Appel is not at worst a #3. I like him and he absolutely deserves to be picked in the top 4 at this point but if was as good as you say he would be the #1 overall pick in either draft and he would have gotten paid.

[Mike Sixel]

LIkely, likely, likely. Sure, he could be awful, But given what we know today, has anyone read anything by any credible scout that he is worse than a 3, and is not likely to be a 2 or 1?

 

Either I'm not typing well, or people are not trying hard to read my posts. Odds. Likelihood. Percentages. What we know today.

 

Yes, there are no certainties in life, but given what we know, given everything you've read on line, given all that, relative to other players available, are people actually confident he won't be a 3 at worst, relative to how confident they are about other players? You have to draft someone......are you more or less confident in Appel's ability to be a legit starting MLB pitcher than other available players?

[beckmt]

Maybe Boras and Appel want to test the CBA and antitrust in court. They probably could not win on union issues, but on antitrust and lack of ability to move, he might win. Given the issues Boras has had win the new CBA, he may want a smart patsy to take this on.

[Mike Sixel]

MLB is partly immune to the antitrust laws....I don't think they'd win a suit, any more than did Maurice Clarrett.

[kab21]

I think Appel likely has the floor of a big league starter which is a pretty good floor of someone that hasn't played any professional ball. He's definitely good but to say anyone (leaving out the Strasburg level prospects) have a floor of a #3 starter is silly. It's like worrying about where the Twins are going to play Hicks, Arcia, Buxton, Kepler and possibly Sano/Rosario in the future. This board seems to be overrun with the optimism that almost all prospects work out. Great draft picks and prospects have a habit of finding ways to fail. It happens and Appel is no different imo,

[glunn]

I would hope that if Appel is available, the Twins will take into account the benefit of drafting someone who is close to ready to pitch in the majors.

[FrodaddyG]

I would hope that if Appel is available, the Twins will take into account the benefit of drafting someone who is close to ready to pitch in the majors.

Seeing as that was supposed to be 90% of the reasoning behind drafting Wimmers, I'm sure it factors in. On the other hand, given how the Wimmers thing panned, out, it may make them a little gunshy to weigh "ability to move fast through the system" too heavily.

[drjim]

Maybe Boras and Appel want to test the CBA and antitrust in court. They probably could not win on union issues, but on antitrust and lack of ability to move, he might win. Given the issues Boras has had win the new CBA, he may want a smart patsy to take this on.

 

I highly doubt this - they would have no chance. Federal courts aren't going to intervene on collectively bargained issues.

[Twins Twerp]

Appel may be close to the majors, but he also has a ton of upside. Wimmers was close to the majors (alledgedly) and had a much lower ceiling. The reason you draft a guy close to the bigs is usually because the risk is low as is the reward. The Twins have since, or at least in the last two drafts, changed their approach a bit. They have taken alot of projection guys who are going to need time. The downside to that is that we don't have alot of Twins drafted pitching in the upper majors. Hopefully those guys will start getting to the upper levels this year and next. Another problem is that sometimes so much can go wrong with young pitchers between rookie ball and the majors. All in all i like the new strategy.