Comments on: Mark Appel is the top-ranked player in the draft … again

By: paperlions

paperlions — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:16:00 +0000

Good point….that would be a potential no lose situation for a team….either Appel at a discount or pick in a class with more upside (potentially).

By: bolweevils2

bolweevils2 — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:33:51 +0000

On the other hand, even if he doesn’t get picked in the first few picks, it might be worth drafting him because it’s a no lose situation. Either Appel sign for the slot value at that lower price, which would be a bargain. Or, he doesn’t sign and you get your draft pick pushed off to next year, which, since they say this a weak class, might be a good thing if next year’s class is better.

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 03:38:57 +0000

As you know, collusion leads to triple damages. I’m sure he’s gladly take the extra $20M or so plus legal expenses.

By: jwbiii

jwbiii — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 03:30:46 +0000

$6M is absolutely not absurd. Some sources, like Baseball America, listed him as the best prospect in the draft. $6M is under slot for the second pick.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/news/2012/2613398.html

By: idolized1

idolized1 — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:33:40 +0000

Obviously it would never happen, but I wish teams would all come together and agree not to draft this guy until the start of the 3rd round. Just to show him that the league does not revolve around him.

Of course sometimes the talent is almost too good to pass up despite the attitude, but it would be nice to just see one athlete get “blackballed” by a league once for diva like behavior.

By: kcrobert10

kcrobert10 — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 17:35:30 +0000

This guy throws a ton of high pitch counts at Stanford buyer beware. It was a big reason the pitcher needing Royals passed on him for zimmer last yr.

By: lordtecmo

lordtecmo — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 16:16:42 +0000

purnell… I would think since Appel is a senior and will have graduated at the time of the draft, the negotiation of returning to school instead of taking whatever money they offer is off the table.

By: purnellmeagrejr

purnellmeagrejr — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:25:53 +0000

” although in general it’s considered a weak class of prospects and Appel no longer has much negotiating leverage.” This seeems counter-intuitive to me. In a weak classs he would be more desired – not less. Can someone explain how this sentence makes sense?

By: sawxalicious

sawxalicious — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 07:59:41 +0000

Not signing last year was a very bad decision by Appel. In the Pittsburgh organization he most likely would have had the opportunity to start his ML career earlier, and thus start his ML service clock earlier. The way salaries are going these days, that decision could end up costing him over 10 million dollars.

By: jsally430

jsally430 — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 03:36:28 +0000

What boras doesn’t care about is of this guy would’ve blew is arm out in college there wouldn’t be a team giving him a supported salary

By: thebadguyswon

thebadguyswon — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:45:30 +0000

Probably so. But the word was he was looking for around $6 million to sign. That’s absurd. The guy had convinced himself he was Mark Prior.

By: kelshannon19

kelshannon19 — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:36:35 +0000

Go Carlos Correa?

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:34:19 +0000

Exactly right. It’s really short-term thinking. The difference between 7th pick money and 1st, 2nd, or 3rd pick money is significant, a few million more, but the payoff for hitting free agency a year earlier and a year young dwarfs the value of his draft bonus.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:27:51 +0000

The Pirates were wrong to draft him if they didn’t intend to go way over slot….they are worse off now than if they had taken the next player on their board. They knew the price….drafting him when they weren’t willing to pay it was foolish.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:26:38 +0000

Where is the evidence for this? There isn’t any.

In any other job market you get to market yourself and let the market set your salary….if you really wanted to see how teams value amateur talent, they would do away with the draft and go back to “the good old days” when teams found and signed prospects on their own. The draft was already screwing guys by limiting their ability to negotiate with multiple potential employers, now it is just screwing them more.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:24:12 +0000

Oh, I agree….but I doubt he sees himself as worth less than he was last year, even though teams will view him that way since he’s wasting another year in college rather than developing as a pro….and development in the minors is much different/faster/better than in college. It’ll just be interesting to see what Appel’s stance is….people can blame Boras all they want, but the player still makes the decisions.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:21:54 +0000

Yeah, it was the players that stood by and let the owners throw amateurs (both draftees and international amateur FAs) under the bus.

By: chuckleberry1974

chuckleberry1974 — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:21:09 +0000

I think it’d be awesome if he fell all the way to the Orioles

By: weaselpuppy

weaselpuppy — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:21:05 +0000

The point is more that the previous rookie wage scale was massively inflated. Before the NBA reset their scale, Glenn Robinson as a guy that had never played a game got a contract bigger than Hakeem Olajuwon’s….no one was saying Hakeem was underpaid, just that the rookie scale was insane. Ditto football, no one says that Andrew Luck is being underpaid, it’s that Matt Stafford’s $60M contract, despite him being a great talent, was and is and will be killing the Lions and isn’t in line with veteran’s pay. And these are sports where the #1 pick comes in and in many cases is an All-Star in year 1 or 2….The previous wage scale for drafted players to MLB is dead, gone, buried. trying to use it as a reference for a current contract is dumb and that’s why the league as a whole gave the finger to Boras on this. The kid was the guinea pig in the experiment, and now he better wise up or risk losing a lot more than just the potential $2-4M he and his agent though (incorrectly) he deserved.

By: brianabbe

brianabbe — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 00:14:45 +0000

What’s Boras going to tell him to do if his demands aren’t met? Go play independent ball for a year? He no longer has any leverage as a college senior essentially.

No to mention, pitchers by definition lose value a lot faster than position players. There is simply a finite number of pitches in the shoulder/elbow. It’s a lot like being a running back. Get drafted and sign out of HS if you can to ask least reap some kind of reward, unless the offered bonus is south of what your college education would be (Under $100 K?). Otherwise, you’re tempting fate the longer you wait to sign.

By: jeffbbf

jeffbbf — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:52:43 +0000

I’m no Boras apologist, but let’s be realistic. Boras can ask/demand anything he wants. All he needs is one moronic owner to agree to his demands or believe his bluffs. And he usually gets it. Blame the owners for their lack of restraint and/or business sense.

By: thebadguyswon

thebadguyswon — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:35:21 +0000

Mark Appel is just not that special. The Pirates were right to pass last year.

By: ironman721

ironman721 — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:28:20 +0000

Boras is a disgusting human being and should be banned from sports as an example to d-bag agents. I hope The kid falls to Pittsburgh and gets even less money then they offered him last year.

By: obpedmypants

obpedmypants — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:55:45 +0000

and the players.

By: obpedmypants

obpedmypants — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:53:56 +0000

Is there any way for a truly elite prospect (one worth say a $10m signing bonus) not to get significantly underpaid in the new system? At best, Houston pays him a little over slot. But in all likelihood, Houston will be just budget for a good $5-6m prospect, and spread their extra wealth around in the later rounds. A few picks from there, an elite prospect needs a team to violate their slot budget, or he’ll be accepting pennies on the dollar.

By: themohel

themohel — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:51:37 +0000

He is a senior this year, and will be out of college eligibility. This is why he has much less leverage – I think he would need to play independent ball if he doesn’t sign. He’s gonna have to sign for slot or not play.

By: js20011041

js20011041 — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:31:05 +0000

In other words, Appel is being royally fucked by the owners.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:11:30 +0000

Appel’s problem is still going to be that the CBA caps spending, and that very few teams will have the ability to pay him $5M+. If he falls very far, most teams are just going to let him keep falling if they don’t think he’ll sign for slot, because they won’t have draft budget to sign him…..and expecting him to sign for anything like slot after the first few picks is risky, which would lead most teams to draft a guy they have more confidence that they can sign.

In short, if he doesn’t get picked in the first few…..it’ll be interesting to see how far he falls….it could be really far.

By: hodaghunter

hodaghunter — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:59:28 +0000

I like this kid’s prospects but he’s getting some bad guidance from Boras on this. Boras is trying to break the bank (which is Boras’ job so I understand that) but this kid needs to realize that he’s better off getting paid to pitch and start his service time than to spend another year in college game hoping that things stay together and hoping to get through the season without injury or getting his stats killed…

By: tcostant

tcostant — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:46:40 +0000

In the prior CBA the team needs to get the players approval to re-draft him in back to back years. The Nationals tried to get Crows approval to redraft him in 2009 and he never gave it. The team drafted Drew Storen and might have anyway, but Crow was there for that pick. Not sure the rule exist anymore.