Mark Appel and leverage in the draft

In Minor Leagues by dmick8921 Comments

Last year when Mark Appel turned down the Pirates offer, which was well below what he was expecting to get, it seemed like Appel would not have any leverage in the 2013 draft. The reason for this is that he really has no other alternative. Unlike last year, he can't return to Stanford. He could sign with an independent team, but this isn't likely.

Jim Callis explains why he does in fact have leverage this year.

There are two good reasons that a team won’t take a hard line with Appel. First, he’s advised by the Boras Corp. Clubs legitimately fear that draftees, even college seniors, will walk away from a deal that Scott Boras doesn’t like.

Second, Appel could take a hard line with a club. Let’s say the Astros choose him and make him a take-it-or-leave-it $5 million offer. I agree, it would be silly to turn that much money down to re-enter the 2014 draft.

But Appel could decide not to sign until right before the July 13 signing deadline of 5 p.m. ET. Houston couldn’t risk spending the $2,790,400 they saved on his bonus to land other players until he was in the fold. If the Astros spent the savings before Appel signed, they’d risk losing their next two first-round selections, including the possible No. 1 overall choice in 2014.

I'm not sure I really agree with the first reason Callis mentions, but the second one is quite obvious when you give it some thought.

It is possible he falls in the draft like he did last year at which point he won't come close to getting the signing bonus he's wanting. More than likely, though, he'll be taken in the first two picks of the draft. The Astros will get first shot, but if they want to save some money and spend it later on like they did last year, Appel will be available for the Cubs and it's hard to imagine them passing him up.

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  1. Rice Cube

    That point about the draft pool tied to a player is pretty important. I think the top two teams (Astros and Cubs) negotiate with Appel, find out the amount he’d agree to, and then they’d pick him. They wouldn’t risk losing the first slot’s pool at all, that’s like $7-8MM right? Also, they need to ensure, given such a high pick, they actually get SOMEONE…of which I guess there are six possibilities, at least.

    /comma-happy

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  2. Myles

    Berselius wrote:

    @ Myles:
    I’d be totally okay with the Cubs having the first 20 picks in the draft.

    I saw that and didn’t change it knowing full well that someone (probably you) was going to give me shit 🙂

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  3. SVB

    dmick89 wrote:

    @ mobile svb:
    what comments?

    Comments at Yahoo News about the Boston bombs. Stuff like: “Now the Democrats will want to ban bombs.” And horseshit conspiracy/racist stuff. I never read that crap, but I scrolled past some ad, and there they were.

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  4. SVB

    Why wouldn’t a team just draft Appel and say, we’ll pay you (slot-x). If you don’t take it, you can walk. And spend the savings on whoever else they wanted anyway? I would negotiate with him before the draft if allowed, and then give him until day 2 of the draft to sign. At which point, I’d adjust my draft strategy.

    They could then potentially draft some kids they could pay much more than slot in rounds 16-whatever. Those don’t count against the cap, right?

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  5. GBTS

    SVB wrote:

    They could then potentially draft some kids they could pay much more than slot in rounds 16-whatever. Those don’t count against the cap, right?

    Only the first $100,000 is exempt from the cap after round 10.

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  6. Recalcitrant Blogger Nate

    I’m not ever really paranoid about stuff like this, but given the days events, the following just happened the last 15 minutes or so:

    I go to npr.org to read a bit of updates, when I click the link on the main story, it goes to a page whose article title and only text was: “The Syrian Electric Army was here”. I reloaded/reopened the page 2-3 times, still the same. Now when I click it, it says page not available. Npr.org was hacked I suppose? Wait it’s back that way now:

    http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/15/177349725/syrian-electronic-army-was-here

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