The Brewers Have Signed 36 Draft Picks (now 37) (now 38)

[splitterpfj]

This year, the Brewers drafted 41 players, of which, 36 have now signed - two players have indicated they will not sign, we have no updates on the other three.

 

I'm pointing that out in this forum, because I wanted to make sure more of you were aware of it. Please click over to the draft forum to discuss these picks, read opinions, etc:

 

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=34070

 

Why is this a big deal?

 

It's anyone's guess what this draft class will ultimately mean for the future of the Milwaukee Brewers, but remember, when David Stearns was hired as General Manager, he said he would be pursuing "young, controllable talent."

 

Typically, any team has 10-12 unsigned picks for any draft class, these are most often high school players who choose to enroll in college, or maybe it's a college guy who thinks he can raise his draft stock with a strong senior season, etc. This is common practice - no one raises an eyebrow over 10 unsigned picks.

 

Seeing the Brewers with just five unsigned players shows me this management team paid close attention to its budget, scouted heavily, truly got to know which players were more likely than not to be, "signable", and at what dollar cost. They then stuck to a plan, targeted these players, selected them, and got them into the system.

 

This is very impressive in its own right, and it surely represents a major influx of, "young, controllable talent." Hopefully, the guys they got are as productive as they were agreeable, but in any event, I think it shows excellent preparation ahead of the draft, which is never a bad sign.

[MillerParkSouth]

I think it's amazing. I'm a huge fan of this FO so far. An organization like Milwaukee needs as many chances to develop players as possible. Not only getting this many draftees signed, but using every available pool dollar to get some higher talent players in the later rounds increases the odds that some of these kids will stick. All young players are crapshoots in baseball to a certain extent, so it's great to get as many bites at the apple as possible.

[SRB]

Great draft, in my opinion. And for those who haven't been following the Draft forum as closely, we basically picked up an additional second round pick by managing the bonus pool wisely and convincing a highly-regarded high school player to sign from the later rounds (>$1M bonus).

[DougJonesChangeUp]

Great to see it, seeing as I'm still not too high on Corey Ray. If they hit on a lot of others (Ercig, McClanahan, etc.) and my fear on Ray is right it can still be very prosperous.

[jerichoholicninja]

Maybe it was great planning on their part or maybe it's just luck. I don't know which one it is but I'll give them a draft or two more before I form an opinion.

[igor67]

This starts to get into territory I used to mention, but haven't needed to worry about. Namely with so many younger prospects at what point do you have too many and start hurting your chances of developing higher risk or players who have a hiccup or two because you've packed the lower leagues?

[SomewhereInTime]

They could always try and add a shortseason A ball team if that became a real issue

[splitterpfj]

First baseman Ryan Aguilar, Round 31, signed today .... 37 signings!

[pacopete4]

Do I hear 38?

[645]

This is unthinkable or pure dumb luck. I have never heard of a single team signing this many players out of a single draft ever.

 

It is one for the record books if they keep a record for it.

[TheCrew07]

This starts to get into territory I used to mention, but haven't needed to worry about. Namely with so many younger prospects at what point do you have too many and start hurting your chances of developing higher risk or players who have a hiccup or two because you've packed the lower leagues?

 

That's a non factor, I could chop 5-7 off of most every MiLB roster, and our AAA team is full of recycled MLB garbage for depth. There is no such thing as having "too much talent"... certainly the Brewers may lose some players to the rule 5 draft not having enough 40 man spots, but I'd much rather have that issue than worry about if we've acquired too much talent.

 

The other side of this is that with the Gilbert Lara signing there will be fewer Latin players jumping up to AZ as signing him kept the Brewers from signing anyone else of note, so the Brewers actually have a need for more players to fill out the state side rosters than they typically would. I don't mean to suggest that signing Lara was a bad thing, but rather that international period was just him and filler, and the filler won't come stateside, so theoretically there will be 2-4 roster slots the next 2 seasons that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

[igor67]

My concern is more on the development side. Certainly when it comes to the obvious talent (your #1 draft picks mostly) there is no practical world where you could ever have too many of those players. Mid to late round players on the other hand those are much more likely to be the guys who need a little extra time to figure things out, and having spotty playing time or maybe only a year to show us what you can do before we bring in another 30 mid to late round picks next year cuts into the chances of those players developing with us at some point. I don't know how to judge exactly when that would become an issue, but I'd feel somewhat comfortable asserting that if we end up dealing Braun, Lucroy and a reliever or two and the returns are dominated by A ball or lower players of high caliber we will probably be at the point that someone who could have developed gets lost in the shuffle.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

Anyone know the reasoning on why the 3 guys will not sign?

[reillymcshane]

Anyone know the reasoning on why the 3 guys will not sign?

One guy, Horn, was a lower end 1st round talent who had a pretty firm college commitment. We picked him late - like the 20th round or something. It's just one of those things teams do just in case the kid changes his mind for some crazy reason.

[rwa12]

Horn was a flyer..he was a first round talent who dropped...and wasn't going to sign. The 40th rounder was pretty highly thought of, but coming off of injury. I believe his dad is his head coach at UT as well (not sure)...Lillis was a high school arm that we drafted in the 25th round. At that money level, if you're confident at all in your abilities, college is probably a better option.

[brewmann04]

so we won't be able to sign Crow either?

[And That]

They can sign Crow, as long as he's willing to take $100k.

[CheezWizHed]

Which probably means we won't.

[And That]

Brewers sign 25th-rounder Blake Lillis. Total now at 38 of 41 picks signed.

 

That's unbelievable.

[Point Beer Is Best]

Brewers sign 25th-rounder Blake Lillis. Total now at 38 of 41 picks signed.

 

That's unbelievable.

 

Whoa. I thought he was 100% unsignable.

[MilwaukeeBeers]

That's gotta be a record without losing a future pick. Bravo to our FO and Montgomery!

[SRB]

Apparently there's some confusion as to whether Brennan Price actually signed, per TH.

[splitterpfj]

This is truly remarkable.