Indians sign ... everybody

Following on earlier rumors, Baseball America reports that the Indians have signed second-round pick Trey Haley for $1.1 million and 16th-round pick T.J. House for a way-way-over-slot $750,000. More detail on the players' situations is in this update from Hoynes.

The Indians had only one of the first 75 picks yet are now poised to end up with five of the top 75 signing bonuses, after making several "flier" picks in the lower rounds and courting them aggressively. The Indians had already gone far over slot earlier this week to sign three other picks: Bryce Stowell (22nd round, 725K), Zach Putnam (fifth round, 600K) and Tim Fedroff (seventh round, 725K).

Haley was picked #76 overall, at the end of the second round, but received a larger bonus than any of the picks in the supplemental first round, #31 to #46 overall, and the same as #29 overall Lonnie Chisenhall. The other four — House, Fedroff, Stowell and Putnam — were each paid a bonus commensurate with a second-round pick.

The Indians have now signed all of their top 16 picks, plus seven of their next ten picks, paying an estimated $6.5 million in signing bonuses, with the six mentioned above receiving $4.9 million out of that total.

over 3 years ago Jay 9 comments 0 recs |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Here’s to hoping a few of these guys end up being really good

by APV on Aug 15, 2008 5:42 PM EDT reply actions

great new we need all the help we can get

Fan in Texas

by fanintexas on Aug 15, 2008 5:53 PM EDT reply actions

I love it. Mlb can shove their slot recommendations where the sun don’t shine. Too often have we seen the wealthier teams end up with the best players in the draft despite having low picks. One example would be last year when Pittsburgh drafted Moskos instead of Wieters (who went to Baltimore, so my gripe doesn’t apply in this instance), which was generally seen as adhering to Bud & Crew’s slotting system. The intentions of the slot recommendations are noble, but in reality it doesn’t work that well, so it’s nice to see the Tribe FO giving mr. Selig the finger and signing these guys because their talent is worth it.

That said, I’m very interested in Haley’s development. He could become a good one.

by JP_Frost on Aug 15, 2008 5:56 PM EDT reply actions

Most excellent.

by oxforddave on Aug 15, 2008 5:57 PM EDT reply actions

Dolan is so frickin’ cheap.

by JesseAK on Aug 15, 2008 6:04 PM EDT reply actions 4 recs

Rec because I didn’t think of this first

by Ohiokie on Aug 15, 2008 9:13 PM EDT up reply actions

I bet he had to call the credit card company to get his limit raised to pull this off.

by pandroid on Aug 15, 2008 10:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Great news on the signings. I hope all (or as many as possible, realistically) turn out for us. :-)

The "cream of the crop" doesn't always rise to the top.

by indiansfan on Aug 15, 2008 7:12 PM EDT reply actions

I can’t believe we’re throwing all this money away on guys who haven’t played one minute in the major leagues when we could use it to sign Richie Sexson!

/sarc

Andy Marte is free at last! Now, if only he could hit a breaking ball...

Pronk Needs You

by woodsmeister on Aug 18, 2008 10:30 AM EDT reply actions