Only 18 of the 1st 30 picks have signed so far, of those signed only 3 are top 10 (Beckham, Skipworth and Castro).

won’t get more than 4m, and it will probably be closer to 3 or 3.5

was Ross quoted as saying was necessary for him to sign?

i think we will sign at least one or two of those late round guys who slid, but i think we have a better chance at the armstrong kid or the robertson kid, rather than Harold Martinez.

not going to happen

i think they end up signing last minute, and though we probably won’t pony up for all of them, it would take:

Smoak – 3.75mil
Ross – 1.45mil
Castner – 550k
Martinez – 1.35mil
Armstrong – 1.1mil

like i said, we don’t pony up for all of them, but how awesome would it be if we did…

[drool]

link to my post about him:
http://www.lonestarball.com/2008/6/6/547346/harold-martinez-info-scout

My Thoughts
Evidently his biggest problem at the plate is his lack of confidence. He came into this year as a top 10 prospect and even after his horrible year many still had him going in the 3rd to 5th round-range and some mocks even had him going in the middle to late 1st round.

I tend to agree with what I read at one point which was “talent doesn’t just disappear.” Clearly, he has it, and it seems as if going into this year he lost his confidence and it completely wrecked his season. He also seems to be a pretty raw player (most people project he will end up at 3b) and his bad season will probably point him towards college unless he gets a boatload of money.

Seems like time with professional coaches could be what turns him around. Again, he is a guy who has been watched basically for four years so the talent is clearly there. What is a little concerning is the fact that the fell to the 19th round, which would lead me to believe that he probably will go to Miami unless we meet his price. I would like to think that if we paid $1 mil for Lemon we would pay somewhere near that to get a guy that was a consensus top of the draft talent going into this year.
—I think it would cost somewhere in the 1 to 1.5 range to sign him and I am not sure if we would pay that, which is a shame considering how much better of a prospect people think/thought he was than Lemon, who never was seen as a top 10 guy (who was #120 I believe on BA’s final top 200 before his draft)

further thoughts: i would love to see us pick him up…i would think he wants something around what ross wants/gets… i think whatever ross’ bonus is sets the bar for martinez/what it would take.

would you pay 1.4 for ross and another 1.4 for martinez?

that ross wanted 1.5 and change (callis? BA? BP?)

but i think 1.4 gets it done as well

is getting soooo rediculous, out of the 30 some odd first rounders maybe 12 of them will actually ever see the show and they are getting CRAZY money, giving a high school position player $6.5 million thats just stupid!

I think that how the Rangers approach these big names who dropped will be a strong hint about what the team will do this offseason. The Rangers will likely finish above .500, and in the top 15 records in MLB, so their 1st round pick will be in jeopardy. Other than Bradley, I don’t see any Rangers who will obviously yield a compensation pick or two. Basically, signing two type A free agents may leave the Rangers without a pick until the 3rd round next year.

Basically, if the Rangers pony up the big bucks for someone like Martinez or Armstrong, they may be signaling that they are planning on (or open to) signing a type A free agent, so they won’t be needing to pay first round money to anyone next season. A guy like Martinez would basically be a de facto first round pick for 2009.

Put another way – if the Rangers are planning on pushing hard for Sheets or Sabathia (or another FA), they should go ahead and spend big right now to make up for next years draft loss.