LSB's Official Signing Deadline Thread

which I know no one but me cares about, but I’m psyched.

4 million signed at 10:55 tonight.

Which people can reply to with their Purke projections.
Y/N, and a dollar amount if the Affirmative is specified.
Personally, I’m going Yes, 3.8M.

From PGcrosschecker:

TEXAS
Tom Lemke RHP Sr. R-R
6-8 220
Northwest Christian Phoenix Nebraska 11/5/1990
SCOUTING PROFILE (3/1): Lemke is extra long and lean in his 6-foot-8, 205-pound frame, but hasn’t progressed as a pitching prospect as much as some scouts thought he would after he was clocked at 90 mph as a high-school sophomore. At the time, he ranked as the top prep prospect in Arizona for the 2009 draft. But Lemke’s looseness, size and smooth arm action still make him easy to like and project. Lemke does a very good job staying tall in his delivery and has an excellent downhill angle to the plate. His 88-90 mph fastball appears “light” at the plate, but he does a good job of spotting and controlling it. He throws a 73-mph curveball as his breaking ball and gets consistent good spin and location on the pitch. Not surprisingly, Lemke is also a standout basketball player and he can also swing the bat. He hit .515 as a junior at Northwest Christian High, while going 10-1, 1.43 on the mound with 108 K’s in 63 innings. Both of Lemke’s parents attended college at Nebraska and he has taken the unusual route of heading north to play in college.—DAVID RAWNSLEY
UPDATE (5/15): Lemke did little this spring to enhance his draft value, and most local scouts thought he would be better served to follow through with his commitment to Nebraska rather than entertain draft offers-though the possibility certainly exists that someone could take a run at him inside the first 10 rounds. Lemke has an excellent pitcher’s frame and uniquely-appealing upside, but his fastball was mostly in the 87-90 mph range this spring, peaking at 91. His curveball was consistently below-average and scouts universally believed he should scrap the pitch in favor of a slider. Lemke never got totally untracked as he was late coming out for baseball after leading Northwest Christian High to the state 2-A basketball title, and while he promptly ran off 16 straight scoreless innings, he soon leveled off against the better competition he faced down the stretch.—ALLAN SIMPSON

From here:

Jabari Blash OF Fr. R-R
6-5 215
Miami-Dade JC
 7/4/1989
SCOUTING PROFILE (3/1): A product of the Virgin Islands, Blash had played only two years of organized baseball when the Chicago White Sox took a 29th-round flier on him in the 2007 draft. He didn’t sign with the Sox, instead choosing to come to the United States to play baseball at Alcorn State. But Blash failed to qualify academically and virtually fell off the baseball map for a year before resurfacing last summer with the Athens Pirates of the Great South League. With a big-league body and intriguing athletic actions, Blash created a buzz around that league but he struggled to keep up as it was evident that his skill level was still at an elementary stage of development. Nonetheless, he flashed significant raw tools-especially power, speed and arm strength-and it was just a matter of Blash getting in a more structured baseball environment. He landed at Miami-Dade JC last fall, and the transformation of Blash into a legitimate prospect for the 2009 draft was soon underway. Though his swing is long and approach at the plate unrefined, he displayed significant power potential. He also displayed easy actions in all other phases of his game. Soon he began showcasing a strong arm from right field, with both carry and accuracy. He had soft hands with smooth actions, and began making all the routine plays. He even started making hard contact at the plate more consistently and began driving balls to the gaps more regularly. Though his arm action remained a little long, some scouts looked at his long, lean, athletic frame and superior arm strength, and even envisioned him as a pitcher. More than anything at this stage of his development, Blash just needs repetitions and the team that drafts him in June will need to be extremely patient with him. But Blash has a huge upside, and the number of suitors for his services should be plentiful.—ALLAN SIMPSON
UPDATE (5/15): Though very raw in his approach, Blash had a surprisingly good season at the plate for Miami-Dade, hitting .353-10-33. Some scouts were so impressed with his raw power, speed and arm strength that they thought they had seen the second coming of Hall of Famer Dave Winfield. Blash was soon getting legitimate top 3-5 round interest from clubs dreaming on his projectability. His swing still has a lot of holes and it will take time for him to develop as a hitter, but Blash could be something special if it all comes together for him.—ANUP SINHA / AS

I missed it when it happened.

Link.

A lot of people ‘round here were hoping he’d fall to us in the suppy round.

to get a deal, with a spot on the 40 man? I know it does just not exactly sure how, it may be a stupid question and I am prepared for a ribbing. also OT: does anybody know the exact rule on the playoff rosters?

Would someone like Purke or even Scheppers be more willing to forgo a MLB deal out of the draft based on the organization’s history of being aggressive with young talent, buying MiLB contracts (Feliz, Holland, Andrus, etc.)? I think the team has shown that they’re not an organization that is shy about giving a young player a shot with the big team.

the Rangers are well aware of, but they may want to keep top of mind tonight, The Yankees experienced today a negotiation where they didn’t have the leverage of a comp pick. There is a decent chance that if they find themselves in a similar spot with this pick next summer, they will have to pay a premium because of that, so unless they are just out of money, they shouldn’t let a few 100k keep them from getting this done. They’ll likely still have to pay it.

Also, with a few guys in front of them looking pretty iffy, they could be picking a few spots lower, with no guarantee that a signable top ten will drop to them again.

Link.

Link:

The Rangers and first-round pick Matt Purke’s camp have been speaking fairly regularly over the last 90 minutes after a quiet morning, but there has been little movement toward a contract.

Keep in mind that the evening is young and four hours in negotiating apparently is an eternity. The deadline to sign first-round picks is 11 p.m. As one source said earlier in the day, “It’s not like [they] need 10 hours to get a deal nailed down.”

Purke hasn’t wavered from his pre-draft desire to get a deal similar to that of Detroit right-hander Rick Porcello — four years, $7 million and a spot on the 40-man roster.

Ugh.

If that’s true, fuck him in his eye hole and sign Lemke, Blash and Williams and call it a day.

Shirley he’s gonna come down from that, yah?

A Porcello deal?

No way, Joe Say.

the SPO/Boise video is up and running good.

Watch it later if you want – it’ll be archived. No hurry.

If Matt Purke goes to TCU, does very very well for two years, improves the little things, smoothes up the delivery, and TCU does well as a team, makes some waves nationally, he can re enter the draft after his sophomore year and could be drafted even higher than where he is now, right?

but not likely. The money is there now.

Going back to school at Miami Dade Community College is a possibility, Blash said later, but not one that he thinks will likely happen.
“I don’t’ think the Texas Rangers are going to let me get out of their hands, so when it comes to signing, I think they’ll give me what I want,” he said. For the next few days, Blash is going to have to wait and see what happens during contract talks with the Rangers.

link

The Rangers are entering into last-hour negotiations with left-handed pitcher Matt Purke, their first round pick from Houston Klein High School.

The Rangers have until 11 p.m. to sign him. At t-minus four hours, no deal had been struck. There is a sizeable financial gap in the discussions. Purke will end up at TCU if he doesn’t sign.

There have been alternating reports of optimism and pessimism all day long. At 7 p.m., general manager Jon Daniels was neutral and guarded.

“We haven’t ruled anything out at this point,” Daniels said. "It’s kind of fruitless for me to speculate at this point.

“ESPN’s Keith Law says he’s hearing "lots of reports of deals that are done, including “unsigned” first-rounders, whose contracts are being throttled by MLB to prevent other players/agents from using them as leverage." He expects there to be a flood of announcements from 11pm-12:30am ET tonight, so stay tuned."

there are conflicting reports about “Colorado signing Tyler Matzek and Texas signing Matt Purke.”

Link.

Terms unknown.

ESPN.com’s Keith Law reports that the Tigers have signed second rounder Andy Oliver to $1.495MM bonus.

via mlbtr.com

$6.25 million.

Link.

I’ll go with a 5-yr deal at $30M.

Say a guy signs a 5 yr deal. What if he takes 3 years to get to the majors? Does the contract only start once hes in the majors? Or after the 5 years would he then go back to whatever terms his service time dictates? That has always confused me for some reason

New thread.