69THE MVP PERFORMANCE...
TRIPLE-A NATIONAL
CHAMPIONSHIP MVP
COURTESY OF RENO ACES2012 Championship Game MVP
A.J. POLLOCK
RENO ACES
Future MLB All-Star A.J. Pollock
tripled to lead off the 2012 Triple-A
National Championship Game. His Reno
Aces were off and running towards an
impressive 10-3 defeat of the International
League champion Pawtucket squad. Pollock
added a double and finished with an RBI
and two runs scored to earn Baseball
America MVP honors.The 2019 Triple-A National Championship Game Presented by Ephesus Sports Lighting will take place September 17TH in El Paso, Texas live on Fox Sports.
Three Notable
Draft Trends- Position players dominated
the top of the draft
The 2019 draft set a record when
position players were taken with
each of the first six picks before the
Reds chose Texas Christian lefthander
Nick Lodolo.
Next year’s college pitcher class is
strong and should make this a blip. - The D-backs’ studied
approach to their draft bonanza
With seven picks in the top 75,
the D-backs relied on additional
scouting resources to help land a
broad base of talent.
“We wanted to spread it out,
where we didn’t use every bit of our
bonus pools early in the draft unless
we had too,” Arizona scouting direc-
tor Deric Ladnier said.
With their four first-round picks,
the D-backs picked a high school
outfielder (Corbin Carroll), two
prep arms (Blake Walston, Brennan
Malone) and a college pitcher
(Drey Jameson).
school players for $500,000 or more per draft.
The 2012 draft is the point where a hard limit
on how much teams can spend on their draft
classes (without incurring a loss of future draft
picks) made it more difficult for teams to sign
high school players, who generally have the
highest asking prices because of higher lever-
age. A high school draftee can be drafted as
many as five additional times. A college junior’s
choices are to either sign or go back to school
for a final year of eligibility, which ensures a
usually well below-market value offer the next
year as a college senior.
If we saw a dramatic increase in the number
of college players receiving large bonuses, it
would indicate a shift in team’s drafting philos-
ophies more than a change brought on by dif-
ferent draft rules. But we are not seeing that.
At the top of the draft, high school players are
getting paid as much if not more than they did
a decade ago. Last year, 36 high school players
received bonuses of $1 million or more com-
pared to 30 four-year college draftees. In nine
of the past 10 drafts, there have been more high
school players who received $1 million or larg-
er bonuses than four-year college players. In
the final four years of the previous system, 43
percent of players receiving $1 million or larger
bonuses were four-year college players. Under
the current system, that has increased only to
44 percent.
Dropping that number to $500,000 sees
a modest increase in the number of college
players landing those bonuses compared to
high school players. Roughly the same number
of high school and four-year college players
receive bonuses of $500,000 or more. Under
the last four years of the previous system, 39
percent of $500,000 bonuses went to four-year
college players. Under the current draft system,
it’s 44 percent.
What has changed is teams are signing many
more college players for less than $500,000.
Many high school players with solid college
options are reticent for sign for less than that
amount.
So some of the current shift may result from
a different approach. But the larger picture is
that under the current system, it has become
more difficult to sign a significant number of
high priced prep players, leading to a stronger
emphasis on drafting college players. n- The Mets take a big swing
New York drafted prep righthander
Matthew Allan, a projected top 20
pick, in the third round after he
fell because of his asking price. To
pick Allan, the Mets went all-in on a
strategy to land a pair of first-round
talents—they chose Brett Baty at No.
12 overall—despite picking only once
in the top 50.
The Mets drafted college seniors in
rounds four through 10 in an effort to
save money to apply to signing Allan.
MATTHEW ALLAN