Lookout Landing

But you guys SAID it will happen!

I mean, it’s going to happen right? PANIC PANIC oh wait…

PositivePaul - August 17, 2009 reply

Larry Stone has been on top of things

The juicy update:

Update 7:23 p.m.: The Mariners have told reporters that Jack Zduriencik will be made available to talk to the media at 9:15 p.m., but still no indication if he will be discussing Ackley’s new contract, or explaining how he got away.

Does an MLB contract (similar to the one David Price has, for instance) for Ackley in any way affect the length of our club control time over him?

Price signed a 6-year (2007-2012) deal as per Cot’s, but they control him for six MLB years, right? What happens in 2013 or 2014 – is it just regular arbitration, or what? (Cross-apply this to Ackley, too)

Right.

Otherwise it would be too easy for players to break out of their club controlled years and hit free agency early.

It means in order to have him start a year in the minors they need to option him, pretty much

Every player starts his career with 3, and only 3, options, correct? (i.e. can only be sent down to the minors three times, no matter how often he's traded)?

Yes, basically.

My Understanding

is that an option lasts a whole year. So if a player were sent down/up then he can be shuttled any number of times during that season.

Er, yes this.

I'm torn.

Front office that’s tight as a drum vs. my insatiable need for Mariners news. Maybe y’all could let something leak every now and then just to keep me happy?

Mariners’ GM: “We’re reasonable sure that we drafted Dustin Ackley, although that’s purely speculation at this point.”

McExpos - August 17, 2009 reply

So do we contract the Nationals if Strasburgh doesn't sign in the next 15 minutes?

Blandford.

Any thoughts? I was pretty high on all of our picks from the first bunch of rounds, and I’d really prefer that the team signs him.

No big loss

Also, it appears that the Rays not only will not sign their first round pick, but they won't sign their 2nd round pick as well.

Oops.

Even if he doesn't sign we get Strasburg next year

There goes Gibson for $1.8M

God I wish he’d fallen to us

Is there a place online (Twitter, etc.) to follow the signings in realtime?

I am just refreshing BA's draft blog at USSM-crashing rates

You could just hang out here though, I’ll note all the first rounders

Sounds good.

You do all the hard work, and I’ll sit here and drink and watch movies

Unless Broadstripe fucks everything up

Which they seem very wont to do at any given moment

Lucky.

Baseball America is refusing to open for me.

Same, its fucked

Kaboom

Me too.

They should join SBN

Whoops

Now you've done it

Who’m I going to mooch info off of now?

Giants sign Wheeler, $3.3M

12 minutes left

please Colorado

don’t sign Matzek. Let him be a Duck.

Then you're star player would be a crazy person.

Argh.

ever head of Onterrio Smith?

We’ve had crazy people before.

Hahaha. Yep.

I am star is definitely a crazy dude, you're right.

Ballocks.

Here comes the flood of signings

Wow, I'm on the edge of my seat.

Wake me up when we sign that one kid.

Strasburg?

Griffey.

Yeah, him.

I’ll be over here eating butterscotch candies and flossing my dentures.

Butterscotch candies are yummy

That's why I got em, sonny

5 minutes...

Ackley?

Does Scott Boras have many clones to deal with all these negotiations?

Fuckmikereilly - August 17, 2009 reply

Although I know he's based off of Ari Emanuel, I've always thought of Ari Gold as a Hollywood version of Boras.

To answer your question, the guy has a whole firm working for him.

What channel will the Press Conference be on?

Zdurincek is talking to us in like 15, right? Where do we go to watch that?

DAMellen - August 17, 2009 reply

FSN?

PERHAPS HE SHOULD BE GIVEN THE CONTRACT OF AN AVERAGE RELIEF PITCHER

WHY DID WE PICK A RELIEVER COMING OFF TJ SURGERY

STUPID

SO STUPID

Soooo, whos ready to see the thrill of drafting Strasburg turn into the agony of defeat when he doesn't sign

And............. pencils down.

scribble scribble scribble

Fuckmikereilly - August 17, 2009 reply

C..C...C...C...C..C...C...C...C...C..C...C

n.crees - August 17, 2009 reply

And Matzek goes to Colorado for 3.5 mil

Damn it.

Ugh.

Bummer.

Did not expect that.

Good for Colorado.

So much for Matzek being unreasonable...

Time!

And now we wait....

Grant Green signs

Ackley?

No Ackley?

The Nationals should be contracted.

Well this should be amusing

We'll find out what Zduriencik says at 9:15pm

(fingers crossed).

OH FUCK HES NOT GONNA SIGN

There's no way this makes it til the press conference, is there?

Would be something to see GMZ walk out and announce it himself

He should fuck with everyone for a bit.

Like start talking about Jack Wilson's hamstring or something for two minutes.

My love for him would grow even greater should he pull that off

If Colorado got Matzek we're gonna get Ackley.

At least we didn't let Steven Baron get away

Thank fucking God.

The jewel of our system.

I guarantee you we are going to sign Strasburg

You dong.

I am holding you to this

If we don't sign Strasburg I will literally eat a hat

An SDSU hat?

I think Gwynn ate all of those LOL HES FAT AMIRITE

pdb - August 17, 2009 reply

They should make SDSU nacho hats

That would be awesome.

pdb - August 17, 2009 reply

Kettle corn.

Kettle corn hats?

Kettle corn nachos.

Yes.

But all sticky like caramel corn so it stays together.

They should make nacho hats

They should nacho hats

I think it should be a nacho hat

I think the cheese from a nacho hat would burn your scalp

When I first read this I believed, for a moment, that reality had shifted.

Then I realized that it hadn’t. Darn.

Really?

If we don't sign him than you dont get to cockpunch me

No deal

deal, screenshoted

Late

Ackley is better

Shannon Drayer

Ummmmmm…..

Fuckmikereilly - August 17, 2009 reply

Well, its better than if it just said "fuuuuuuuuuuuuccckkkkkk"

I expect everyone signed except Levon Washington

That press release was odd and quite humorous.

Which press release?

.

Link.

"We are disappointed that LeVon has chosen not to sign with the Rays," executive vice president Andrew Friedman said in a press release. "We offered him a bonus consistent with late first-round picks. Immediately following the draft, he seemed eager to sign but it has not materialized. We wish LeVon great success with his baseball career."

Does FSN Live-stream these pressers?

I hate living in Jersey…

SebastianPruiti - August 17, 2009 reply

Fuck the free look in at MLB Tonight ended

9.5m for ackley

jeffie51 - August 17, 2009 reply

Is this official? Do you have a link?

from MLB network

they also claim only stragsberg hasn’t been sign from the top 10

jeffie51 - August 17, 2009 reply

This is an odd misspelling of his name.

Stragsberg hasn't signed but Strasburg's well on his way

pdb - August 17, 2009 reply

$9.5? Jesus.

Mayo says we signed him

So does MLB network.

Vasgersian

Source:

Here

MLB Network says Ackely is signed.

FUCK

A's telecast says we paid $9.5 million

What an odd source.

Seems a little much, but we got him.

Whew.

Ackley!

MLB Network reports Crow and Strasburg are the only top 12 unsigned.

andrewgolfsalot - August 17, 2009 reply

Man. Poor Nationals. They just get boned over and over again.

Fuck Aaron Crow.

Crow is obviously a total douche

NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOU PORTLAND SHOW ME PRESSER

Woooo Mariners!

Though $9.5M is pretty steep.

top pick Dustin Ackley

Am I missing something?

We fucking passed on Strasburg?

So 2 years in a row for Crow?

Dumbass.

He doesn't have to sign for a while

Ah okay

I retract my statement.

Crow must hate money

njpozner - August 17, 2009 reply

Crow and Scheppers don't have to sign for quite a while.

I think they have until June draft next year.

Go A's.

I don’t want them with the #2 pick next year.

People are literally lighting off fireworks outside my house

USSM says Ackley gets a Major League contract.

Strasburg done, $16M

Holy shit.

BrianL - August 17, 2009 reply

FUCK

Hm.

Ooh

Good Heavens.

No fucking way.

Ackley isn’t exactly Griffey or A-Rod talent.

Well fuck me.

How did I think Strasburg = Ackley

Good deal for both sides

Hahaha. Your comment did puzzle me.

This thread is all about overreaction anyway.

Might as well pile on.

That's reasonable.

Wow.

That's not $50 million.

Boras is losing it!

Wow. Well, good for the Nationals for sewing him up. But $16m?

That’s robbery.

You know, I honestly thought he'd go for more than that

Same here

Yeah I was expecting like 19

Mother of god.

It seems more specifically to be $15.67M.

$1,567,890

That's cheap.

andrewgolfsalot - August 17, 2009 reply

You may be missing a zero.

I am, as always, an idiot.

And 46 cents.

I was sure he wasn't going to sign

.

.

Thank you for this

Funny, but height limit bro!

Ack! Sorry about that!

ley

We got Blandford too apparently

Sweet.

Yay!

fuck

Remind me who Blandford is, pretty please.

Jason Neighborgall

I loved him just for the freak that he was.

Our fifth round pick.

And one of the few pitchers we drafted.

Is he exciting?

I like him.

"No I hear he is pretty bland"

Groan

Hey so that's a bunch of money

The signing deadline here doesn't apply to Crow so perhaps save your righteous anger

I just hate people with aviary last names.

Jack Sparrow?

Jack Sparrow is a little bitch

I'm not a huge fan either. Just the first name that popped into my head.

I guess aviary isn't really an adjective but I think you get the message.

I can't wait until Crow finally signs and eventually hits the big leagues.

Beat writers & ESPN analysts are going to have a blast coming up with “clever” puns regarding his name.

Some might say they’ll even have a lot to crow about!

They may also have to eat Crow.

Fuck.

Happens to the best of us, pal.

Heaven forbid he has a bad day.

"White Sox eat Crow after trash talking Royals."

Crow is the best of the three

Yeah his deadline is June 2010, right?

Once again Lincecum goes unsigned by Seattle

Tim Lincecum was in the 2006 draft.

Not the 2009 draft. I can see where one would get confused, but try to keep in mind what year it is! =)

1995?

McExpos - August 17, 2009 reply

I doubt he would have declined money from Seattle if we simply offered it to him

Why would Seattle give him money?

He isn’t a public worker.

Kirk - August 17, 2009 reply

Like the city is doing anything with that money anyway

True.

Maybe he can star in an ad campaign for click it or ticket or something.

Kirk - August 17, 2009 reply

Pfft.

That’s state.

msb - August 17, 2009 reply

Oh.

I think Tim Lincecum would be useless as a city employee then.

Kirk - August 17, 2009 reply

Rangers don't sign Purke.

craig3410 - August 17, 2009 reply

Sounds like Purke might not have signed

If true… between that and Schepper’s arm being all explody, hasn’t been a great draft for the Rangers

Good. Fuck them

Hear hear.

But everyone said that they had the best draft so agree to disagree

I love Purke but turns out going for non-signability guys when your team is bankrupt isn't a great plan

It was indeed a curious draft.

splodey!

Mr. Boombastic!

Stone says five year major league deal

So only five years of team control?

no

we just didn’t buy out all his arb. years.

I don't think that's how it works

Thank God

So he goes to arbitration after his fifth year?

Not unless he skips the minors

I'm so confused.

Same rules apply with service time

So basically the only difference is that he'll have to be optioned to the minors?

I don’t mean to sound dense, but I usually have a pretty decent grasp on stuff like this, and I don’t get it. Why five years?

He gets a guarantee million+ dollar contract while he's in the minors

and in his first years in the majors rather than waiting til arbitration.

For Ackley or Strasburg?

Fucking pissed if it’s Ackley.

Ackley

Teej's comment threw me off.

More overreaction from Wilder!

So is Strasburg in the Nats rotation next year?

Yes, probably #2

Poor Zimmerman :(

They're both fucked

I don't see how he's not

I think you mean September

Strasburg starts the All-Star Game next year.

With a 0.51 FIP and a 1.50ERA (bad gloves behind him)

That is my guess.

mark sobba - August 17, 2009 reply

And a tRA of -0.3

Tug Hulett made a nice catch today against the Portland Beavs.

ACKLEYACKLEYACKLEYACKLEYACKELY

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Sooooo, it doesn't look like FSN is going to televise Z's comments.

Not live, anyway.

Drayer tweets that the signing is confirmed by the Mariners.

It’s official

So where does Ackley start off in the minors.

The Seattle organization.

AA, probably?

Everett is my guess.

Hi-A but finishes at AA.

He plays first next year

We drafted him so I'm not sure he'd start off in the NL

Not unless we trade him for Kyle Loshe

Hilarious when the shoe's on the other foot isn't it?

I don't see how that's the case

It was a metaphor

I'm sorry but I'm extremely dense

So you're a star?

A neutron star??

No I'm stupid and don't understand the concept of metaphor

The shoe is a penis

This is unsavory and I apologize

Why is a penis on a foot to begin with?

Foot fetish

How does that work?

Let me consult the LL wiki

Here we go

Link

I don’t get it

Huh

Yeah

I am now ashamed of this sub thread because Dave is here

Good genes

Aaron Campeau - August 17, 2009 reply

I missed 'on'

Aaron Campeau - August 17, 2009 reply

That's ok, you'll get em tomorrow champ

From Dave Cameron

I’d expect him to start next year at Double-A West Tennessee, and he could easily move up to Tacoma at some point. Barring injury or some kind of unforeseen problem, Ackley’s going to come to spring training in 2011 looking for a job with the Mariners. He’s a legitimate All-Star talent, and you should expect to see him playing for the M’s in about 18 months or so.

msb - August 17, 2009 reply

So can we see Zduriencik's press conference anywhere on TV?

I haven't found it yet, I'd like to though.

Roy Weaver Stuckey - August 17, 2009 reply

I hate that the portland beavers are on fsn... i'd rather watch west tennessee

I found him on channel 7.

Hahaha. Thank you.

Oh, and Matzek signed for only 3.9 million (source: Keith Law's ESPN blog)

Dollar for dollar, that’s probably the third best pick in the draft.

Hmmm....Late-ish.

Gibson wins it for me

Dave chimes in with the contract explanation

Edit: For anyone worried about the fact that the deal is "only" for five years, this doesn’t change the amount of club controlled years the M’s have him for at all. Essentially, the M’s have pre-paid for Ackley’s first two arbitration years, though the deal almost certainly comes with rules that void the contract if he’s reached certain thresholds – pretty standard stuff for premium draft picks. The M’s still control his rights for six full years. It’s a big contract, but it was still worth doing. He’s worth it.

Man I can't get over how bad the Rangers draft was now

The haul in the Teixeria trade makes up for it

Unrelated.

But yes, amazing

And the Gonzalez trade cancels that out.

Chris Young was good for almost two years

Yes, another misfortune of the trade for Texas.

Isn't it kind of bad to look at a draft in retrospect like this?

Not really

It was a question as to whether or not they could afford Purke, and picking Scheppers was always going to be a silly gamble. If they drafted Purke when they couldn’t afford him… well.

But if Scheppers's arm didn't blow out and if they had signed Purke it would've been a good draft, no?

Scheppers's arm was already blown out

If they had signed Purke it would have been ok,

But like I said earlier that team has zero money and they picked a guy who was going to cost a lot

Apparently they couldn’t pay him, and that’s a draft day mistake

I thought the word was that Purke had floated some unsignability rumors in the hope that he'd get picked by one of the Texas teams

LSB says purke has signed.

They say he has NOT signed, now

He hasn't

Think the Rangers might be looking at the supposedly better draft class for next year?

No I think they are broke

And they were pretty quiet with international signings too

Tom Hicks must be begging on the streets now

Callis has the details

$6 mil bonus, $1.5 mil in guaranteed salaries, $2.5 mil in possible salaries depending on when he reaches the show.

davidcameron - August 17, 2009 reply

I like incentives

Those are basically just instead of a void clause

Sometimes, they’ll build in out-clauses based on playing time, so if he had racked up (say) 1800 PA before 2013 ended, the contract would be torn up and he’d be arbitration eligible.

These incentives probably just replace that.

davidcameron - August 17, 2009 reply

Nice

Hmm. Better than I'd hoped initially.

Wow.

Do you usually incentive-based contracts given to draft signees?

Good deal for the M’s and Ackley.

There's almost always something in these deals

that keeps the kid from getting too screwed if he goes bananas and wins an MVP right out of the gates or something.

davidcameron - August 17, 2009 reply

For example

David Price lhp
6 years/$8.5M (2007-12)

    * 6 years/$8.5M (2007-12)
          o signed Major League contract with Tampa Bay 8/15/07
          o $5.6M signing bonus (paid in 6 installments each Aug. 31, 2007-12)
          o 07:$0.5M, 08:$0.65M, 09:$0.75M, 10:$1M, 11:$1.25M, 12:$1.5M
          o salaries in minors: 08:$0.1M, 09:$0.15M, 10:$0.2M, 11:$0.65M, 12:$1.2M
          o major league salaries may increase total package value to $11.25M
o Price may void salary & file for arbitration in any year he is arbitration-eligible

Yikes!

You can bet he voids as long as he is healthy.

It was a good day

Our organization has more talent in it than it did 24 hours ago.

Kenny Knows Sports - August 17, 2009 reply

So Strasburg was only a 4 year deal?

Do same rules apply? They just didn’t buy out his arbitration years? If so, seems like they could’ve signed a 6 year deal for 22 million or a 4 year deal and then hope arb adds 20 million to that for the next two years. Is that right?

Yes. It's the same thing.

No player gets fewer than 6 years of service time before free agency unless they are released

Kenny Knows Sports - August 17, 2009 reply

How does it work for Latin players when they sign at 16?

They just get a signing bonus, not a contract.

Is anyone keeping track

of how many players Boras has used the “once in a generation” phrase on? I think he’s already used up his allotment for the next 20 years.

Janic - August 17, 2009 reply

That man knows how to pimp his clients to the media