It was reported in the SJ Mercury today that the Giants signed OF Angel Joseph for $350K. He is 16 years old but will turn 17 in October, so he is about the same age as our other Angel, Angel Villalona (who turns 17 in August if I remember right). A switch hitter, he is 6 foot 2, 175 pounds, so he is nothing like Villalona physically. Though his bonus is so small (relatively), he has been compared (by whom, who knows) to Alfonso Soriano.
Giants International Scouting Director Rick Ragazzo said, "Of all the outfielders we saw, he was one of the top three as far as having well-rounded tools." And he was considered (again by whom, who knows) one of the better prospects among this year's group of international free agents.
If Baggarly, the Merc's Giants beat writer put out this info, I would trust the comments more because he also writes and works for Baseball America, the premiere place to go for prospect information, but this was a generic news announcement. Maybe in a couple of days he's comment.
A Lanky Lefthander, is Like a Melody...
The Giants also announced the signing of Meladi Perez, 6 foot 5 left-handed pitcher. "He still throws with good velocity and movement. If he moves fast - which he has to now - he could be a sleeper." So would Todd Linden, but I quibble. :^) The "has to now" refers to the fact that Perez would have been in for big money until it was discovered that he was actually, gasp!, 20 years old!
Thanks for the info Martin, I hadn't heard about either.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what's the velocity of the lefty is? 20 isn't ancient but it's pretty old for a prospect considering he's not going to develop as much as a 18 year old is. What you see is probably going to be what you get.
BTW, Martin, thanks for your comments on Horwitz. Did you know that away from Dodd he has a 526 SLG and 972 OPS? Even in his case, Dodd severly supresses his numbers. And have you noticed that he hits RHs almost as well as LHs?
ReplyDeleteNo problemo.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for pointing those out about Horwitz, I didn't notice that he hit so well away, he's been Mr. NoPower all through the farm system and there were no signs that he would ever do so. Most commentary doubted it. And that's great that he hits both equally. That improves his value greatly.
Hey, his future seems a bit brighter now to me.
Martin, I wanted to post a long piece that I wrote up, but can't. Does your site have a cut and paste function?
ReplyDeletesorry this is the wrong blog but does anyone have any news on our first rounders? none of them have signed yet which kinda worries me. why hasn't fairley signed yet when he said "im a giants now" a long time ago?
ReplyDeleteSorry allfrank, not sure what you mean. I can cut and paste into these boxes if that is what you mean. But there is no "cut and paste function with my site"; I think that works through your Window OS.
ReplyDeleteAnon (and everyone else), it's OK, this is perfectly fine with me. I was worried like this last year too. It seems to me that 1st round draftees are taking longer to sign, and that creates a logjam, as some of them wait for the market price to be set before they sign.
Just because Fairley said he's a Giants now doesn't mean that he'll sign for just anything. He will want what he feels to be fair, whether it be the market price that is the amount for his pick or the price he had in his head. Particularly since some draft experts say he was a top 10-15 talent, he might think he deserves that, which would probably add around $750K to $1M more to his demands.
In addition, with Sabean busy with HIS contract (sorry, been writing to that but been busy taking care of my brother's dog this past week), that might have delayed work on the first round draftees' contracts.
However, I'm not aware of many 1st rounders signing yet, so that's probably the main reason why none has signed. Once more sign, it will be like dominoes.
Oh, another slowup could be that teams can get the "same" pick next year if they don't sign the guy, so that could be making some teams slower to start caving into demands and quicker to start the contracts lower.
Unfortunately, it could mean that signings won't be happening until we reach early August.