Danny Knobler breaks down the Rick Porcello contract:
Signing Bonus – $3.85 million
2007 – $95,000 ($380,000 prorated for August 15th to the end of the season)
2008 – $1.1 million
2009 – $1.2 million
2010 – $1.025 million
There are also option years for 2011 and 2012 and those years are priced on whether he’s in the bigs and whether he’s arbitration eligible.
I’ve updated the payroll spreadsheet to reflect Porcello’s deal.
According to the Baseball America draft database the Tigers committed nearly $11 million dollars in their first 7 picks. It’s thrilling to see the Tigers go after high ceiling, hard sign guys and it’s even better to see Mike Ilitch do what it takes to bring them in the fold.
I am happy that the Tigers are being agressive in drafting and signing talent, but we should all remember names like Seth Greisinger, Matt Anderson, Matt Wheatland, Kenny Bough, Kyle Sleeth and so on. It is one thing to have great potential, but another thing to have everything go right to be able to effectively use that potential.
Mike R. listed Porcello, Crosby and Iorg among his top 10 prospects in the organization. I hope he is right, but statistically speaking the Tigers will be fortunate if only 1 or 2 of this year’s draft picks goes on to be anything more than a journeyman. Also, odds are even that the studs of this draft are picks that nobody is talking about now.
We should all keep in mind that before the Tigers recent string of apparent success in the draft, there was a long, long dry run that lasted for nearly 20 years.
Not that Porcello will be automatically good, but it’s completely out of context to take names like: Seth Greisinger, Matt Anderson, Matt Wheatland, Kenny Bough, Kyle Sleeth and say they didn’t work out because they were drafted and scouted under totally different management when they weren’t necessarly picking the best player available or even able to figure out who that was.
You’ve really got to compare to other the DD/David Chad drafts whether in Detroit or when they were with other organizations.
P. – Can you name any team in the entire history professional sports whose first round draft pick has been a star 4 years in a row? I can’t! If the Tigers can pull it off, they should be considered one of the best managed teams in all of professional sports history.
It’s great to have high hopes and expectations, but nobody is perfect, especially when other people are involved. Dombrowski seems to get a lot of credit for being good at the draft, but remember that while Verlander is a stud, Maybin is still in AA ball and Miller’s major league career has been a total of 69 1/3 innings. Perhaps the jury should still be deliberating.
P.S. Zumaya was drafted in the 11th round of the 2002 draft. Was anybody talking about how great he was going to be back then?
You’re right about nobody being perfect, but if you’re gonna get all math and odds oriented, that whole using “four in a row” to specifically only talk about the forth person of that sequence is faulty logic. It’s like talking about a fair roulette wheel that’s just spun 20 in a row black and premising that the probability of spin 21 black is ridiculously low. Instead, no, it’s still the slightly under 50% that a fair roulette wheel is.
Now say you’re talking about a wheel that’s not definitely “fair”. And you’re betting on spin 21. You’d be REALLY foolish to lean to red.
Again I’m not saying Porcello or anyone is a lock, just please if you’re going to compare use apples to apples.
re: maybin it’s a small sample size but in his first five games in AA his OPS is over 2.000. But yes, the jury is still be out on Maybin and Miller.
If you were to handicap the jury though…
I’m sure that not all will turn out. But, they went after guys with a lot higher ceilings this year instead of making safe picks and sticking within the slotting system. In essence, they are increasing their odds of the draft producing usable players.
Plus, it is very rare that any team goes out and gets first round players of this caliber 3 years in a row. Teams bad enough to have a top 3 pick 3 years in a row typically can’t afford those players year in and year out.
tempering excitement is fine,but just look at DD’s track record from the Expos to Marlins to Detroit.hard to argue with his success.
We’ve gotten a top 5 player in the first round — regardless of where we’re drafting — 4 straight seasons now. And one of those came 3 picks before the end of the first round.
I think all 3 — Porcello, Crosby, Iorg — break into our organization’s top 10 because honestly, before this draft it was Maybin and Miller…
Everyone else.
Jair Jurrjens has started to close the gap but he’s still No. 3 starter potential at best, in my opinion. I love the Tigers drafts, especially this year. We’re turning a profit, attendance is at a record high, we’re building a winner and great drafting is what keeps that going. And if we’re comparing Porcello to past busted draft picks, that’s unfair. Different management now. Let’s look into someone Dave Dombrowski drafted: Josh Beckett. Porcello very well could be nothing more then a No. 4 starter and journeyman in his career and become a bust.
Or, he could be a kid who can have 4 above-average pitches that he can control and throw in any count and be one of the best RH pitchers in the entire game.
Billfer needs to delete Maroth’s salary from the payroll spreadsheet (unless the Tigers are still paying him).
Everything’s all good except for the washed-up catcher, no left fielder, no first baseman, and a 3rd baseman who has more career strikeouts than hits. Oh and seven out of eight starters over the age of 30. Otherwise, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
And the team’s is still under .500 since last 8/1. The jury is not only still out on Dombrowski, they haven’t even taken their first lunch break. Is he better than the last regime? Yes. But that’s like saying The Monkees were better than The Archies.
There hasn’t been a lot of talk about coaching in the minors. Even though some teams may be better than others at drafting, it must also be said that some teams develop talent better. I don’t know if the tigers do this well or not? Any links to articles or opinions from the group? I understand you can’t teach talent, but it seems like the twins constantly have a group of players with no talent whatsoever who seem to annoy tiger fans and the rest of the majors.
Am I missing something? This was a post about the 2007 draft. I really don’t get what you’re saying. I shouldn’t be happy about the draft because of the first place current team?
I agree….that was WAY to critical…go find 3 catchers that are better than Pudge right now.
3 Catcher better then Pudge? Joe Mauer, Russel Martin, Brian McCann.
Done.