Coming off three straight trips to the College World Series—plus an 8-4 season in football—North Carolina has landed the nation’s No. 2 player in the 2009 prep class.

Sources have confirmed to Baseball America a scout.com report that Donavan Tate, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound quarterback/outfielder from Cartersville, Ga., High, has committed verbally to North Carolina and will try to play both sports. Tate, the son of former Georgia and NFL running back Lars Tate, is the top-ranked hitter in the class, a five-tool athlete and who also possesses the best set of baseball skills of any position player in this draft class. [...] Continue Reading »

Baseball America has learned that two prospects on the High School Top 100 (subscriber-only) list have suffered injuries recently that will require surgery. Outfielder/lefthander Slade Heathcott of Texas High in Texarkana, Texas, was injured in a football game in October and had surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., performed the procedure Tuesday, according to Louisiana State, to whom Heathcott has committed. Outfielder Todd Glaesmann of Midway High in Hewitt, Texas, was also injured playing football. He’s expected to have surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb. [...] Continue Reading »

The day before BA went to press with our 2008 Draft Preview issue, Fresno State righthander Tanner Scheppers ranked No. 10 among all draftable players. Then news broke May 15 that Scheppers was injured; while the details of the injury were never divulged to reporters, Scheppers’ agent Greg Genske of Legacy Sports acknowledged "significant wear and tear" after an examination with noted baseball surgeon Dr. Lewis Yocum.

Scheppers went in the second round anyway to the Pirates, and after a summer of rehabilitation, he threw for Pirates officials prior to the Aug. 15 signing deadline. The Pirates and Genske never came to an agreement, though, and rumors had swirled about Scheppers’ future plans, which seemed limited to independent ball or perhaps a transfer to an NAIA school. Today the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League announced they have signed Scheppers, ending the mystery, at least for now, and giving indy ball two of the top three college pitchers available in the ‘08 draft, joining Fort Worth Cats righthander Aaron Crow. The former Missouri righthander didn’t sign with the Nationals as the No. 9 overall pick.

While most of the focus of the settlement of the draft-deadline grievance was on the fact that No. 2 overall draft pick Pedro Alvarez officially became a Pirate, the rule governing the deadline was clarified further.

The commissioner’s office no longer can unilaterally extend the deadline past 11:59 p.m. ET on Aug. 15, and an arbitrator will have the authority to void any deals signed after the deadline. In a grievance filed by J.D. Drew in 1997, an arbitrator decided that he couldn’t rule specifically on Drew’s status because Drew wasn’t a member of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Pedro Alvarez officially signed his $6.355 million major league contract with the Pirates Wednesday, officially ending a saga that dragged on for nearly six weeks past the Aug. 15 signing deadline.

In my Ask BA column two days earlier, I wrote that it was curious that the Pirates negotiated a new deal after club president Frank Coonelly said the Major League Baseball Players Association grievance over the extension of the deadline was meritless and that the club wouldn’t reopen talks. I also said that the decision by the commissioner’s office to extend the deadline was looking more calculated than innocent.

Coonelly called me Wednesday night to explain the Pirates’ perspective. He said their incentive to renegotiate came because they didn’t want to risk arbitrator Shyam Das voiding the deal because it came after midnight, and because the club valued the big league contract as worth roughly the same as the straight $6 million bonus to which Alvarez originally. He also said MLB prodded the club to settle the grievance, and said that the MLBPA encouraged Alvarez’s agent, Scott Boras, to do the same. [...] Continue Reading »

Major League Baseball officially ended the Pedro Alvarez/Eric Hosmer grievance today, announcing in a prepared statement that the Major League Baseball Players Association’s grievance has been resolved. Alvarez, whom the Pirates had asked to have placed on the restricted list, and Hosmer are "free to begin baseball activities immediately with their clubs." The agreement also has altered the administration of the Aug. 15 deadline, mandating that extensions can only be made by agreement between the commissioner’s office and the union. [...] Continue Reading »

So the Aug. 15 signing deadline really isn’t a deadline after all.

More than a month after the actual signing deadline passed, the Pirates and Pedro Alvarez, the No. 2 overall pick in the draft, agreed to the parameters of a new contract. The deal, reported first by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, gives Alvarez a major league contract that is worth a guaranteed $6.355 million. Alvarez initially had accepted a straight $6 million from bonus, either just before or just after–according to the source–the midnight ET deadline on Aug. 15.

While the Post-Gazette reported that the contract’s present value is closer to $5.67 million, BA has learned from another source in the industry that Alvarez will make nearly $1 million more than the original deal would have paid him before he become arbitration-eligible. The discrepancy results from different accounting methods, though it seems unlikely that the Scott Boras Corp. would have negotiated a lesser deal after believing its client had been wronged.

Alvarez never signed his original bonus agreement, and Boras argued that the former Vanderbilt third baseman had reached the deal after the midnight deadline, in violation of collectively bargained draft rules because Major League Baseball unilaterally extended the signing deadline without consulting the Major League Baseball Players Association. The MLBPA agreed and filed a grievance on Alvarez’s behalf. The first hearing on the grievance was held Sept. 10.

Sunday night’s agreement may reflect that the Pirates and MLB thought they had a lot to lose if the grievance was resolved. The Pirates didn’t want to risk having Alvarez become a free agent–or at least become ineligible to sign with them–and they do after all get the draft’s No. 1 talent, as rated by Baseball America, into their organization.

Major League Baseball didn’t want Alvarez to become a free agent either, and if it had to lean on former employee Frank Coonelly, now the Pirates’ president, to give Alvarez a little extra cash, then that’s better than having another player poke holes in the draft process.

Alvarez now actually gets to play baseball and get paid for it.

What does Boras get out of it, other than a hefty commission? A contract number that he can claim is the largest out of the 2008 draft, at least on its face larger than the $6.2 million bonus that Buster Posey and his agents at Creative Artists Agency got from the Giants.

Contributing: Jim Callis.

The 2008 Major League Baseball Scouting Director meetings were held Aug. 18-20 at the Scottsdale resort in Scottsdale. An annual event, its purpose is to review the previous draft and discuss new and old topics in the industry. Of the many discussions, a major emphasis was put on the need to improve access to medical information on draft eligible prospects each year. The idea of instituting a medical combine, similar to those held by the NFL or NBA before their respective drafts seemed to be the ideal option.

"It makes sense to have some central place to run these guys through some tests," an American League scouting director said. "We started it this year with the drug testing on the top 200 players. If we could do something similar with medicals, that would be a step in the right direction." [...] Continue Reading »

While the Twins and White Sox battle it out in the AL Central and the Phillies, Mets, Brewers and Astros all clawing for playoff spots in the senior circuit, there’s another race that isn’t getting as much attention … the race to the bottom. While the teams at the top get a chance at World Series glory, teams at the bottom get a chance at the first-overall pick in the draft with the frontrunner being San Diego State righthander Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg went 8-3, 1.57 with 133 strikeouts in 97 1/3 innings for the Aztecs this year, including a 23-strikeout performance against Utah on April 11. He followed up his dominant sophomore year by going 3-0, 1.06 with 48 strikeouts over 34 innings for the USA National collegiate team and then was the only amateur named to the US Olympic Team that won bronze medals in China. Let’s take a look at the teams with a shot at "winning" the first-overall pick: [...] Continue Reading »

One of the game’s longest-tenured scouting directors has lost his job. Royals general manager Dayton Moore announced Tuesday night that Deric Ladnier, the organization’s scouting director since August 2000, was being reassigned. Farm director J.J. Picollo, promoted on July 3 to the title of assistant general manager for scouting and player development, will run the Royals’ drafts, joining a small group of those in the industry who hold both titles. [...] Continue Reading »