Is there any real chance Kyler Murray goes in the first round of the MLB draft? Not that they matter all that much at this stage, but I haven't seen him listed on a single mock draft.

Kyler =/= Kohl Stewart. Kohl was an obvious top 5, maybe the top player in the draft.

Posters on the A&M Football board and Premium board especially are extremely concerned that Kyler goes the MLB route. Is that just BAS or is there a real chance an MLB team gets creative with their allotted-slot money and offers Kyler enough money to pull him away?

Where does he stack up?

#29 on this list

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/watch/y2015/#list=draft

Where he gets drafted will really be all about signability. If he wants to play baseball and makes that known, I'm guessing he could get drafted in the first round. If he says that he really wants to play football, he will probably drop a couple of rounds and someone may try to money whip him. That's how these things seem to play out anyway.

Thanks. I hadn't seen him ranked that high.

Teams would probably be skeptical of taking him with a first round pick, but I could see a team getting creative with their allotment and offering him first round money as a later round pick.

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#29 on this list

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/prospects/watch/y2015/#list=draft

Where he gets drafted will really be all about signability. If he wants to play baseball and makes that known, I'm guessing he could get drafted in the first round. If he says that he really wants to play football, he will probably drop a couple of rounds and someone may try to money whip him. That's how these things seem to play out anyway.

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Isn't the money pretty well already set for players taken in the first 10 rounds of the draft now? That makes it hard to select lower then try to money whip a pick.

Better question

Are there any baseball owners with tu Connections that would be willing to overpay for Murray to prevent him from coming to a&m

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Isn't the money pretty well already set for players taken in the first 10 rounds of the draft now?

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No...It's all about leverage.
If a MLB team really wants Kyler they are going to throw some serious cash at him. Otherwise he's going to play DI college football for the next 3 years and risk injury.
Kyler has the leverage

There are slotted salaries. If you go over it, there are penalties. So within about 5%, it's known already what the max deal would be.

My guess is Kyler needs to be a top 15 team to not go to a&m. Don't know how likely that is.

Penalties only apply if they go over their total bonus pool (the value of all of their slots added together), no?

I.e. they could overpay someone quite a bit, they'd just need to spend less somewhere else (or just pay the penalties).

Here are the slot values for draft picks 1-315 for 2014.

The No. 29 pick in the 2014 draft was slotted for $1,788,000. The 2014 values were a 1.7% increase over 2013, says the linked article.

Unless there was a change, you get slot money allocation. They pool that money together, then distribute at their leisure.

IIRC, Houston had the #1 overall pick in 2012. They felt their Top 3 options where all about the same. They went to them to find out what it would take to sign them. Buxton ended up signing for $6M, while Correia signed for like $4.8. They were then able to money whip later players with the $1.2M

Slot from the link are:
1. $7.922M
2. $6.822M
3. $5.721M

Using that as an example, if you went to the 3 players and said, "We have the #1 pick. We'd like to pay Slot2 money, and sign you." That gives the player assurance that he gets better than 3rd pick money and allows him to be THE #1 pick. It also gets you some money to spend.

Houston has the #2 and #5 picks, along with #37, #46.

I see that Ashe Russell is #10 & Beau Burrows is #25. Those are our 2 best pitchers committed in the 2015 class. If AGS where to get those guys on campus AGS could possibly have the best pitching core in the country but with them ranked so high it looks slim they come here. AGS never seem to have luck getting guys to turn down the draft, unlike other schools like tu, Vandy, TCU ect...

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I see that Ashe Russell is #10 & Beau Burrows is #25. Those are our 2 best pitchers committed in the 2015 class. If AGS where to get those guys on campus AGS could possibly have the best pitching core in the country but with them ranked so high it looks slim they come here. AGS never seem to have luck getting guys to turn down the draft, unlike other schools like tu, Vandy, TCU ect...

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[as it stands today] You're a HS kid ... And going to be a top 30 pick or play mandatory 3 years in college

They're not playing in CS

The football board is full of people who are ignorant of new draft rules as well as the types of players who get drafted in the 1st round of the MLB draft. Pitchers who are 6'3", athletic and throw 98 get drafted in the 1st round. Second basemen with average arm strength do not. I have never seen Kyler play baseball but I have seen him throw a football. If he can throw a baseball over 85 mph it would surprise me. I think there is nothing to worry about.

Kyler is a middle infielder. Kohl Stewart was a pitcher.

there is much more risk to a top HS pitcher playing college ball for 3 years as opposed to an infielder

The other type of player that goes in the first round is toolsy, up-the-middle players. I've never seen him hit a baseball, but I've seen his football highlight tape. He's an incredible athlete, the type of athlete that some team will probably fall in love with. If he has any bat to ball skills, it wouldn't surprise me if he's taken in the first round. Hell, as an Astros fan, ed wade would take him very early, even without showing any ability to hit a baseball.

Agree completely. Fantastic athlete in the middle of a defense is going to draw some very strong consideration.

Kyler Murray baseball game.

http://www.hornsports.com/forums/topic/9529-kyler-murray-the-baseball-player/

MLB Video of Kyler posted on tu site.

Great wheels. Anyone know why he has played 2B instead of SS? 2B is a more dangerous position and is usually reserved for the best player who does not have a plus arm. That is until MLB when guys who are not good enough to continue at SS at that level switch to 2B.

I think he's played a little SS and will move there full-time this season.

No idea if this is credible or not, but this is from Backstop at the zoo:

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As a former College and High School baseball coach, I have talked to a few of the MLB cross-checkers and the lead scout for the MLB scouting bureau. The consensus is anywhere from late first round to top four rounds. He has some bargaining power due to his ability to turn the draft down for football and still play baseball for the Ags. He has has a "plus" arm and would transition to the OF in pro ball. "Plus" range and speed. He hits for average but has not quite shown the"pop" that would associate him with a corner outfield spot. He IS a CF. His draft status solely depends on this year. I personally think he will be in College Station next year but he may go off and solidify the first round grade that some have given him. The transition to a wooden bat will be interesting.

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Personally, I think he'll come to campus, but I don't think there's anyway I would bet on it. The Mariners payed $2,000,000 to a second round player last year whose slot was only about $750,000. If some team falls in love with him, it's not out of the question that he'll have to turn down $1 - $2 million even if he's not drafted in the first round.

Something else to keep in mind is that his uncle works as an advisor for Scott Boras' s agency.

If he was to represent Kyler that would be in our favor.

Why would you consider that a positive? Just because teams would be scared of the high price tag?

That brings up a question. When do baseball players sign agents? If they're debating between signing and going to college do they have to negotiate their signing bonus without an agent?

AgRyan04 gets it.

Perhaps someone knows why Kyler has played 2B. Makes no sense to me if he has a SS arm. It is a far more dangerous position to play than SS. Too bad Kyler doesn't want to play WR. He is a speedy version of Speedy Noil.

Somebody has an agenda.

I think Gabe has said Kyler projects as a CF long term. I know a toolsy OF projects higher than a 2B usually.

Considering MLB is projecting him at CF and he hasn't played SS, I'd imagine there are shortcomings in his glove vs his arm.

I did some additional research - I wanted to see the numbers on CFers specifically, but it was difficult to figure out exact outfield positions guys were drafted for, so these numbers are for ALL OF positions.

Again, this is by no means definitive in predicting future picks, but I think it does give an idea of how special a team would have to think of a player to take him in the first round.

Some of the guys clearly were being drafted as corner OFers - one was projected as a C/OF and one as a 1B/OF

• Over the last 5 years there were still 163 1st round picks
• 19 were high school OFers (12%)
• Of those 9 were right handed (6%)
  
• Of those, there were two shorter than 6'2" (the #2 and #5 overall picks of their respective drafts)
• None below 6'1"
  
  
• (there were four lefties/switch hitters shorter than 6'2", only one was shorter than 6'0")

To answer the earlier question as to why I think a possible representation by Boras is favorable in terms of getting Kyler on campus.....it's because I think it is more difficult for a team to spend their first round pick on a guy they're not certain they can sign. Boras is notorious for putting team's feet to the fire and putting kids on campus and taking the chance in the next draft.

The money certainly does play a part as well though - if a team has to go above slot money, it hurts them with the rest of their selections because they'll have to be able to take some guys they know they can sign for below slot money to stay within their total pool money. They would have to really love the guy to risk both of those rather than just taking the next guy on their board.

That said, I don't know that his uncle will represent him - that's purely speculation on my part.

If he gets taken in the first round - he absolutely should sign and not a soul could or should blame him - just like Kohl Stewart, or Clayton Kershaw, or Will Middlebrooks, etc. I only put these numbers together because there has been such a wide range of confidence/fear/speculation regarding the draft and I was curious what past drafts have looked like purely from an "on paper" point of view.

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Why would you consider that a positive? Just because teams would be scared of the high price tag?

That brings up a question. When do baseball players sign agents? If they're debating between signing and going to college do they have to negotiate their signing bonus without an agent?

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If they are debating between signing or going to college, their "agent" is just an unpaid advisor that gives them advice with the sole intent of once they sign, they will also sign with the agent. It's the loophole around maintaining amateur status while negotiating with the mlb.

Thanks

I took this from Premium and assume the stats to be accurate:

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He hasn't even taken the field yet this season. He only being a DH with 7 games and 18 ABs he has a .333 average. That's 7 hits with only 1 double, 1 triple, and 0 HRs. I think he needs to prove it on the field to get the first round pick money.

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Does he REALLY have to prove it on the field this year to be a high 1st round guy? Or has he already done that? Seems like he's sought after because of potential, not the numbers he may or may not put up this year.

Thoughts?