Brian Matusz Rumors

Recently, a number of respected baseball media outlets have released their respective lists of the top number of prospects heading into the 2010 season.  These lists include Keith Law of espn.com's Top 100, Jonathan Mayo's collection of top prospects starting with Scouting the Sally's Top 30, Oriolesprospects.com Top 20, Propects Paradise's Top 30, Camden Crazies Top 25, Dave Barr's Hot Corner Top 20, Prospect Junkie's Top 20, The Cardinal Nation's Top 40, Seth Stohs from sethspeaks.net's Top 20, and Mayo's Top 50.

Obviously this all represents opinion, but to get a better idea of the overall feel of the group Baseball Rumor Mill averaged the Top 20 rankings from all of the lists to come up with an aggregate ranking of the Top 20 prospects heading into 2010. 

The rankings were tabulated only evaluating the Top 20 of each list and a point value was assigned to each rank.  #1 = 20 points, #2 = 19 points, so on down to #20 = 1 point.  If a player was not listed in the Top 20 a NR indication was given and no points were awarded.  The rankings are based on aggregate point totals, though we also did an evaluation of point totals after dropping the highest ranking and lowest ranking.  For instance, Desmond Jennings finished fifth overall in aggregate, but would be tied for 3rd with Buster Posey after dropping each player's highest and lowest ranking.

To view the raw data, click here.

Not surprisingly, Jason Heyward and Stephen Strasburg were significantly ahead of the field at the #1 and #2 spot, respectively.  There seems to be a considerable drop in consensus after either Dustin Ackley at #12 or Madison Bumgarner at #13.  Only ten players received Top 20 votes in all ten rankings.

Without further ado, the aggregate rankings

1. Jason Heyward, OF Atlanta
2. Stephen Strasburg, P Washington
3. Buster Posey, C San Francisco
4. Brian Matsuz, P Baltimore
5. Desmond Jennings, OF Tampa Bay
6. Carlos Santana, C Cleveland
7. Jesus Montero, C New York Yankees
8. Neftali Feliz, P Texas
9. Mike Stanton, OF Florida
10. Pedro Alvarez, 3B Pittsburgh
11. Justin Smoak, 1B Texas
12. Dustin Ackley, OF Seattle
13. Madison Bumgarner, P San Francisco
14. Aroldis Chapman, P Cincinnati
15. Domonic Brown, OF Philadelphia
16. Jeremy Hellickson, P Tampa Bay
17. Martin Perez, P Texas
18. Alcides Escobar, SS Brewers
19. Wade Davis, P Tampa Bay
20. Chris Carter, 1B Oakland

Less than a year after being the #1 draft pick, Strasburg rates as the #2 prospect in baseball

With two hours to go until the deadline to sign 2008 draftees, here's the latest:

• Mlb.com's Jonathan Mayo provides the list of players who signed for over their slotted value.
• Walt Jockety says that the Reds have made their final offer to Yonder Alonso.
• The Pirates made an offer to Pedro Alvarez around 5pm tonight and there's still no update.
• Brian Matsuz signed with the Orioles this afternoon. The deal is very close to the rumors yesterday.

With the deadline to sign 2008 draftees Friday at 12:00pm, a number of players still remain unsigned:

• #2 Overall pick Pedro Alvarez, Pittsburgh: Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said he felt he'd be up late the next few days trying to finalize contracts with their unsigned picks.
• #3 Overall pick Eric Hosmer, Kansas City: Bob Dutton felt that things were still iffy between Hosmer and the Royals, but mlb.com's Jonathan Mayo reports that a deal will get done...eventually.
• #4 Overall pick Brian Matsuz, Baltimore: Matsuz is expected in Baltimore today to take a physical. This is a good indication a deal will get done. Roch Kubatko confirmed the physical. The deal is allegedly worth $3.1M.
• #5 Overall pick Buster Posey, San Francisco: Andrew Baggarly says that Posey is a done deal with the Giants. Jonathan Mayo isn't so sure.
  
• #7 Overall pick Yonder Alonso, Cincinnati: Alonso is asking for a major league deal from the Reds and this is causing problems. Apparently Alonso is taking a page out of the Scott Boras playbook and threatening to play in the Independent League if he doesn't sign.
• #11 Overall pick Justin Smoak, Texas: Talks are mum between Smoak and the Ranger per the agreement of each side.\
• #23 Overall pick Allan Dykstra, San Diego: The Padres are surprised that Dykstra's contract has taken so long to sign, but now know it'll go down to the wire.

The deadline to sign 2008 draftees is Friday at 12pm.

At the end of this Roch Kubatko article there is word that Brian Matsuz is looking for a major league deal. 

Bill Ladson of mlb.com reports that the Washington Nationals are far from signing their first pick, pitcher Aaron Crow. 

Kevin Czerwinski gives us an update on all of the reamining unsigned 2008 first round picks.

The deadline to sign 2008 draftees is August 15th at 12:00pm.

The Padres still haven't signed their #1 overall pick, Allan Dykstra, amongst other players noted in this article. Dykstra's signing bonus agreement got muddled after Padres doctors examined his surgically repaired hip.

Meanwhile, the Phillies have reached an agreement with their #1 pick, Jonathan Pettibone. His signing bonus is reportedly $500K, well above the slotted $125K.

The Orioles #1 draft pick, Brian Matsuz, is confident that he will sign with the club before the Friday deadline reports Jeff Zrebeic.  Matsuz said in an email that he expects a "fair (not record-breaking) deal."

Yonder Alonso, the 7th pick of the 2008 MLB draft puts his chances at 50-50 that he'll sign with the Reds before the August 15h, 2008 12:00pm deadline. That doesn't mean, however, that Alonso would return to Miami for his senior season. Brian Peters, one of Alonso's advisors, says Alonso would more likely play in the Independent League if he is unable to reach a contract agreement with the Reds. Sounds like Alonso will sign eventually.

Sam Mellinger from the Kansas City Star discusses #3 overall pick Eric Hosmer's prospects of signing with the Kansas City Roylas. Hosmer is represented by Scott Boras and the Royals have had recent success with Boras clients Mike Moustakas and Luke Hochevar.

Updating a report from yesterday about Brian Matusz, Roch Kubatko of the Maryland Area Sports Network reports that the Orioles scouting director, Joe Jordan, flew out to San Diego to meet with Matusz. Jordan lamented that, more often than not, drawn out contract negotiations are becoming the norm with high profile draft picks.

Jonathan Mayo of mlb.com dishes out the latest rumors and news on the unsigned 2008 1st round draft picks.

Pirates (Pedro Alvarez): Nothing new from what was reported earlier in the week.

Roylas (Eric Hosmer): No new progress

Orioles (Brian Matsuz): Not close, but not far.

San Francisco (Buster Posey): Posey is looking for $$$$ making it unlikely the deal gets done soon.

When Severna Park native Mark Teixeira was asked recently about playing for his hometown Baltimore Orioles, O's fans got a glimmer of hope with Teixeira's response: "It's always something that would be very special to me, but like I said, in a couple months, when the season's over, I'll sit down and make those decisions."

Eh?!? Aww... THIS close for Orioles fans who know that Teixeira is reportedly asking for $200M over 10-years. This is likely more money than mercurial Orioles owner Peter Angelos will give out.

Bill Shaikin of The Los Angeles Times reports that Torii Hunter (who recently signed a 5-year, $90M deal with the Angels) is lobbying Teixeira hard to stay in Los Angeles.

There is also word within Jeff Zrebiec's notebook that the Orioles met with unsigned first-round draft pick Brian Matusz's agent, but the negotiations are still giong no where. The deadline to sign 2008 draft picks is August 15th.