Draft Day 2: Blue Jays Make A Mockery Out Of New Draft Rules

The second day of the draft started out in a quite typical way for the Blue Jays: a projectable high-school pitcher, right-hander Chase DeJong, was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays with the 81st pick of the draft. He's a pitcher who has command, decent velocity with the potantial for more, and two offspeed pitches which already get good grades. He has already said he's likely signing in a quote found on mlb.com:

"I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a Blue Jay, 95 percent sure," said DeJong, who has a commitment to USC. "They will pay over slot for me. ... [I'll] be treated as a first-round compensation pick financially."

After that, things started getting crazy. In the third round, the Jays selected Anthony Alford, a very tough to sign two-way player with a football and baseball scholarship in his pocket (probably not literally in his pocket). Whether the Jays can sign the speedy outfielder remains to be seen, as he reportedly declined to be the Jays' very first pick of the draft. This indicates that the Jays really like him, and they'll throw some money at him, but it's unlikely to get done.

Then, in rounds four through ten, the Jays started picking up nobodies, college seniors who will probably sign for a minimal amount, allowing the Jays to spend some of their bonus pool money elsewhere. You see, the picks from round one to three are protected, which means the Jays get them back next year, allowing them to take a risk. Rounds four through ten are not protected, so the Jays want to make sure they sign those picks, or they'll lose the money from the bonus pool as well as the pick. Rounds eleven through forty are different yet again, as the first 100k of the player's bonus in that round doesn't count towards the bonus pool. This means, that if you go extremely cheap in rounds 4-10, you can draft the guys you normally would have drafted those rounds, in rounds 11-17 instead, and you'd get 100k "discount" on those signings. They don't actually get a discount from MLB, of course, but it counts less towards the draft pool.

So the Jays draft should, without the weird new rules, actually look like this so far:

So what about these later round high school kids, do we know anything about them?

Well, Grant Heyman is an athletic kid, multi-sport talent, who thinks it's "a very high possibility" he'll sign (click the link for the whole article). Perfect Game had him as a "prospect on the rise" for the state of New York:

Heyman was known primarily as a quarterback prospect of some renown until mid-April, when the Major League Scouting Bureau slapped an overall grade of 50 (solid major-league average on the bureau’s 20-80 scale) on his baseball ability, and he was subsequently earmarked by Major League Baseball as one of 200 players nationally that would be subject to the drug and medical tests required of the top prospects in the draft. Suddenly, teams rushed in to get a better handle on Heyman’s talent, and while most thought there was a significant gap between his athleticism and his developed baseball skills, enough teams expressed enough interest for him to warrant being a surprise draft, possibly as early as the third to fifth rounds.

Ryan Kellogg was a name more known to people, as he was thought of as Canada's best prospect, much like Thomas Robson last year. As the best prospect in his region, Kellogg's Perfect Game scouting report is not behind a paywall:

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Kellogg has been established as Canada’s top prospect for the 2012 draft for the better part of a year, and has only enhanced that standing this spring with a number of strong outings for the junior-national team against pro talent in Florida in spring training and extended spring training, as well as on Team Canada’s annual trek to the Dominican Republic just before the draft. In one noteworthy outing in March, Kellogg blanked the Toronto Blue Jays for two innings, retiring the likes of Jose Bautista, Brett Lawrie, J.P. Arencibia and Adam Lind without giving up a hit. Kellogg gets excellent downward plane on his pitches, and his fastball has typically been 87-89 mph, topping at 90-91. He should throw harder as his body matures. Kellogg’s changeup is a solid secondary pitch, while his curveball has shown steady improvement and is much firmer this spring. His greatest advances, though, have come in better command of all his pitches. He has an excellent feel for pitching, and few scouts question his competitive approach with the way he has stepped up this spring against pro-level competition. With limited high-school baseball in Canada, Kellogg has gained most of his experience playing for Canada’s junior-national team and also for the local Ontario Prospects, coached by former big-league brothers Rob and Rich Butler, since age 12. He has a college commitment to Arizona State.

John Silviano is a much lesser known player, although we do know he's a left-handed catcher and still very young. I did find these scouting blurbs from 2011 on Team One Baseball:

Plus arm behind the plate - showed several sub 2 pop times - LHH with good pop as well - nice player

Solid build. Strong arm, quick transfer. 1.92 release time in game, consistent sub 2.0 between innings. Strong catch and throw guy with solid LH bat.

Zakery Wasilewski is an older guy for a high schooler, and he's had both Tommy John surgery and ACL surgery. A typical Jays pick, grabbing a guy whose value dropped due to injuries. He's apparently going to sign, too. He's apparently back to throwing in the 90 mph range, as he was before injury struck. Here's another article about his bounceback from injury.

Ryan Borucki is also a prototypical Jays pick, as a 6'4 tall left-hander who's just 175-180 lbs. He can reach 92 mph on the gun already, but there are some concerns about his elbow, as earlier in the year he was told he needed Tommy John, though he opted for rehab, after which he did make an apparently pain-free comeback at the end of the season. He does seem to want some money, and he could very well be an insurance pick for if the Jays fail to sign some other guys with the money they saved in rounds 4-10.