by Ray D. Enzé, Aurora Storialis, a NLN Blog
June 14, 2018: Tempe, AZ – The PEBA draft has come and gone and once again the Borealis have had a bevy of picks to work with, but times are a changin’ in the PEBAverse. The once cash flush Aurora franchise finds themselves coming off two straight seasons in the red and although they currently lead all of baseball in attendance – up 6% over last year, the financial damage is done. Aurora’s challenge? Sign your nine-
player deep draft-bonus class with a $5.6M budget handed down by Aurora owner Michael Topham – a budget dictated by the League’s financial rules aimed at keeping teams in or moving towards the fiscal black. He sure hasn’t done his son, GM Will Topham any favors.
With the 11th selection in the draft – a pick acquired from Manchester in the Terry Burns – Artie Thompson deal, Aurora took 1B Gabriel McIntyre, the 6-foot, 215 pounder from Oregon State. McIntyre was a .369 hitter in his four years in Corvallis, with a near .500 OBP (.495) walking 175 times while striking out only 34 in 681 career AB. “We went against the grain of past drafts where we’ve recently focused on starting pitching and outfielders.” said the younger Topham, “First is a position of sudden need in the organization, as odd as that may sound. We have some options in the majors, but nothing solid or long term once Al Edwards moves on.” Folks, read into that what you may. Edwards is a free agent after the year and Aurora has made no move towards contract discussions with either Edwards or ‘Quagmire’ – also a free agent-to-be. McIntyre and his agent are believed to be asking for a $2.4M bonus – and Aurora’s GM confirmed that was the team’s offer. As you may begin to see, therein lies Aurora’s dilemma.
I have to add, at this point, that Aurora is not the ‘Emerald City’ it once was – a place draftees wanted to go to, for it was an organization of winners. Suddenly there are whispers that people don’t want to come to Aurora, and McIntyre – as well as a number of Aurora’s draft class, didn’t look exactly rosy over their selection by the Borealis.
Case in point? Aurora’s own first round selection, #18 overall, SP Curt Mills, out of UCONN. While McIntyre’s camp is still discussing Aurora’s offer, Mill’s has openly demanded a $2M bonus and a major league contract, something Topham said “We are not prepared to even discuss.” Mills has quickly turned down Aurora’s offer and in a radio interview from his Long Island home he was quoted as saying, “No contract, no Mills. That’s plain and simple. I’m prepared to sit out this year.” Frankly, if you want this old baseball writers opinion, he’s not worth the roster spot at this point. A career 22-19 in 48 starts with a 4.61 ERA with 195 K in 304 IP? I’m smelling minor league fodder.
So far we have $2.4M for McIntyre and $2M for Mills - that’s $4.4 of your $5.6M draft budget right there and we haven’t even gotten to 18 year-old OF Noberto Peralta out of Lakewood HS. Taken with the 14th selection of the second round – a pick acquired from Omaha in the Stevie McDonald deal, Peralta was a four-year starter with a .351 career average and, like McIntyre, has a high OBP (.422) thanks to 94 BB in 761 AB – with only 26 K. “I’ll confess,” said Topham, “we drafted guys who we believed put the ball in play and showed patience at the plate. Peralta and McIntyre fit that mold.” That said, the speedy OF is believed to be asking for a $2.4M bonus. He, too, has quickly turned down Aurora’s considerably lesser offer. Peralta has a couple of scholarship offers on the table and one might expect he’ll take that option, looking for a greener pay day in four years. “We’d love to bring Noberto into the fold, but we knew this one was risky.” Topham explained. “He’d fit in nicely in a few years with Ferrell, Pope and Hale.”
The same is true for another pair of teenagers: 2nd rounder Gregg Williams and 5th rounder Tom Harrell, both asking north of $2M and both expected to head off to college. “This is very frustrating.” Topham said with a frown “We are used to having virtually all our players signed and delivered quickly. To be sitting here and facing the real prospect of not signing any of our ‘big ticket’ draftees? That just feels like a big ‘swing and a miss’.”
Indeed. The only draftees from the bonus rounds likely to sign are the four seeking modest, sub-$500K bonuses – SP Kevin Ammons, C Frank Pitts, SS Joe Lane and OF Cornell Bradford. None of these, on the surface, look to have the kind of staying power to impact the Borealis in the future.
Ammons, out of Memphis, was 19-16 with a 4.90 ERA and an OAVG of .284. He’s a little rough around the edges, but he throws strikes – batters just hit those strikes. He’ll need to learn how to start missing those bats. Pitts is a pretty good defensive backstop who sported a .279 average in four years at West Virginia. He’s shown good power to the gaps, but has lacked discipline at the plate, leading to 137 K in 720 AB. His defensive skills should continue to improve over time, but he’ll have to develop patience with the bat if he’s to have any hope of competing with Rusty Butler or Miguel Gálvez.
Lane is a light hitting, slick fielding infielder from Washington who hit a deceptive .300 as a two-year starter. I think he was more of an organizational need pick, whose coaches at UW raved about his hard work and leadership. Who knows? Sometimes the draft is a crap-shoot, and kids develop out of nowhere. Maybe that’ll be the case here. Or maybe that’ll be the case for Bradford, a speedy, skilled CF out of UCLA, whose skills at the plate resemble Lane’s. Like Lane, he, too, is a hard working, leader type who in two years as a starter hit .243. Both Lane and Bradford will get their chance over the next couple of seasons at Mokule’ia and SLRC, but I see their chances of making it at Gatineau as slim.
Where does this leave the Borealis? Well, for an organization that has hoarded picks like the folks on the old tv show ‘Hoarders’ hoarded random nuts and bolts, the loss of their top selections may not be the end of the world. That said, it’s never a good thing to lose out on top-notch talent - talent that has the potential to make a difference. McIntyre is one such player. I believe that Peralta has that same potential. If that’s all they brought home, then it would be a successful negotiation season. I’m hearing from sources that that’s the direction Aurora’s moving in. The signing window will close fast and with a class of ‘picky’ draftees, Aurora better move fast or they’ll come up with a handful of blanks. The question is: Does this once cash rich team have the coin to make that happen?
