University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heels Avoid Draft Direct Hit
August 18, 2009 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Aug. 18, 2009
By Adam Lucas
After the 2008 major league baseball draft delivered a serious hit to Carolina's recruiting class and also a surprising blow with the loss of Tim Fedroff, the Tar Heels desperately needed to avoid the same kind of damage from the draft this year.
When the clock hit 12:01 a.m. Tuesday morning, it became apparent that Carolina may have emerged relatively unscathed. A quick look at the Tar Heels who signed:
Seniors
Adam Warren turned his senior year into a major benefit. In addition to earning his college degree and walking with his class before a May game with NC State, he rocketed from a 36th round choice of the Cleveland Indians in 2008 to a fourth-round pick of the New York Yankees as a senior. Warren has been terrific for the Class A Staten Island Yankees, compiling a 4-1 record with a 1.05 ERA in nine starts.
Junior class
Brian Moran, Kyle Seager and Dustin Ackley signed as expected. Moran and Seager signed soon after returning from Omaha; both are with the Clinton LumberKings in class A.
Ackley's negotiations were more prickly. He eventually earned a $6 million signing bonus and instantly becomes one of the marquee members of the 2009 draft class. It looks like the Mariners aren't going to place him in the minors immediately, instead perhaps waiting for the Arizona Fall League.
Alex White's negotiations were the most intriguing of the Tar Heel draft class. The situation was a study in major league baseball's "slot" system for draft picks. The Indians began negotiations with the opinion White should sign for slot; the UNC hurler, who "slipped" to 15th overall partially due to signability concerns, felt otherwise. White enrolled for his senior year at UNC but earned a $2.25 million bonus from the Indians late on Monday night. The Indians have mentioned a desire to possibly convert him to a reliever.
Carolina was the only school with two current players picked in the draft's first round and both players made dramatic draft improvements during their college careers. Ackley was undrafted out of high school and White was a 14th-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers as a prepster.
Sophomore class
One of the more underrated parts of the 2009 draft might be the return of Colin Bates. Picked in the 37th round by the Oakland A's, Bates was in the same position as Fedroff last year as a draft-eligible sophomore. With two years of eligibility remaining and the prospect of an increased role on the Tar Heel staff in 2010, Bates chose to return to school and potentially enjoy a Warren-like rise up the draft board next summer.
Recruiting class
Fans tend to pay most of the attention to the highest-drafted prospects in a class. So while Donavan Tate and Jacob Turner will get most of the ink after signing huge deals as first-round picks, those were losses--along with Matt Graham and Bryan Mitchell--the Tar Heel coaches always expected.
The crippling part of the 2008 draft were the late-round signees who were already projected onto the Carolina depth chart but made surprising choices to sign with professional teams instead. It's the kind of everything-breaks-bad scenario that happens to every program occasionally. A program might be able to weather one of those years, but two in a row can be a serious handicap. Losing an unexpected signee isn't damaging for just one year; it's a loss for all three years he would have been on campus.
This year, the 2008 situation wasn't repeated. Getting Brian Goodwin on campus--don't be fooled by his 17th-round draft position, as he dropped because of a strong commitment to Carolina--is a coup. The same is true of Cody Stiles, a 39th-round pick of the New York Yankees who turned down a push from the prestigious franchise for the Tar Heels.
Carolina also added a pair of late-round picks, Michael Morin (40th round, Royals) and R.C. Orlan (44th round, Dodgers). That group of freshmen provides the kind of depth that will replenish a program riding a streak of four straight College World Series trips.
How any of the incoming freshmen will turn out once they get on campus is an open question, but don't forget, Fox already knows he has at least one jewel in this class. Levi Michael originally was part of the incoming 2010 group before enrolling early and hitting .290 for the '09 CWS participants.
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