FanPost

Baseball America notes on Royals draft

From Baseball America regarding the Royals chances of signing Hosmer and/or Melville.  Sounds upbeat to me but what does everyone else think of Jim Callis and his comments?

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/ask-ba/2008/266424.html

    Any rumblings out of the Royals organization regarding the Eric Hosmer and Tim Melville negotiations? Your original line of thinking was that Melville was more than a hedge against Hosmer signing. Are there indications they're serious about signing both?

    Bill Lamberty
    Bozeman, Mont.

Teams knew that neither Hosmer, the best high school hitter in the draft and a Scott Boras Corporation advisee, nor Melville, arguably the best prep pitcher available, would be easy to sign. There's no concrete number on exactly what Hosmer is looking for, but clubs believed he wanted a major league contract worth upwards of $5 million. Melville's mother told scouts that he wanted a bonus commensurate with the first 10-15 picks, meaning a minimum of roughly $1.75 million.

There has been no public comment from either side on how negotiations are progressing, but I believe they'll try to get both deals done. The Royals wouldn't have chosen Hosmer third overall if they didn't think they could sign him, and they've paid top dollar for Boras clients in the first round of the previous two drafts (Luke Hochevar, Mike Moustakas). I don't think Melville is just an insurance policy in case the Hosmer negotiations go awry, and there's talk that the Missourian may be willing to give Kansas City a slight homestate discount.

Because both players will command more than slot money, it's unlikely that their deals would be finalized before the Aug. 15 deadline. I'll be shocked if the Royals don't sign Hosmer, and I think there's a good chance that they'll land Melville.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Royals Review community. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the editors and writers of this site.