Rex Hadnot Fields Punts, Ends Practice
June 15, 2009From One 23 to Another…Stay In Cleveland
June 15, 2009Hours before Cliff Lee took the hill and dominated the St. Louis Cardinals, recent draft selection Alex White did nearly the same against the Arizona State Sun Devils in the NCAA tournament.
After allowing three doubles in the first two innings, White settled in and was nearly unhittable. His final line after nine innings: Seven hits, one earned run, three walks (one intentional), and 12 strikeouts.
Unfortunately for White, a lot of the attention today is on the four-run 10th inning that Arizona State put up to win the game. But in the same, White can now thank Sun Devis’ coach Pat Murphy for vouching for his wallet.
“Cleveland’s got a good one,” Murphy said. “Every big situation we had, he turned it up a notch. You knew you were in a fight with someone who was pretty special. That’s why Cleveland needs to pay him even more than they set out to pay him.”
I am sure that Mark Shapiro and company loved to hear that, especially since White tossed a fairly crazy 131 pitches in the nine inning span. I do not know if there were some grumblings of the (traditionally frugal) Indians low-balling White or not, but having your first-round draft pick light it up on a national stage is great until the post-game commentary turns into a discussion about future compensation.
Lonnie Chisenhall – last year’s first-round selection – signed a bonus of $1.1 million. If you want to compare apples to apples, the Diamondbacks drafted Daniel Schlereth (son of ESPN’s Mark Schlereth) as a back-of-the-bullpen arm. He received a signing bonus of $1.33 million.
Brendan mentioned late yesterday that if we were to judge by the amount of work that UNC gave White, it would appear that they are gearing up for a future without their ace right-hander. The Indians still plan on moving White to the bullpen. Where he starts out his career (I’m guessing Mahoning Valley) will depend on when the team can get him signed.
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(image via CarolinaRob7)
5 Comments
Moving him to the bullpen is a sign that they want to get him Major League ready very quickly. My guess is that he might not pitch many more games this season, but when he does it will probably be for Lake County and he will compete in minor league Spring Training for a spot on Kinston’s roster with an outside shot at playing for Akron. He is a college junior, and since he was drafted so high is clearly already better than most of the other college-entry kids playing for short-season Mahoning Valley.
Thanks Jacob. I knew you’d have a better idea of his destination. I’m all about Lake Cty as it’s a lot closer to my place than the Scrappers…
how fast can he get here? holy god what an awful pitching performance
My guess is that he probably won’t pitch much the rest of the 09 season, but should begin ’10 with Class A Kinston and eventually making his way to Double-A Akron. If all things go well with the faster transition to the bullpen, he should make his first appearance for the Indians later in the 2011 season.
[…] White for more than a year now and were thrilled in drafting him. We’ve touched on the possibility of low-balling White in the past. For now, it appears that one side will have to give before too long if these […]