RB Rodney Smith Commits!

Donate To GopherHole
Coach Kill only takes natural diamonds uncut. Welcome aboard Mr. Jones.
 

Tim Riggins said:
Anyone follow the baseball draft and was he drafted? Not sure how many rounds were yesterday and if the chance he enrolls increased.
Click to expand...
Here are the signing bonus values (roughly) for each of the upcoming rounds. I'm not sure how much a MILB player makes beyond the bonus, but for the average player I don't think it's much at all.

3rd
500-750k

4th
360-480k

5th
275k-360k

6th
200-275k

7th
160-200k

Past that is probably my cutoff point. 150k is a ton of money for a high school kid, but that's over a number of years, and anything past the first few rounds and you're borderline to ever see the majors.

That said, if someone puts 500k in front of my face? Yeah, college could probably wait. But it also depends on which sport you love the most as well.
 



I really hope we see Rodney here in our backfield instead of an infield or outfield... unless of course he does a Decker:rolleyes:.
They are into round 7 without him being picked yet.
 


MNVCGUY said:
Looking on that site he does not come up in the top 200 but with so many rounds in baseball that does not mean a ton. Not sure how he is regarded as a baseball prospect but hopefully he will make the decision to stick with football.
Click to expand...

I read a few pre-draft amateur baseball rankings and I don't see Smith as highly ranked by any service. Doesn't mean he won't get drafted. A lot of guys fly below the radar in baseball.
 

This has probably been discussed somewhere, but has there been any talk from him or anyone else at the U of him playing football and baseball in college?
 

Looks like he went undrafted through the upper teens of the MLB draft rounds...seems like football might be what he'll be doing in the fall.
 




Maybe his passion is FB and he made that known. If you can't sign a guy in the MLB draft if makes no sense to draft him.
 


Teams select players they won't be able to sign all the time. Sometimes they just take shots in the dark. With 40 rounds, they can take a lot of chances.
 





cjcarter8 said:
It's no wonder they suck. Treating the draft like a publicity stunt.
Click to expand...

Must be why the Rangers suck too, since they picked Russell Wilson. Wait...

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
 


mcal24 said:
Must be why the Rangers suck too, since they picked Russell Wilson. Wait...

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Rangers picked him up in the AAA phase of the Rule 5 draft. The rule 5 drafted is made up of players with 4 or more years in the minors and not on their teams 40 man roster. Besides, Wilson played professional baseball at one point. Part of the reason he left NCSU. Manziel hasn't played since high school. Comparing Russell Wilson and Johnny Manziel as baseball players is a joke.
 


cjcarter8 said:
Rangers picked him up in the AAA phase of the Rule 5 draft. Wilson played professional baseball at one point. Part of the reason he left NCSU. Manziel hasn't played since high school. Comparing Russell Wilson and Johnny Manziel as baseball players is a joke.
Click to expand...

It's still a publicity stunt, and nothing wrong with that. They drafted one of the top couple biggest names in American sports, and he might show up at spring training to get more publicity. Plus, 99.9% of guys picked in the 28th round will never come close to the majors.

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
 

I'm sure the kid is a little deflated about the draft. He can always try to go the two sport route when he gets here and maybe he improves his draft stock down the road.

I feel a little bad (but not really) because we're getting a heck of an athlete and if Jeff jones fails to perform we're going to need him.

Here is his hudl. http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1780127/highlights/107675408
 

mkAz said:
He's not showing up on the MLB.com draft tracker thru all 40 rounds. I really hopes he plays baseball for the Gophers too.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2014/drafttracker.jsp#ft=name&fv=s
Click to expand...
Right now I'm not sure there is any room on the baseball roster for him. I believe in NCAA baseball they limit the roster to 35 and right now the Gophers are scheduled to be right at the 35 man limit and it is rumored they have a transfer coming off an injury that will be looking to join the team after playing this summer in the Northwoods league and he would be the 36th player. There could be some room if someone decides to leave the team unexpectedly or someone is kept off the roster this year due to injury.
 

If Smith can play I wouldn't be shocked if they Hinojosa'd someone on the outs with the baseball coaches.

Who knows, maybe it was discussed as part of him agreeing to come here. Then again, maybe Kill doesn't like his players having "distractions". I don't really know.
 

cjcarter8 said:
Someone should tell the Padres that...
Click to expand...

They drafted him in the 28th round. If they had blown a high pick on him that would be a different matter but in baseball once you get beyond the first few rounds you are just throwing darts at a board anyway
 

I think the way it'll work with Jones, is that he devotes his first year to football and then he can try out for the baseball team in his second year, still having four years of eligibility in baseball.
 

MNVCGUY said:
They drafted him in the 28th round. If they had blown a high pick on him that would be a different matter but in baseball once you get beyond the first few rounds you are just throwing darts at a board anyway
Click to expand...

Considering 24 guys were drafted before Mike Trout, who had an MVP-caliber season just a couple of years later, it seems like it's throwing darts even in the first few rounds.
 

nsmike said:
I think the way it'll work with Jones, is that he devotes his first year to football and then he can try out for the baseball team in his second year, still having four years of eligibility in baseball.
Click to expand...

Assuming of course that A) He wants to keep playing baseball and B) That the coaches have told him they will let him do both because there is a fair amount of crossover. I remember when Decker was playing baseball he had to miss the vast majority of spring ball. For a guy like Decker that is workable but the staff might not be quite so willing to see a guy in Smith's position miss a lot of time playing a different sport when they are paying to have him there as a football player.
 


justthefacts said:
Considering 24 guys were drafted before Mike Trout, who had an MVP-caliber season just a couple of years later, it seems like it's throwing darts even in the first few rounds.
Click to expand...

Not to turn this into a baseball discussion but I remember reading recently about the percentage of guys that get drafted and never make it in baseball, the percentage is off the charts. From a draft standpoint I don't know how any club can realistically evaluate well over a thousand potential draft picks.

Football struggles to find enough talent to fill 7 rounds and even there the late rounds are filled with reaches on guys that probably have no shot of making it. I can't even fathom trying to fill 40 rounds worth of players. In a lot of ways the baseball draft is like college football recruiting in that you are trying to find the best you can out of a massive pool of players.
 


Thing with the baseball draft: MLB teams need bodies to fill out the minor league system. they know the vast majority of the players they draft will never make it to the majors, but they need the bodies. A guy I know pitches in the Phillies Minor-league system. He's at Triple-A this year, but he's not on the 40-man roster, and in another year, he'll become a 6-year minor-league free agent. He knows the odds are against him, but he doesn't want to give up the dream.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom