Soderstrom is almost guaranteed to sign, as most first round picks in baseball are, but he did get taken by the team that I think is the least likely to get a deal done.
There have already been rumors he's going to be overslot, and the A's are definitely going to go a bit more conservative today to save up the money for him, but if for whatever reason he ups his demands, or if the other picks suddenly up theirs, the A's are probably the most conservative spending team in the league. They've been on the forefront of *not* paying their minor leaguers so they are clearly trying to save a few bucks, which may also give any draftee pause about playing for them.
Those who follow the MLB draft know that the "players opting to go to college to get their education" thing really only holds for guys taken outside of the first 10 rounds with a few exceptions here and there (notably for UCLA, Matt McClain), so again Soderstrom is probably going to sign. But for those who wanted a glimmer of hope he gets to UCLA that was probably the best case scenario, outside of him falling out of the first round entirely.
Soderstrom is almost guaranteed to sign, as most first round picks in baseball are, but he did get taken by the team that I think is the least likely to get a deal done.
There have already been rumors he's going to be overslot, and the A's are definitely going to go a bit more conservative today to save up the money for him, but if for whatever reason he ups his demands, or if the other picks suddenly up theirs, the A's are probably the most conservative spending team in the league. They've been on the forefront of *not* paying their minor leaguers so they are clearly trying to save a few bucks, which may also give any draftee pause about playing for them.
Those who follow the MLB draft know that the "players opting to go to college to get their education" thing really only holds for guys taken outside of the first 10 rounds with a few exceptions here and there (notably for UCLA, Matt McClain), so again Soderstrom is probably going to sign. But for those who wanted a glimmer of hope he gets to UCLA that was probably the best case scenario, outside of him falling out of the first round entirely.
You meant Garrett is the highest Bruin position player selected since Chase Utley, right?