North Country call for Dean
June 10th, 2009, 11:12 am · Post a Comment · posted by rdickson
Crestview’s Blake Dean’s number came up about 12:20 p.m. today when he was taken in the 10th round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Minnesota Twins.
Dean, a junior left fielder/designated hitter at Louisiana State, was the 312th pick in the draft. Heading into College World Series play on Saturday Dean is hitting .333 with 15 homers and 65 runs batted. Along the way he was named first team All-Southeastern Conference for the second consecutive year. He was a first team All-America selection in 2008 as well.
Dean will have a big decision to make in the next several weeks. Should he sign with the Twins or return for his senior season to try and improve his draft status in 2010? He has until mid or late August to make the decision.
Of course a lot can happen between now and August. If Dean continues to swing a hot bat in the CWS and turns in a strong summer league performance he could up his stock considerably and perhaps demand more than 10th round money.
This year he can negotiate with the leverage of his senior season as well. Next year that leverage will be gone, but if he puts up huge numbers his draft status should go up as well.
As a 10th round pick there is a good opportunity that Dean could have a very good career in the Major Leagues.
An interesting side note shows that since the draft was first held in 1965 there have been 24 players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Two of those players, Tom Seaver and Bruce Sutter were drafted but didn’t sign and later signed as a free agent before the next draft. Seaver was chosen in the 10th round and passed, and Sutter the 21st round and passed.
Of the 22 others only two others, Nolan Ryan (12th round) and Ryne Sandberg (20th) were selected later than Dean. Two others enshrined at Cooperstown were drafted between rounds six and 10. Wade Boggs was chosen in the seventh round and Goose Gossage the selected in the ninth round.
Those little morsels shouldn’t matter to Dean when making his decision on whether or not to sign with the Twins, but they might be something to think about.
