Amir Garrett - SF - Findlay Prep - Las Vegas, NV - ST. JOHN'S

I do not think any team works hard on signing a 22nd round draft choice.   The player usually works hard at trying to sign for a few extra $$$.  If they thought that much about Amir, they would have selected him much earlier.

His Dad's demands did not frighten teams away, it was Amir's lack of recent baseball experience.

Even if Amir signed with the Reds, his playing basketball at St. John's would not impact his baseball time commitments until probably  the mid-Spring of 2012.  Minor leagues do start later than the majors.

I do not think any team works hard on signing a 22nd round draft choice.   The player usually works hard at trying to sign for a few extra $$$.  If they thought that much about Amir, they would have selected him much earlier.

His Dad's demands did not frighten teams away, it was Amir's lack of recent baseball experience.

Even if Amir signed with the Reds, his playing basketball at St. John's would not impact his baseball time commitments until probably  the mid-Spring of 2012.  Minor leagues do start later than the majors.

Minor leagues start about a week later. But they all have to report when spring training starts, and usually, most young guys want to be there earlier than the official report day for ST. That date would be right in the middle of the Big East seaon.

baseball america is reporting the reds are working hard at having amir give up his st john's scholarship to sign with them.

i hate the offseason.

This is the blurb I saw...I don't have subscriber access.  But this does not make it seem that the Reds are going to do whatever it takes.  And with Amir stating several times that he will be coming to St. John's I don't think there is anything to worry about.


"John Manuel of Baseball America explains that Amir Garrett is a natural at two sports: baseball and basketball. The Reds will try to convince their 22nd rounder to give up a basketball scholarship at St. John's for a pro baseball career."

garrett to sign with reds..play both sports per YAHOO..

Findlay (Nev.) Prep star and St. John's basketball signee Amir Garrett might seem like a likely candidate to idolize athletic wing stars like himself. Given his dual professional goals, an NBA sharp shooter from the past might be more ideal: Celtics general manager Danny Ainge.


Why Ainge? Probably because the former Celtics and Suns star is also the last significant player to reach the top flight of both baseball and basketball, taking turns in the Blue Jays outfield before moving on to basketball.

While the skills needed to excel at football and baseball intersect enough to make the two-sport professional venture more traditional, Garrett -- who was Rivals.com's No. 68 overall prospect in the country in the Class of 2011 -- will be embarking on the relatively unique pursuit of chasing a professional career in both the MLB and NBA, after a recent agreement with St. John's yielding an opportunity for Garrett to play summer baseball for the Reds organization, after Cincinnati selected the future Red Storm swingman in the 22nd round of the draft.

"Man, all I can say is it's a blessing," Garrett told JohnnyJungle.com after he was drafted. "It's just a great feeling to get a call like that. I give glory to God. That's all I can do."

He can also thank the St. John's basketball program, which worked with Garrett, a key component of its loaded Class of 2011 recruiting class, to ensure he would show up on the school's Queens campus and play basketball next fall.


Of course, not being picked in the first 10 rounds of the draft probably helped ensure that Garrett would maintain a dual focus, at least for now.

"If he went high, it would have been one or the other," Garrett's father, Darrow, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which first reported that Garrett would play both sports starting in 2012. "We love [St. John's basketball coach] Steve Lavin, and I told everyone it would have taken a lot to just walk away from him. This way he can still play basketball at St. John's and do the things he wants to be able to do."

While there may be a number of things that Garrett wants to do, there are ample reasons to believe that he has brighter prospects in baseball, despite the focus he has placed on basketball in recent years. As reported by Prep Rally's college basketball brother blog, The Dagger, Garrett threw an astounding 89 mph in his first pitching workouts when he picked up a baseball for the first time in months, then ramped that speed up to an even more impressive 96 mph just weeks later … in front of nearly 40 Major League Baseball scouts.

Between his size and velocity, plenty of baseball talent evaluators think Garrett could eventually be a David Price-like superstar. Until then, he'll keep plugging away at both the sports he loves, with the hopes that maybe he might be lucky enough to duplicate the success that Ainge and a previous few before him have accomplished.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Top-prospect-to-play-NCAA-hoops-pro-baseball-at?urn=highschool-wp2875

garrett to sign with reds..play both sports per YAHOO..


While the skills needed to excel at football and baseball intersect enough to make the two-sport professional venture more traditional, Garrett -- who was Rivals.com's No. 68 overall prospect in the country in the Class of 2011 -- will be embarking on the relatively unique pursuit of chasing a professional career in both the MLB and NBA, after a recent agreement with St. John's yielding an opportunity for Garrett to play summer baseball for the Reds organization, after Cincinnati selected the future Red Storm swingman in the 22nd round of the draft.


http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/Top-prospect-to-play-NCAA-hoops-pro-baseball-at?urn=highschool-wp2875

I dunno, maybe its 'cause I'm an oldtimer, but I can name more players who went Basketball/Baseball  (Pro in one or both sports, Div-1 college in the other)  than I can Basketball/football.....Chuck Connors, Gene Conley, Dave Dubuschere, Sandy Koufax,  Cotton Nash, Dick Groat, Ron Reed, Tim Stoddard, on to guys like Tony Gwynn, Kenny Lofton,  Mark Hendrickson, the aforementioned Danny Ainge.   Heck, Michael Jordan.   And those are just the ones off the top of my head....

For the most part, playing two sports is a thing of the past.  Athletes are making too much money in one sport, so why should they jeopardize their future earnings playing another sport.  They also want some time off to relax. 

There should be no surprise to see a lack of football/basketball athletes.  The beating a football player's body  takes in a game and during the season (and in the practices) needs time to heal.

By the way, I saw Brooklyn's own (and a SH guy) Chuck Connors mentioned as a two sport athlete.  I think he was also drafted by an NFL team.

Unless you're Deion Sanders.

He proved that with hard work a world class athlete could be an awesome football player, and a half way decent baseball player. Sometimes.

the university of minnesota's dave winfield was a three sport athlete.  for you oldtimers...jim brown was another.

Jim Brown could have played any sport he wanted.
He was a legend in his own time.

Jeff Samardzija

I just heard that the Yankees' top pick, Dante B. Jr., is only getting $750K to sign.  I am not sure if he is coming from HS or college.

So a 22nd Round pick might get less than the $300K we seemed to all focus on earlier. 

I know the #1 overall pick and the DBacks #1 picks, both great college pitchers (UCLA) and juniors, will get more.

Forgive me folks for repeating myself, but I just do not see the advantage of Amir going pro.  The money just will not be there now.  The school season is September to May, which rules out spring training at the Reds complex.

So here is a possible scenario for what does Amir for the next few years in pro baseball:  This year probably pitching in the rookie league; next May going into low A; maybe next fall he may pitch in the AZ Fall League for promising players.  In May of his sophomore year at St. John's, Amir may go into high-A, if he is talented.  In May of his junior year he may advance to AA, which is the pitchers' league.

The other scenario has Amir playing on the St. John's baseball team and pitching three seasons (fall, spring and summer) for the next three years.  If he has the pitching talent, he could sign in his junior year for perhaps $2 million by then, and at which point he would probably go into AA ball.  He would have less problems here trying to juggle two sports.

The AZ Republic had a recent story about how the DBacks top 10 or so prospects have been doing from last year to this year.  Not an encouraging read, especially for their young arms.

But in the end, Amir seems determined to go pro baseball now.  I just wish he and his family would talk this out with some baseball folks, if the have not done so yet.  Believing Amir would first be drafted in the first three rounds, then the first ten rounds, leads me to believe that they have not done so.  A reality check would be helpful.

I know Amir wants to play pro ball now

Kevin Durant just gave our boy Amir a shout out on Twitter telling everyone to follow "left handed monster going to St. John's" thought that was pretty cool...

Back to Newsie's post-

I see nothing there that shows he's signed with Cincy.  All articles are from June 8th or thereabouts around the Draft where it said he would stay committed to STJ and see what happens with the Draft.  Well he was drafted and we've heard crickets since then.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110613&content_id=20424072&notebook_id=20450760&vkey=notebook_cin&c_id=cin&partnerId=rss_cin

this is the most recent article I have found regarding the Reds signing any draft picks and it was from a week ago. They have signed guys drafted after Amir but it seems like there has been no movement within the orginization as far as signing draft picks.

I just heard that the Yankees' top pick, Dante B. Jr., is only getting $750K to sign.  I am not sure if he is coming from HS or college.

So a 22nd Round pick might get less than the $300K we seemed to all focus on earlier. 

I know the #1 overall pick and the DBacks #1 picks, both great college pitchers (UCLA) and juniors, will get more.

Forgive me folks for repeating myself, but I just do not see the advantage of Amir going pro.  The money just will not be there now.  The school season is September to May, which rules out spring training at the Reds complex.

So here is a possible scenario for what does Amir for the next few years in pro baseball:  This year probably pitching in the rookie league; next May going into low A; maybe next fall he may pitch in the AZ Fall League for promising players.  In May of his sophomore year at St. John's, Amir may go into high-A, if he is talented.  In May of his junior year he may advance to AA, which is the pitchers' league.

The other scenario has Amir playing on the St. John's baseball team and pitching three seasons (fall, spring and summer) for the next three years.  If he has the pitching talent, he could sign in his junior year for perhaps $2 million by then, and at which point he would probably go into AA ball.  He would have less problems here trying to juggle two sports.

The AZ Republic had a recent story about how the DBacks top 10 or so prospects have been doing from last year to this year.  Not an encouraging read, especially for their young arms.

But in the end, Amir seems determined to go pro baseball now.  I just wish he and his family would talk this out with some baseball folks, if the have not done so yet.  Believing Amir would first be drafted in the first three rounds, then the first ten rounds, leads me to believe that they have not done so.  A reality check would be helpful.

I know Amir wants to play pro ball now

I don't think the round he was drafted in is a knock on his skills, but rather his signability.  He has a strong commitment to St. John's for basketball and I'm sure teams didn't want to waste a high draft pick on someone who may not sign.  With that being said, I'm sure his signing bonus will be be much higher than the slot for the 22nd round because if it wasn't then there really would be no reason for him to play pro ball right now.

baseball america is reporting the reds are working hard at having amir give up his st john's scholarship to sign with them.

i hate the offseason.

Yeah, it is always rough when we need to fill 10 ships in one season.  None of this would be a problem if that wasn't the case.  I have no problem with Amirmdoing what is best for him, although it could leave us a bit short this coming season isn't am good thing.  Unfortunately, Amir wouldmnot have been able to make a decision like this any earlier.  I hope and think Amir will probably play this season, and we can really use him, even if we don't get him back for the year after. 

Back to Newsie's post-

I see nothing there that shows he's signed with Cincy.  All articles are from June 8th or thereabouts around the Draft where it said he would stay committed to STJ and see what happens with the Draft.  Well he was drafted and we've heard crickets since then.

all indications in the article from yahoo...and the las vegas paper...is that he's signing.  whether they've agreed on the numbers is academic.  his father is talking about playing two sports.  amir calls it a blessing that he can do both.  it's a chance to pick up some money while keeping his basketball eligibility.

the bottom line is he'll stay in shape 12 months out of the year and we can root for him to succeed in two sports.

I doubt his signing bonus will be "much higher" than any one else drafted in the 22 nd round.  There is no need to do so.  Amir is already out there saying he wants to play baseball.  That has weakened his bargaining power some what.

I also think his being drafted in the 22 nd round is really more about his talent at this point than his signability, but both factored into the draft equation.  If he pitched his "senior" year in HS and had hit some of those 96 mph numbers on a regular basis, he would probably have been drafted much higher (or is it lower).

Remember, it will not only be two sports that he will be involved with, but going to college as well.  That is a good deal of commitment for an 18-19 year old to not only make, but keep on top of.

Good luck, Amir!

I doubt his signing bonus will be "much higher" than any one else drafted in the 22 nd round.  There is no need to do so.  Amir is already out there saying he wants to play baseball.  That has weakened his bargaining power some what.

I also think his being drafted in the 22 nd round is really more about his talent at this point than his signability, but both factored into the draft equation.  If he pitched his "senior" year in HS and had hit some of those 96 mph numbers on a regular basis, he would probably have been drafted much higher (or is it lower).

Remember, it will not only be two sports that he will be involved with, but going to college as well.  That is a good deal of commitment for an 18-19 year old to not only make, but keep on top of.

Good luck, Amir!

A tall high school lefty who throws 95+ and doesn't have a commitment to another sport at a college will be picked in the first 4 rounds.  There is no doubt that it will take more than 22nd round money to sign him and if he was just a baseball player he would have gone much higher.  He is better at baseball than a 22nd round talent, this happens in the MLB draft all the time. Signability is just as important as skill when choosing when to draft a player.  He made it clear before the draft he was playing basketball in college no matter what and that hurt his draft position.