The MLB has confirmed that the Dodgers won the bidding on the rights for Korean left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu, just as Mike Petriello said yesterday, despite ESPN refusing to credit him.

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Since Scott Boras is his agent, Boras won’t care about the posting fee and will look to gouge the Dodgers for as much as possible, and his PR campaign has already started.

Dylan Hernandez spoke with him and the quotes by Boras gave insight into why I previously said this is just the start of things.

Ryu Hyun-jin could immediately be a No. 3 starter in a major league rotation, according to his agent.

“He’s ready to pitch in the big leagues right now,” Scott Boras said. “He’s not a developmental project.”

Translation: “He can help you from Opening Day, so pay him more money.”

“We have to strategically plan out his career,” Boras said.

Among the considerations: compensation and when Ryu can become a free agent.

Because Ryu is only 25, he could sign a shorter contract that would allow him to enter the free-agent market while still in the prime of his career. Or he could remain in Korea for two more seasons, after which he would be a free agent and wouldn’t be subjected to the posting system.

“Is it a good business decision to make the jump now or wait for free agency?” Boras asked.

Translation: “Here is our leverage angle, so pay him lots of money otherwise we’re taking our ball and going home.”

More Boras: “If he doesn’t sign, the posting fee will dramatically increase next year.”

— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) November 10, 2012

Translation: “Here’s more leverage foundation! Plus a vague monetary threat!”

I’m not sure I understand this logic though, because technically he would lose leverage due to being a year closer to out-and-out free agency. But hey, he has to say whatever he can to give his client bargaining chips in a situation where he has little to none, especially given the Dodgers finances and rotation situation.

Ryu Hyun-jin wants to be a starter in the major leagues, according to Boras.

— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) November 10, 2012

Translation: “He will throw a lot of innings, so pay him more money.”

This makes sense though, since he’s a starter and always has been.

I’ve observed people arguing over whether or not he’s a starter or a reliever, but I don’t see this as up for debate. Even if you think he has reliever stuff, as Keith Law does, nobody would be so dumb to drop $25.7 million on rights if they saw him as a situational lefty. He’ll start in the MLB if signed, and rightly so.

All in all, nothing out of the ordinary here, though I do have concerns that he wants #3 starter type money, as apparently those types feel they can demand six years and $90 million in this market.

Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Even though he’s away from home right now, I think Mike Petriello comes away from the trade with the right approach.

So how am I feeling about it today? I think Gonzalez is going to be an incredible fit in LA, especially considering that reports of his demise in Boston seem overblown (he was outstanding last year and has been very good for much of this year after a slow start) and that he never seemed to want to leave Southern California in the first place. It’s a high price to pay, but if he is what we think he is – and don’t forget, there was little available in the first base market next year, so if you’re spending money, this is how you do it – and the team becomes a consistent contender, I think it’ll be a price we can live with.

And if not? The next decade could get ugly, fast. For now, I’m cautiously optimistic, but mainly excited for the rest of the season.

I’m the same. Hopeful, but wary for reasons that I believe are legitimate. Far too many Dodgers fans pretending this is highway robbery in our favor, in my opinion.

Dodger Thoughts: Jon Weisman invokes Pedro Martinez for Delino DeShields.

The chances of De La Rosa becoming one of the greatest pitchers of all time might be slim, but De La Rosa doesn’t have to become the second Pedro to represent a major loss for the Dodgers. He could just be really good, while Gonzalez apes DeShields’ decline.

Like I said, I’m hungry for a World Series title, and I’m not saying the risk of trading De La Rosa won’t be worth it. Don’t misunderstand me: The Dodgers need a player like Gonzalez, who boosts them at their weakest position. I even believe that a move back to his Southern California roots and away from the Red Sox maelstrom could revitalize him.

All I’m saying is, short of Clayton Kershaw, the trade of any other pitcher besides De La Rosa would have left me more comfortable.

Not sure I agree with the people flipping out on him, especially if the Dodgers can’t upgrade their rotation significantly in the coming years. However, I think Adrian Gonzalez is a far better player and Rubby De La Rosa, while one of my favorites, won’t get to ace level.

Sports Illustrated: Jay Jaffe acknowledges the risk and the reward, saying that if nothing else it makes the season compelling.

All in all, it’s a dizzying deal that could affect not only the outcome of this year’s NL playoff races, but also could turn the Dodgers into the NL West’s powerhouse for years to come, with an enviable middle of the order starring Kemp, Gonzalez, Ramirez and Ethier. Or it could blow up in the team’s collective face, saddling the Dodgers with unproductive players signed to long-term deals, and hampering their roster flexibility much as it did these Red Sox.

Given their surrender of two top young arms, and the massive savings — and saving face — that the deal offered Boston, the Dodgers should have come away with far more than $12 million in salary discounts. That they didn’t puts virtually all of the risk on them, but it makes for a compellingly aggressive play in a playoff race that remains wide open.

True Blue LA: Eric Stephen notes that the team is headed for the luxury tax.

Dodgers Now: Stan Kasten says they aren’t maxed out yet though.

If the Dodgers can add $260 million to their payroll in one trade — and close to a half-billion dollars in four months — is there a limit to their spending?

“Somewhere, I suppose,” Chairman Mark Walter said Saturday.

And where might that limit be?

“I haven’t found it yet,” President Stan Kasten said. “I’ll let you know when we get there.”

Not sure how much of that is rhetoric, but I think we’ll see in the 2013 off-season.

FanGraphs: Dave Cameron thinks it doesn’t make sense from a baseball perspective but that it might make sense if the Dodgers make a deep run into the playoffs due to financials.

From a purely baseball standpoint, this investment doesn’t make sense. Gonzalez isn’t valuable enough to make him worth taking on the albatross contracts of Crawford and Beckett, and the Dodgers almost certainly could have gotten a better bang for their buck in free agency this winter. However, making moves this winter won’t get people interested in the Dodgers in the same way that a deep playoff run this year will.

I’m getting a lot of similar comments on Twitter, so I know this isn’t a rare opinion, but I have to wonder how legitimate the train of thought is. Dodgers fans show up regardless of how the team is doing, and the only reason attendance plummeted last year was because of a fan boycott of Frank McCourt. Even with all the turmoil, they were sixth in attendance last year, and this year they’re already back up to third. As such, I don’t buy the argument that they needed to do this during the season to make the playoffs otherwise fans wouldn’t come back and they wouldn’t make money. If the tens of millions from potential playoff revenue is going to make or break a team with billions of dollars looming, then there are bigger problems here.

Also, I don’t buy that this is to create buzz for a media deal. We’re all speculating, but logically I don’t see why cable companies, who negotiate deals like this all the time, would be swayed off their valuation due to a small sample size and not take into account the big 15-to-25 year picture. It’s already rumored to be in the $8 billion range, so how much higher could it go? Maybe they are that dumb, I dunno, but it seems iffy to assume so.

There’s no getting around the fact that the Dodgers likely just paid $20 for a gallon of milk. Given the prices everyone else is paying for milk, that seems pretty silly. If you happen to have lots of $20 bills and no milk, however, and there’s only one guy selling milk in your immediate vicinity, maybe you just complain about price gouging and hand over the $20. Depending on just how many $20s the Dodgers ownership has, this might not end up being quite as nuts as it looks on the surface.

Or, maybe I’m just over-thinking all of this, and the Dodgers just made a horrible, horrible trade. I’m honestly not sure.

Maybe, but I can’t see this trade destroying the team down the road. It might make for an inferior roster, but as long as they continue to spend, the team will be competitive. I’d just rather have to go through as little big money decline phases as possible.

ESPN: Buster Olney names his winners and losers … with the Dodgers on both.

Winners: The Dodgers of 2012

They are markedly better today than they were before this deal. Adrian Gonzalez is perfect for their lineup, their lineup balance, their defense and their ballpark, and he knows the division from his many years with the Padres. Beckett might be energized, and he gets to shift out of one of the best-hitting divisions to one of the worst.

Winners: Magic Johnson, Stan Kasten and the rest of the Dodgers’ ownership group

In less than four months, these owners have managed to completely rebrand the franchise, and, even if the Dodgers don’t make the playoffs this year, they’ve set themselves up for a major bounce forward in attendance and interest and team success in 2013. The city might throw them a parade even if they don’t win the World Series because, ding-dong, the Frank McCourt era is over.

Losers: The Dodgers of 2017

The team’s stunning spending spree feels good today, but Los Angeles has set itself up to have a roster loaded with aging stars in about five years — Matt Kemp, Gonzalez, Crawford and Andre Ethier all have contracts that run through that season. By then, the Dodgers’ farm system should be replenished, and the club’s ownership should have the resources to pave over that type of problem in the way the Yankees have — and, in any event, Dodgers fans won’t have to worry about that for a while.

ESPN: Keith Law takes a good now and bad later approach as well.

This deal could end up looking good for both sides, better for the Dodgers in the very short term but much better for the Red Sox in the long term. Boston enters this winter with a new financial lease on life, freeing the Sox up to spend in a weak free-agent market or perhaps to take on a large contract someone else would like to move (Cliff Lee? Justin Upton?).

They’re also looking at a pretty interesting group of position-player prospects racing up the system, led by Xander Bogaerts, who has improved his defense at shortstop this year and might defy earlier expectations and stay at the position. That potential for an inexpensive core should help Boston avoid a similar tangle of large contracts in the near future, just at a point when the Dodgers are facing a financial quagmire and roster crunch of their own.

Baseball executives are chiming in on the trade, basically questioning what the Dodgers are doing.

Rival exec on #Dodgers: “If you had $250M to spend, is this how you’d do it?”

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 25, 2012

Rival execs are wondering why LADs didn’t simply say to BOS: We’ll take your bad contracts, but we’re not giving you any prospects of note.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) August 25, 2012

NL exec view:”The Dodgers so wanted Gonzalez they took Crawford and Beckett’s money and traded two great arms to get him.”

— Peter Gammons (@pgammo) August 25, 2012

While I don’t necessarily disagree with their assessment, one has to wonder how much of this is legit and how much of this is just being jealous.

Well, this came out of nowhere, huh?

I saw the articles on Yasiel Puig being declared a free agent and I figured that the Dodgers might be interested due to their desired goal of returning to the international market, but none of the rumors had the Dodgers as players.

So much for that, as according to Jesse Sanchez, the Dodgers have apparently signed the 21-year-old Cuban to a seven-year deal worth $42 million.

According to an industry source, the Dodgers have agreed to a seven-year deal worth $42 million with 21-year-old international prospect Yasiel Puig, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound outfielder from Cuba.

The Dodgers haven’t commented on or confirmed the signing.

Puig (pronounced Pweeg) was declared a free agent Wednesday, not long after establishing temporary residency in Mexico, and was eventually cleared by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

In order to avoid being subject to new CBA guidelines that will limit spending on international prospects to $2.9 million per team without penalty, Puig must sign the record-setting deal, have the contract approved by Major League Baseball and pass a physical before Monday.

A top prospect in the island’s premier league, the Cuban National Series (Serie Nacional), Puig hit .276 with five home runs during his first campaign with Cienfuegos in 2008-09 and had a breakout year the next season, hitting .330 with 17 home runs and 78 RBIs. He did not play for Cienfuegos during the 2011-12 seasons because he was being disciplined for attempting to defect.

Puig, a member of the country’s national team, is the latest high-profile Cuban player to sign with a Major League club. Outfielders Yoenis Cespedes signed a four-year $36 million deal with the A’s in mid-February, and Jorge Soler signed a nine-year, $30 million deal with the Cubs earlier this month. Left-handed pitcher Omar Luis Rodriguez signed a Minor League deal worth $4 million with the Yankees last week, and fellow lefty Gerardo Concepcion signed a five-year, $6 million deal with the Cubs in early February.

J.P. Breen at FanGraphs wrote a profile on him when he was declared a free agent.

Now, statistics from the Cuban Serie Nacional should obviously be taken with a grain of salt. The level of competition is perhaps not even comparable to what Puig would potentially see in Triple-A, but legitimate similarities exist between the numbers Yoenis Cespedes compiled in 2010-2011 and what Puig racked up in the same year.

The obvious difference is the significantly higher home run total from Cespedes. It’s that level of power that has allowed Cespedes to transition directly to the major leagues and post a .222 ISO as a 26-year-old without any experience in the United States.

The remainder of the numbers — the on-base percentage, strikeout-to-walk ratio, etc. — are comparable. Even the doubles are comparable. Puig reportedly has above-average speed and was once considered the “fastest player in Cuban baseball” before defecting, so it’s not overly surprising that Puig would collect more triples than Cespedes.

He followed that up with an article today after the signing.

Puig’s Cuban numbers back up the possession of a solid hit tool (just 39 strikeouts in 327 at-bats) as well as discipline (49 walks) and power (.251 ISO), at least as far as international statistics can. Clay Davenport roughly compared Cuban baseball to Class Low-A, and Puig’s numbers at age 19 (he didn’t play in 2010-2011 due to discipline over his attempts to defect) would be impressive there.

Speed is speed, and Puig hit six triples with his Cuban team but also was thrown out in four of his nine stolen base attempts. Evaluation of Puig’s defense will be toughest of all. Workouts can show raw ability, but they may not show the kind of reactions and decision-making necessary to defend at the MLB level.

It may seem rash to commit $42 million to a player with no first-hand knowledge of how he plays in games. But, given Heyman’s note that the Dodgers weren’t the high bidder (at least in terms of gross dollar amount; it’s possible a team offered more years and a lower average salary), it appears less that the Dodgers were smitten by one great workout and more that there is something legitimately enticing about the player. At least one scout has noted his power as “not quite Giancarlo Stanton or Bryce Harper, but close.”

Ben Badler of Baseball America noted that seeing him in person has been difficult and reports have not been overly positive.

Reports from scouts on 21-year-old Cuban corner outfielder Yasiel Puig have been underwhelming. The Rangers have been the only team linked to Puig, though their senior-level decision makers were not in attendance at his recent workout in Mexico, where teams have reported that his conditioning appears to be an issue. Teams have no performance data or game video to work off from Puig in more than a year because he was suspended for the 2011-12 season in Serie Nacional. The last time any scouts could have legally evaluated Puig was in June 2011 in Rotterdam, where scouts seemed lukewarm at best on him. He’s shown plus raw power and hit well in Cuba for a year before his suspension, but there are question marks about both his bat and his rawness in the outfield. How Puig could have acquired permanent Mexican residency documents after having been in the country for what’s believed to be less than a month is also a widespread question, though Major League Baseball has yet to declare him a free agent.

Upon being declared a free agent, he repeated the point.

Reports on Puig, 21, have been modest, and other than a few light workouts this weekend, teams are working off limited information. He was suspended this past season in Cuba—some sources believe it was due to his attempts to leave the country, though some teams have conflicting information—so scouts haven’t been able to see Puig in game condition since June 2011 for the Cuban national B team at the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam. The Rangers are the only team that Baseball America’s sources have linked to Puig.

“How can we evaluate someone like that?” asked one Latin American director.

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus chimed in with basically the same report. We don’t know much.

His workout in Mexico was really just an extended batting practice, as he never ran and barely did anything in the outfield. His previous attempts to defect left him on the sidelines in last season’s Serie National in Cuba, so overall, he just hasn’t been seen that much. Puig has plus-plus raw power, but reviews on every other tool vary wildly for the 21-year-old. Some think he has speed, some think he’s merely an average runner, and there are definite concerns about the stiffness of his swing and a history of swing-and-miss. No matter what exactly he is, talk of this as a desperation move to help a woeful Dodgers offense seems more than a bit foolhardy, and the Dodgers have to get him into the country first, and they’ll be lucky to get six weeks of minor league time out of someone who has barely played the game in the past 12 months.

Speaking of upside, Danny Knobler of CBSSports relays this:

One scout on Puig: “You see him on the right day, he could be Vladimir Guerrero.”

— DKnobler (@DKnobler) June 28, 2012

Could probably say the same for a lot of inconsistent/toolsy players.

Keith Law of ESPN furthers the skepticism.

Based on what I’ve heard about Puig, this is a bizarre overreaction to the upcoming international spending cap, and a huge bet that, despite a stiff swing and less athletic body than Soler, Puig’s bat is good enough to justify an investment of this size. I’ve also heard that Puig was badly out of shape in his recent workouts in Mexico, and that his throwing arm is not as strong since it was last seen in games. And unlike Soler or Cespedes, Puig barely has played in games outside of Cuba, so major league scouts have not had much of an opportunity to evaluate him properly.

Yeah.

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So basically, we shouldn’t get too excited about the fact that he signed such a massive deal, as it’s less indicative of his actual talent, and more indicative of the rules under the new CBA.

I don’t see any way this isn’t an overpay in the end, but if the Dodgers have this type of money to take a shot in the dark with, perhaps that’s an overall net positive. I just hope they haven’t spent this simply to make a statement and have it take out of the 2013 budget.

Furthermore, Dodgers scouts have a good track record with international signings … which is why I’m worried about this one, because apparently Dodgers scouts haven’t seen him play or do anything.

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Mike Scioscia’s Tragic Illness: Mike Petriello once feared the exact deal that Andre Ethier signed, and while he holds some concerns, he finds it hard to argue against the deal.

What interests me more right now is trying to figure out just how much a big 2012 could enhance Ethier’s value on the market, because there’s a big difference between a deal for, say, 3/$36m (which I’d certainly love to do) and something more like 5/$85m (which I’d run away screaming from).

So the end result, in my view, is that the Dodgers paid a fair price to lock up one of the two best and most popular hitters on their team, a player with his share of flaws, but one who provides a service which couldn’t easily be replaced on the open market or via trade. I’m slightly apprehensive about the idea of Ethier being a $100m type player, yet I suppose I can’t really argue with the logic behind the move.

So he thinks they got market value, that it helps public relations, and that it was the best fit.

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Baseball Prospectus: R.J. Anderson thinks the deal is fair.

No extension is complete without hemming and hawing over the financial figures. Ethier is being rewarded handsomely for being a consistently good player (his Wins Above Replacement Player totals seem locked in around three wins per season). Is Ethier worth this kind of investment? It isn’t an easy question to answer. Consider the Dodgers’ perspective. These are new owners taking over a club whose previous owner soured the fan base. Fan morale should be improved thanks to the club’s first-place standing, but locking up a large part of the team’s recent good times gains public relations points, too.

Here’s something else to consider: the Dodgers know their own budget the best, and also know that the league might be flush with cash this offseason. It’s possible, not likely but possible, that Ethier’s deal looks prudent should teams splurge this offseason.

Even if the deal doesn’t win awards for being the most efficient usage of resources, the Dodgers should be happy to retain Ethier’s bat for an additional five or six seasons.

He believes the team may have gotten market value, that it will help public relations, and that it may prove to be a solid fit.

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FanGraphs: Dave Cameron thinks it’s an overpay but that the team should have the finances to overcome it, rendering the overpay meaningless.

From an abstract point of view, Ethier’s not worth this contract, but when you consider the Dodgers specific financial position, the team’s attempts to rebuild credibility with an alienated fan base, and the fairly minor scope of the overpay, this just isn’t something that anyone should get all that worked up over. The Dodgers paid a nice player a little bit more than he’s worth in order to keep him, and the difference probably won’t have much of an impact on their ability to do anything else. It’s an overpay, but an irrelevant one that shouldn’t garner all that much criticism.

He thinks the Dodgers paid over market value for Ethier, that it will help public relations, and that the future budget will take care of the overpay.

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True Blue LA: Eric Stephen takes a different approach to looking at the contract and compares Ethier to similar players.

Sammy Sosa, Jim Edmonds, and Carlos Beltran were the only three of the bunch to improve in their age 31-35 seasons. This group collectively averaged 2,844 plate appearances from age 26-30, and averaged 2,216 PA from ages 31-35, a 22.1% drop, with only three of the 13 players accumulating more PA as they aged. Four of the 13 players didn’t even make it to their age-35 season.

There is a fair amount of risk that Ethier could fall off a cliff from a production standpoint, with fellow Dodgers right fielder Shawn Green providing a prime example. But if Ethier does decline, the Dodgers are hoping for more Magglio Ordonez and less Trot Nixon.

You should go look at the chart, it’s interesting and much better than the similarity scores from Baseball Reference.

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Baseball Nation: Grant Brisbee makes the case that the message behind the deal was more important than the deal itself.

Maybe the Dodgers overpaid, and maybe they assumed a lot of risk with the Ethier deal. It’s not a bad deal, especially when you think of Jayson Werth and Carl Crawford as possible corner-outfield comps. But the Dodgers were sending a message just as much as they were trying to build a 2014 roster. If Magic Johnson is to be believed, the message will have several parts, and they’ll all be expensive. That’s the brand of the new Dodgers. It just happened to kick off with some old Dodgers.

This is yet another analysis of the contract that mentions the public relations angle, which is an interesting way to look at the deal. I actually didn’t think much of it before, but laid out like this, yeah, I can see how this might influence their decision to give him what he wanted, even if it is a little over market value.

Whether I agree with that logic is a different story though.

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Dodger Thoughts: Jon Weisman is upbeat about the outcome of the contract.

It’s hard to get a true bargain with established stars — which is why it was so wonderful for the Dodgers that Ethier (acquired as a minor leaguer from Oakland in 2005) and Matt Kemp emerged from their farm system in the first place. On some level, if the Dodgers can avoid with Ethier what happened with the Toronto Blue Jays and Vernon Wells, they should be happy. A major hope of the new ownership is that it won’t have to penny-pinch. As long as Ethier remains a reasonably productive player and not an albatross, the Dodgers and their fans should be happy to have him, even if he ends up pocketing something more than he’s worth.

He thinks that it’s probably an overpay, but it’ll be fine if he doesn’t become terrible.

Well yeah, but I think the risk that he does become terrible is built into the analysis of the deal, no? I mean, if I could rule out the possibility of attrition, then yeah, I love the deal.

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ESPN: Uh, I guess Keith Law couldn’t even be bothered to write an article on it, but it’s probably safe to say he doesn’t like it.

Someone needs to hand Ned Colletti a pen and a blank piece of paper and ask him to draw a typical hitter’s aging curve.

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) June 12, 2012

More like ROFLMAO “@Crev10: @keithlaw Did you ever publish a write-up on Either’s contract or would it have just read: “LOL”?”

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) June 13, 2012

I don’t think many are quite at this end of the spectrum.

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All in all, most seem to agree that’s he’s getting a deal that’s over market value and that there are concerns about regression as he ages. However, their concerns are mitigated primarily due to public relations reasons or because of the assumed budget.

The public relations angle is wonderful, and the expanding budget is part of the reason I’m somewhat neutral on the deal. However, all I care about is the Dodgers being a quality team again, so call me heartless or whatever, but I couldn’t care less about public relations or the loyalty of the fans or how many people would cry if Ethier wasn’t re-signed.

All I want to know is whether or not the deal was worth it from a baseball perspective, and judging by most of the analysis purely from that angle, the consensus seems to be that the jury is still out and they will be that way for a while.

The Los Angeles Dodgers selected Corey Seager with the 18th overall pick in the 2012 MLB Draft. I mentioned him as a player I liked in the preview I posted earlier today, and the Dodgers made the SS (future 3B) out of Northwest Cabarrus High School in North Carolina their top man. His brother, Kyle Seager, is the current starting third baseman for the Seattle Mariners.

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Baseball America ranked him as the #19 prospect in the draft and had this to say about him:

The younger brother of Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager, Corey has been on scouts’ radar for a couple of years, but he started moving up draft boards this spring. He has a big, physical frame at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds with plenty of strength. He plays shortstop now and is a good defender, but scouts see him shifting to third base as a pro, where he could provide above-average defense. A lefthanded hitter, he has a simple swing and can go the other way with power. The game comes easy to him and scouts find it easy to see his upside, considering his brother was a third-round pick out of North Carolina and made the big leagues after just 279 minor league at-bats. The younger Seager has a strong commitment to South Carolina, but is likely to be picked in the first round.

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus had him ranked at #23.

Who he is: A bigger and more powerful version of his brother Kyle, who’s an infielder with the Mariners. Corey projects as a third baseman as a pro, but has good athleticism for his size to go with soft hands and a good arm. Like Kyle, he’s a plus hitter with a knack for contact, but his size gives him considerably more power potential.

Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com had him at #22.

His brother, Kyle, reached the Major Leagues in Seattle in 2011. This Seager has the chance to be just as good, if not better.

Corey Seager has some serious bat speed and shows the ability to make consistent hard contact. He’ll often use more of a two-strike approach, which minimizes strikeouts, but he did start showing the ability to drive the ball more over the course of the summer. He’s not a runner and the lack of speed may necessitate a move to third at the next level. He does have excellent instincts defensively, with plenty of arm for whatever infield position he ends up at.

With plus instincts and excellent pure hitting skills, not to mention those bloodlines, Seager will be followed closely this spring. He could move up charts if he continues to show the ability to be more aggressive and drive the ball more consistently.

Keith Law of ESPN gave this scouting report back on April 27th.

Shortstop Corey Seager, of Northwest Cabarrus High School in Concord, N.C., has seen his stock rise during the past few weeks to the point where he’s seen as a likely first-rounder, a future plus third baseman who should hit and grow into power.

Seager, younger brother of current Seattle Mariners infielder Kyle Seager, is bigger at 18 (6-foot3, 200 pounds) than Kyle is today, and while he’s playing short now, he’s very likely to outgrow it as he fills out. He’s athletic and has great hands and at least a 6 arm, so he could be plus at third base in time. He’s an above-average runner who might drop to average when his body matures, but he should retain that athleticism.

Seager’s swing has great hip rotation, and he can drive the ball to the opposite field. He loads with his hands a little deep, not quite a full bar but enough to create some length to the ball, and keeps his weight back well, which allows him drive the ball the other way.

Personally, I like the pick because he’s an upside bat that just happens to fill a gaping hole in the Dodgers system.

Well, this got here in a hurry, huh?

All of a sudden, the first round of the 2012 MLB Draft is upon us. The Los Angeles Dodgers have $5,202,800 to spend on their 11 total picks, and the team has two picks today: 18th overall and 51st overall.

Mock drafts have been done all over the place, so I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at the team’s potential draft picks.

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#18 Overall

Ty Hensley – RHP – Santa Fe High School – Oklahoma

Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com has the Dodgers taking Hensley.

18. Los Angeles Dodgers: Ty Hensley, Santa Fe HS (Okla.)

A number of high school pitchers could come into play here, with Hensley being the one most often mentioned with the Dodgers. This could also be a landing spot for Cecchini should the Mets not take him.

So does Keith Law of ESPN.

Ty Hensley, RHP, Edmond (Okla.) Santa Fe H.S.

I’m suddenly not hearing much else here. Hensley has size, arm strength and projection, but his command is below that of the other top prep arms.

As does Jim Callis of Baseball America.

18. DODGERS. After using its last nine top draft choices on a pitcher, Los Angeles appears headed down that route again. It’s difficult to project picks this deep in the first round with much certainty, but a lot of industry insiders are convinced the Dodgers will take Hensley.

Projected Pick: TY HENSLEY.

Baseball America has him ranked as the #23 prospect in the draft.

The Cardinals made Mike Hensley the 53rd overall selection in the 1988 draft, and his son Ty will beat him by about 30 picks this June. While several of this draft crop’s high school righthanders have been injured or regressed this spring, Hensley has done nothing but help his cause. The 6-foot-5, 220-pounder has sat at 92-95 mph and touched 96-97 with his fastball all season–and it’s not even his best pitch. That would be a 12-to-6 curveball that he spins in the upper 70s. Hensley’s command isn’t as impressive as his pure stuff, and he still needs to add some life and work down in the zone more often with his fastball. Before his velocity spiked, he showed a promising changeup as a sophomore, but he hasn’t needed it this spring. A quality athlete, Hensley played quarterback at Santa Fe High before giving up football before his senior year. He’s also a power-hitting switch-hitter who could get the opportunity to play both way in the unlikely event that he follows through on his commitment to the University of Mississippi.

A high school right-handed pitcher with bloodlines, power stuff, and command questions?

Yeah, he’s tailor-made for Logan White‘s tastes.

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Gavin Cecchini – SS – Barbe High School – Louisiana

John Sickels of Minor League Ball has the Dodgers going with a position player here.

Cecchini is one of the best high school fielders and should hit enough to be a very good pick for the Dodgers.

Baseball America has him ranked as the #16 prospect in the draft.

Cecchini’s family occupies a unique place in Louisiana baseball, as his father and mother both coached him and his older brother Garin at Barbe High. Garin signed with the Red Sox for a $1.31 million bonus as a fourth-round pick in 2010. Gavin is likely to be drafted higher, in the first round, even though he’s not as physical and his bat is much more in question. Wiry at 6-foot-1, 185 pounds, Cecchini’s best attributes are his steadiness and defensive skills at shortstop. He has good hands and feet as well as the infield actions to stay at short, and excels at cutoff throws and being in the right spot defensively. His arm strength is a tick above-average and unfailingly accurate. His speed is about the same and plays up like his arm–he’s a skilled baserunner who takes extra bases and steals bases intelligently. Cecchini’s bat involves some projection, though. Some scouts believe he will be a bottom-of-the-order hitter despite his polished approach because of a lack of strength and impact bat speed. Cecchini is one of the safer bets in the high school class due to his polish, but scouts are mixed on his true upside.

While a position player would be a nice change of pace, it would be great if they could take a thumper just once, instead of having to rely on a defender to evolve as a hitter.

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Michael Wacha – RHP – Texas A&M University

Marc Hulet of FanGraphs has the Dodgers going with a college arm.

18. Los Angeles Dodgers: Michael Wacha, RHP, Texas A&M – Wacha’s arm is not as dynamic as the college arms at the top of this list but he knows how to pitch and flashes two very good pitches in a low-90s moving fastball and plus changeup. He has both a slider and a curveball but both are inconsistent. He has a big, strong pitcher’s frame.

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus has him going to the Dodgers as well.

18. Los Angeles Dodgers ($1.95M): Michael Wacha, RHP, Texas A&M

I just have to get Wacha off the board here, as he’s expected by many to go in the early teens. The Dodgers have been primarily attached to high school arms like Ty Hensley and Lucas Sims, but a quick return might appeal to new ownership looking to make a mark.

Baseball America ranks him as the eighth best prospect in the draft.

After the consensus top three college pitchers (Stanford’s Mark Appel, Louisiana State’s Kevin Gausman, San Francisco’s Kyle Zimmer) go off the board, Wacha could be the next one selected. He owns the best changeup in the draft, a pitch that can be devastating when he sets it up with a 90-93 mph fastball that peaks at 96. His command also is as good as any pitcher in this crop, as is his competitiveness. He also has an athletic 6-foot-6, 200-pound frame and delivers his pitches on a tough angle to the plate. The only thing keeping him from being considered on the top tier of college arms is the lack of a plus breaking ball. Wacha made progress with a slider last summer under the tutelage of Team USA pitching coach Rob Walton, and he also throws a curveball. Wacha generally sticks with whichever breaking pitch is working best on a given day. Both pitches can get loose at times and project as no better than average at the big league level. Despite that one shortcoming, he still could find his way into the first 10 picks. He may not have the ceiling of Appel, Gausman or Zimmer, but Wacha has a higher floor.

Would be an odd pick to me, since the Dodgers have nothing but arms, and he seems like a #3 or a #4 in the majors if things pan out.

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Courtney Hawkins – OF – Carroll High School – Texas

Baseball America has him ranked as the 15th best prospect in the draft.

Scouts have coveted Hawkins since his performance as a sophomore in the 2010 Texas 5-A state playoffs. He bombed a ball into the upper-deck home run porch at Round Rock’s Dell Diamond, then earned MVP honors in the clincher as a starting pitcher. Though he can run his fastball into the low 90s, he definitely will make his living in the batter’s box. Hawkins is loaded with bat speed and uses his 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame to generate exceptional leverage from the right side of the plate. He’ll need to tame his maximum-effort swing, stop sitting on fastballs and improve his pitch recognition. He’ll rack up some strikeouts, though they’ll be a worthwhile tradeoff for his home runs. More physical than most high school players, Hawkins also brings a plus arm and solid speed to the table. A center fielder in high school, he’ll likely wind up in right field as a pro. Scouts praise his instincts and makeup as well as his tools. He’s the most talented member of a University of Texas recruiting class that features the five best high school prospects in the state, and a lock to sign as a mid-first-round pick.

Just a personal preference, as I would like to see the team take a shot on a thumper for once, as the system is almost completely devoid of upside bats.

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Corey Seager – 3B – Cabarrus High School – North Carolina

Baseball America has him ranked #19 in the draft.

The younger brother of Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager, Corey has been on scouts’ radar for a couple of years, but he started moving up draft boards this spring. He has a big, physical frame at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds with plenty of strength. He plays shortstop now and is a good defender, but scouts see him shifting to third base as a pro, where he could provide above-average defense. A lefthanded hitter, he has a simple swing and can go the other way with power. The game comes easy to him and scouts find it easy to see his upside, considering his brother was a third-round pick out of North Carolina and made the big leagues after just 279 minor league at-bats. The younger Seager has a strong commitment to South Carolina, but is likely to be picked in the first round.

Same theory. An upside bat who projects to the corners, but this one has the defense to stay at a valuable position.

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#51 Overall

Carson Kelly – 3B – Westview High School – Oregon

Baseball America has him ranked #43 for the draft.

Oregon hasn’t produced a high school player in the first three rounds since 1998 when righthander Steve Bechler went to the Orioles, but Kelly has the talent to end that streak. He is a two-way player, but more scouts prefer him as a position player. He’s a below-average runner, but his other tools are solid. Kelly has a strong build and is already pretty well filled out. He has a nice line-drive stroke with good loft and power potential. He’s not flashy, but he’s a steady defender at third base and has a strong arm. Some teams would like to try Kelly behind the plate. On the mound, he sits in the 90-92 mph range and throws a curveball and changeup. The Oregon recruit is young for the class and won’t turn 18 until mid-July but shows excellent maturity and leadership.

Love the fact that he’s a young, athletic player with bat upside. I think age coming out of high school is one of the most overlooked aspects of high school players. A true 19-year-old is very different from a true 17-year-old.

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Wyatt Mathisen – C – Calallen High School – Texas

Baseball America has him ranked #47 for the draft.

Mathisen is the best high school catching prospect in the draft, though he hasn’t seen much time behind the plate for Calallen High, which has deemed him more valuable as a shortstop and pitcher. There’s no question his pro future is as a backstop, and he has the tools and desire to make it there. He has plus arm strength and the athleticism to become a good receiver, though his inexperience shows as he flinches at times when catching the ball. His makeup is off the charts, as he has the leadership ability to run a pitching staff and the work ethic to succeed. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound Mathisen has the swing and strength to hit for average and power from the right side of the plate. He’s a good runner for a catcher, grading as close to average, though he’ll probably lose a step once he starts catching every day. Like crosstown Corpus Christi rival Courtney Hawkins, he’s a Texas recruit.

People say the Dodgers system has a lot of catching prospects, and while that’s true, not many of them project as regulars. Wyatt Mathisen would.

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J.O. Berrios – RHP – Papa Juan XXIII High School – Puerto Rico

Baseball America has him ranked #49 for the draft.

In the history of the draft, only two pitchers from Puerto Rico have been drafted in the top two rounds–Jorge Lopez, who went in the second round to the Brewers last year and Luis Atilano, a Braves supplemental first-round pick from 2003. This year, there may be two more on that list and Berrios will likely be the first off the board. Berrios worked with a conditioning coach this fall and spring and added 20-25 pounds to his frame since the summer and now has a muscular, athletic 6-foot-1, 180-pound physique. The added muscle has allowed him to smooth things out and has boosted his fastball velocity. His fastball now sits in the 93-95 mph range and some scouts have seen him touch 98. He throws his fastball down in the zone, mixes in a sharp, 80-81 mph slider and shows the makings of a solid changeup with fading action. Berrios is getting buzz as high as the back of the first round, and it’s unlikely he’ll wind up honoring his commitment to Miami Dade JC.

The Dodgers actually seem to scout Puerto Rico actively, even under Frank McCourt, so this isn’t that farfetched to me.

Raw, upside velocity with a potential plus breaking ball would seem to be something Logan White might pursue.

True Blue LA: Eric Stephen has the 2012 Spring Training roster.

True Blue LA: A review of the 2012 off-season for the Los Angeles Dodgers to make me cry.

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ESPN: Jon Weisman has an interview with De Jon Watson about the Dodgers minor league system.

ESPN: Keith Law ranks the Dodgers system 12th in baseball.

If pitching wins championships, the Dodgers are in pretty good shape going forward, as their system is loaded with power arms but is relatively light on position players.

Surprising, but I guess he likes the abundance of pitching in the system more than most.

Minor League Ball: John Sickels notes the lessons he has learned about evaluating prospects.

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FanGraphs: Bradley Woodrum separates sabermetrics into three branches and shows which teams use which branches.

The Dodgers are the only team with one branch.

Awesome!

Couldn't find a funny picture, so here's Lee Min Jung instead...

Dodger Thoughts: Jon Weisman looks at the potential for Matt Kemp to become a Dodger legend.

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MLB: John Ely and Carlos Monasterios are off the 40-man roster. The Dodgers then added five minor leaguers to protect them from the Rule 5 draft.

The Dodgers added left-hander Michael Antonini, outfielder Alex Castellanos and right-handers Stephen Fife, Josh Wall and Chris Withrow.

Interesting choices that I’ll be looking at later.

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MSTI: Mike Petriello looks at the monetary commitments for the Dodgers in 2012 and wonders if anything is left.

Keith Law: Keith Law points out that Matt Kemp’s signing is a step forward, but the 2012 team is far from finished.

Even in a weak division with no clear front-runner, that doesn’t seem like enough to put them over the top unless they get a breakout season or two from unexpected quarters. Kemp is a great first step and good news long-term for the Blue Man Group, but they have a lot more work to do if they want to contend next year.

Yeah, the signing itself is definitely a move for the future, and depending on how the pitching staff shakes out, this could be a worse team in 2012.

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MSTI: The Dodgers are a sabermetric team now? Nope.

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Beyond The Box Score: Takes a close look at the all-time “True Dodgers” team.