BCB Interview: unsigned RHP Colt Farrar

by battlekow on Aug 17, 2008 4:18 PM CDT in Interviews

Watching the scramble to sign draft picks as the August 15 deadline approached, Brewers fans could sit back and relax, knowing their team had already signed its first 26 draft picks and 36 of their 54 picks overall. But what of the unsigned 18? One player the Brewers did make a late, and ultimately unsuccessful, effort to sign as the deadline neared was 32nd-round prep righty Colt Farrar. Here are the details.

BCB: I hear the Brewers made a late run at trying to sign you.

CF: Yeah, they offered 100 [thousand] to start, then came back with 180. And of course school would be paid for too.

BCB: And what were you looking for?

CF: Well, I really wanted to play pro, but if a team doesn't get up around 350 then they don't have to commit to you, and you will just get filled in for by someone else the next year. 180 is nothing to a pro team. I mean, it sounds like lots of money, but you lose 30% to tax, then have to live off it for the next few years if you make it to the team, and that's just as hard as getting drafted. So I guess my price was 350.

BCB: What round were you hoping to go in?

CF: Well, I wanted to be in the top 15 and was told that I would be by one of the Brewers scouts. He actually told me around 8th to 10th. It's a team's job to get the top 15 [picks] signed; after that, it's just bonus, and also the Brewers had lots and lots of early picks.

BCB: Did they give you any reason why you fell to the 32nd round?

CF: Yeah, they were really trying to get lots of pitching this year

BCB: Were any other teams interested in you?

CF: Yeah, I talked to lots. I mean, it's really hard to tell, though, because everyone kinda tells you what you want to hear. I threw for lots of scouts.

BCB: Can you describe what you throw?

CF: Low-90s four-seam fastball, upper-80s two-seam, 76 to 78 MPH curve, 81 to 84 MPH slider, 80 MPH change. I don't throw my change much, because my control's off with that pitch.

BCB: Did you consider going to a juco?

CF: Yeah, I signed with San Jacinto and was almost 100% sure I was going there, but the new coach at [Texas] Tech, [Dan] Spencer, really has a good idea about stuff, and I really feel like I'm going to get to pitch there as a freshman because he's trying to turn the team around. He took over this year, and if he wouldn't have, I wouldn't have gone to Tech.

BCB: What about Coach Spencer's ideas did you like so much?

CF: He's really down to earth. Recruiting is a game, and most coaches will say anything to get you—promise the moon and then give nothing. I really feel like he'll stand by his word.

BCB: Well it's great that you found a good situation. Best of luck in the future.

CF: Thanks.

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Did he know about State Fair cream puffs?

Sometimes these kids don’t get the whole picture.

"I will agree that the attitude [at BCB] is ridiculous and they have done so much to instigate animosity and then block us from responding. Real mature!"

by roguejim on Aug 17, 2008 8:10 PM CDT reply actions

I know 120K (after taxes) isn't a life changing amount of money long term...

… but it’s at least 10 years worth of mortgage payments on a median house in all but the most expensive markets. That’s a head start a lot of people would be happy to have, even without the paid schooling. Maybe it’s easy to say from my couch, but if he’s got enough confidence in his abilities to turn his back on that amount of money on the theory that he can improve and make it up when he’s drafted higher later, should that same confidence make him believe he can convince the organization to take him seriously? I get the theory that 180K is peanuts to a major league club, but it doesn’t really follow that 350K is such a huge amount that they’ll give you more than a year to flash before telling you to hit the bricks. That logic doesn’t make much sense to me, though the fact that so many late round draftees make the same choice implies that there must be something to their thinking.

FDR can suck it. - Jeff Sackmann

by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Aug 17, 2008 10:19 PM CDT reply actions

I think his point was that a minor league baseball player’s salary is really, really shitty, like well below the poverty line, so you live partially off your signing bonus while in the minors.

BCB's "very own marginally deserving all-star!"

by battlekow on Aug 17, 2008 11:59 PM CDT up reply actions

I got that.

But a 180K signing bonus and a shitty salary is better than no bonus at all and an independent league a year or two from now if he doesn’t progress. I’m not in his shoes so I’m sure there are things I don’t know and/or don’t understand about the choice he had, but I think you’re as likely to improve your stock inside the system than outside. If he had the stuff to turn himself into a first rounder at some point the gamble would make more sense as the payoff would only be a year or two away, but even by his own description of his pitches that seems unlikely. Time will tell, I guess.

FDR can suck it. - Jeff Sackmann

by Ted Simmons Speed Camp on Aug 18, 2008 6:32 PM CDT up reply actions

I was going to say, if he doesn’t get drafted again or get offered the same sort of bonus, he’s going to have lots and lots of fun paying off his student loans after he leaves university.

As for living off the signing bonus—yes, salaries in the low minors are crap. However, if that’s $120K after tax divided by 4 years of being in the minors, that’s $30K a year which isn’t that great, but if he’s living at home during the winter and working and has roommates during the season, it’s livable. Mostly.

(Ugh, to be 20 again and making $30K a year and wondering how to pay off student loans and rent and car payments and parking and food and etc.—no, I don’t want that back ever.)

by morineko on Aug 20, 2008 6:23 PM CDT up reply actions

unclear on the concept

"BCB: Did they give you any reason why you fell to the 32nd round?

CF: Yeah, they were really trying to get lots of pitching this year"

Yet, he’s a pitcher? If they were really trying to get lots of pitching this year, doesn’t that mean they drafted him EARLIER than they would most other years?

so…um…in other words, he’s not willing to live with his suckatude? Not that I’d be ballpark anywhere near him. ~~Best~~ Only pitch I ever had was a 60-70MPH “fastball”

by PagsBrewCrew on Aug 17, 2008 11:09 PM CDT reply actions

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