College, MSU players drawing more interest in MLB draft

Cam Vieaux didn’t get drafted out of high school. A year ago, after two seasons playing for Michigan State, the pitcher generated plenty of buzz among major league scouts.

The result? A 19th-round selection by the Detroit Tigers.

In years past, the MLB First-Year Player Draft focused heavily on luring talent from the preps to the pros. That has changed in the past decade, with more and more teams looking to take older, premium talent from college baseball.

“I think it’s just the experience that a lot of these college pitchers have had lately,” Vieaux said Wednesday. “When you see guys who have pitched in college, they fly through the minors just because they’re so developed and have played in a lot of high-pressure situations. I think that’s what separates the college guys from high school guys.”

The first and second rounds of the draft take place Thursday night. Rounds 3 through 10 begin at 12:30 p.m. Friday, and it wraps up starting at noon Saturday with Rounds 11 to 40.

MSU coach Jake Boss said redshirt junior Vieaux, redshirt sophomore pitcher Dakota Mekkes and junior infielder Jordan Zimmerman could go Friday or early Saturday. All three have a chance to return to the Spartans next year if they don’t sign.

Major league rules allow for players to be drafted out of high school and sign pro contracts. However, if they opt to attend a four-year college, teams cannot draft them again for three years.

More mature

According to a 2015 USA Today analysis, the number of high school players taken in the opening round of the MLB draft has decreased since the new collective bargaining agreement went into effect in 2013. Much of that has to do with the slotted signing bonus amounts allowed for each pick in the first 10 rounds, which has lessened the money available to lure players away from college scholarships.

Teams now face major financial and draft pick penalties if they go over their signing bonus allotment. That has general managers focusing on college players who are typically juniors or seniors, who often sign for significantly less.

“In the draft, we’ve always had the philosophy of taking the best player. If the best player is a high school player, so be it. If it’s a college player, so be it,” Tigers General Manager Al Avila said in January. “In a high school player, you want to see more maturity because you know it’s going to take an extra three years compared to a college player.”

A record eight Spartans were selected in last year’s draft, three of them underclassmen. Outfielder Cam Gibson and pitcher Anthony Misiewicz both opted to sign and forego their final year of college.

Boss said he has heard from scouts that Vieaux, Mekkes and Zimmerman could be selected anywhere between the fourth and 10th rounds this year, though the MLB draft is often unpredictable. Three other Spartan underclassmen – catcher Matt Byars and pitchers Walter Borkovich, Ethan Landon and Jake Lowery – also could be taken sometime in the second or third day of the draft.

Ten of the 21 Spartans drafted under Boss have been underclassmen. Nine of them signed pro contracts: A.J. Achter and Jonathan Roof in 2010; Torsten Boss, Ryan Jones and Tony Wieber in 2012; David Garner in 2013; Jimmy Pickens in 2014; and Gibson and Misiewicz in 2015.

“I think when you recruit, we’ve proven we’re able to develop guys – I shouldn’t say that we’re able to develop them, but that guys develop in our program,” Boss said. “They’re the ones who get after it, they’re the ones who work hard, they’re the ones who continue to improve. I think a lot of people talk about that, we can prove that on paper.”

Money talks

Having one year of eligibility remaining allows players to demand more bonus money to sign than a college senior who is drafted. Vieaux had two years of eligibility left and decided to return, since the left-hander could be drafted again two more times. If the money to sign this year isn’t right again, he could return for another year to further improve his stock.

Baseball America reported that the allotted bonus pool amount available for Vieaux as the 580th pick last year was $100,000, and the Tigers could have given him as much as $486,315 without having to forfeit a draft pick.

“I had the wiggle room,” the Novi native said of returning to MSU. “I liked playing for State, and I would do it again next year if I could. The (Tigers’) offer wasn’t really one that was good enough to pass up another year in East Lansing.

“At this point, I am just looking where I will be a good fit and have success. It’s not even the money thing – I want to be a prospect who a team is focused on when they’re going to spring training. I don’t just want to be another body thrown into minor league ball.”

Seattle took Misiewicz in the 18th round and gave him a $70,000 bonus to entice him to leave MSU a year early. He likely would have been in the Spartans’ rotation with Vieaux this season had he stayed.

Vieaux was one of three Spartans the Tigers drafted last year. Gibson bypassed his senior season to sign after Detroit selected him in the fifth round and gave him a $319,700 bonus. Blaise Salter was a senior and went in the 31st round, and the team didn’t have to give him much of a bonus since he was done with his college eligibility.

Avila coached college baseball before joining the Florida Marlins organization, and his son Alex played at Alabama before signing with the Tigers after his junior season. He was an integral part in the process to select the MSU players in last year’s draft before taking over later that summer as general manager.

“The name of the game is recruiting. … It’s almost like being a good salesman,” said Al Avila, who coached at his alma mater St. Thomas, an NAIA school in Florida. “But you have to have a good product and you have to have a quality situation where a guy is going to be able to come and develop into the baseball player he wants to be. And he’s going to have to be comfortable, get a good education and be happy.”

Contact Chris Solari at (517) 377-1070, csolari@lsj.com or on Twitter at @chrissolari.