The 2011 Draft signing deadline is upon us

Dillon Peters

The draft signing deadline is tonight at midnight.

What this means is all players from the 2011 Draft must be signed by 11:59:59 p.m. EST tonight or teams can no longer sign them and the players go right back into the draft pool next year or when they are qualified to enter again. The entire draft process would start all over again for them.

The only exception to the signing deadline is college seniors can be signed after the August 15th deadline, though this usually does not apply to anyone since college seniors are signed well before the deadline because of their limited leverage.

With the signing deadline (finally) upon us, the Indians go into this final day with a couple of high profile players still unsigned. First round pick shortstop Francisco Lindor and second round pick right-handed pitcher Dillon Howard are still unsigned, and the only other unsigned pick in the Indians' first 16 rounds is eighth round pick left-handed pitcher Stephen Tarpley. The only other unsigned high profile draft pick for the Indians highly regarded by Baseball America and Perfect Game is 20th round pick left-handed pitcher Dillon Peters.

All of the unsigned high profile picks are high school players, which is of no surprise. These are players that have the option of attending a big time college program so their asking price is high. They will all also command overslot money, which even if they already have agreed to terms their signings may have been delayed by MLB until today to try and control the overslot spending and also avoid other players/agents from seeing the bonus amounts they signed for so as to not start a game of “can you top this” with the signing bonuses.

Of the players listed above, the Indians are very much expected to sign both Lindor and Howard. Both of the signings will likely go right down to the last second tonight, but it would be a complete shock if both are not signed by the time the clock strikes midnight.

Yes, Lindor and his agent have done some posturing in the media of late saying he would consider going to a junior college this year and go back into the draft next year. His agent negotiated a big deal last year for Tigers supplemental first round pick third baseman Nick Castellanos and got him a record $3.45 million in that round of the draft. So there is no doubt he has and will continue to play hardball up until the deadline tonight.

That having been said, Lindor is already a top ten pick and risks a ton going back to school even if next year’s draft is consider weaker. When the dust settles tonight he should be an Indian.

It has widely been expected that Howard sill sign. The head coach at the University of Arkansas mentioned a few weeks back that he expected Howard to sign, which is something that is not said by a coach unless he knew something. It is possible he had already received some sort of official notification from Howard or his representation that he intends to sign. Considering the money he will likely command, it is possible he and the Indians already have some sort of deal in place but they are just waiting for MLB to approve it.

As for Tarpley and Peters, things are a lot more uncertain.

With Tarpley being one of the Indians top ten picks, there is a good chance he is signed. The Indians have maintained all along they intend to sign all of their top ten picks, which is what they said and did last year, so it would be surprising if something did not materialize with him and the Indians today. It will take a significant amount to sign him, though nowhere near that rumored $3 million amount floating around the internet last week.

Peters may be a lower pick than Tarpley, but he is actually considered the better talent right now. He slid for signability reasons as he has a very strong commitment to the University of Texas and will command big money. If the Indians sign him, he may end up with the third highest bonus in their entire draft next to Lindor and Howard. It does not look promising with him, maybe 50-50 at best that he signs. It may come down to him or Tarpley.

Either way, everything will be known within the next 12 hours or so. Purely speculating here, if I were a betting man I’d say Tarpley gets announced sometime this afternoon and that Howard and Lindor are announced right at midnight. I’ll go out on a limb that Peters is also signed, though I could be very wrong on that one.

I’ll be posting the signings as they happen today, so be sure to check back. To view all signings and the 2011 Draft recap click on the "Draft" tab at the top of the page, then "Draft History" and then "2011". Here is the direct link to it.

Follow Tony and the Indians Prospect Insider on Twitter @TonyIPI. Also, his latest book the 2011 Cleveland Indians Top 100 Prospects & More is available for purchase for $20.95 to customers in the US (shipping and handling extra).

Posted in: 2011 Draft News,Dillon Howard,Dillon Peters,Francisco Lindor,Stephen Tarpley