The Angels have roughly a week to sign Jered Weaver, but with each passing moment, the signing looks less and less like a possibility.
"It doesn't look like it is going to get done," Stoneman said. "If it doesn't happen, then it doesn't happen."
Pretty much sums it up. Meanwhile, 3,000 miles aways sits about $5MM of Angels' investment, patiently waiting to make his way across the Gulf of Mexico to the USA. The minor league draft is a little over two weeks away. Apparently major league rules prevent the Angels from drafting Weaver again, although I suppose it would be pretty funny if that were to happen.
In the meantime, what looked like solid pitching depth in the minors is struggling this season, and the one prospect who has been living up to the hype just proved on a national stage that he's still a couple years away. This whole thing has been a fiasco from the start. The Angels are a week and a half away from having nothing to show from both the first round AND the Morales signing. In the meantime, they're major off-season acquistions are barely hitting over .200. Paul Byrd appears to be coming around, and he may be the only saving grace of the 2004-2005 off-season. The less said about all this, the better, it would seem.
Scheyer:
Glennbrook North Star Jon Scheyer chose Duke yesterday over the University of Illinois. On one level, I can't blam the kid. Supposedly he's been a Duke lean since he was 14, and one fantastic season by the Illini isn't going to change that. On the other hand, his high school coach is Bruce Weber's brother, who ran the same system that turned Deron Williams into a lottery pick and made Dee Brown and Luther Head NBA material. Kids go to Duke and don't get better. Honestly, Elton Brand has been the best pro produced by Duke in recent years, and if he had been two years older, he would have gone straight to the NBA. I don't wish injury upon him or anything, but there'd be some serious Schadenfreude if he either a) turns out to be so good that he pulls a Livingston and goes straight the NBA, or b) just really, really sucks at the college level. But damn, that is going to be one uncomfortable season next year at GNHS.
Weber has already received a commitment from one top prospect (Semrau) and is in on several others (Sherron Collins, Brian Carlwell, etc.). This is a young Illini team, and if they can land a couple of blue chippers for that 2006 class, they could be competing for a national championship when those kids are sophomores playing alongside Calvin Brock, Sean Pruitt, and Brian Randle.
Plus, UCLA will be very good for the next few years (especially in 2006-2007), so any rebuilding by the Illini will be tempered by the inevitable success of the Bruins.
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