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Angels Appear to Have Blown It with Their Fifth Round Pick

More preparation, please, captain. - Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports


What appeared to have already been a reach in round five of the Angels June draft has become a disaster as Joseph Booker has declared that he won't sign with the team before the deadline. 28 of 30 MLB teams have signed their round five pick at this point, and given that most of the value in the draft comes in the top 5-6 rounds, you really don't want to forfeit one of the top 150 selections.

JoJo Booker already fell outside the MLB top 200 and Baseball America top 500, but the Angels clearly wanted him – so much so that they committed their 15th round pick to Hunter Brittain, Booker's battery mate at T.R. Miller High School in Alabama. Both have committed to play at South Alabama next season. Apparently neither player secured the bonus they were looking for from the Angels.

What's more, neither player appears to have been very persuadable from the beginning:

"(W)e kind of knew where our hearts were, and where we really wanted to go, and that was South," Brittain said. "My decision was kind of made, even before the draft. If I had been offered a bunch of money, I might have gone, but I knew before that I wanted to go to South."

This is an unfortunate black mark on the beginning of the Eppler/Swanson era. After substantially reaching with Thaiss last season, you don't waste two picks in top 15 rounds by failing to secure commitments prior to drafting. Not with the farm the Angels have at present. The Angels have not had such fortunate drafting position in well over a decade, and there were several top 100 talents still on the board who were ultimately drafted and signed for slot.

A bummer note in what was otherwise a solid top-of-the-draft for the Angels.

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