Signed, Sealed, and Delivered

It seems like an eternity ago that Major League Baseball held its annual draft but really it has only been a couple of months when the teams met at the MLB TV studios for the first-year player draft. After that hectic two day event the real work began.

The teams had until midnight ET August 17 in order to sign their draft picks. Any selection not signed by then, the team loses negotiating rights to the player. For high school players they are not eligible to be redrafted until after their sophomore year of college. Sophomores are not eligible to be redrafted until after they have graduated.

This has been an extremely busy time for the Arizona Diamondbacks as they had a glut of picks in the early rounds as a result of other teams signing their free agents last off-season. Arizona had 11 of the top 200 picks in this year's draft.

General Manager Josh Byrnes and his staff have been working long hours with the scouting department to sign as many of these draft picks as possible and slotting them onto appropriate rosters.

Going into the final day of negotiation the Diamondbacks had only one player remaining to sign in of those drafted in the first 24 rounds. Seventh round pick,, third baseman Matt Helm from Chandler Arizona, was the only hold out. This was somewhat expected. Helm was slotted to be a second or third round selection but injuries this past year pushed his stock down allowing him to slip to the Diamondbacks.

Helm had made a commitment to the University of Arizona on a baseball scholarship. It would take the Diamondbacks reaching into their pocketbook to keep them from losing this draft pick to Tucson.

As the deadline approached the Diamondbacks negotiated with Helm and his family offering him the financial security necessary to make his decision easier. Helm signed just before the deadline. After physicals and the paperwork is completed Matt Helm will board a plane to Yakima Washington to begin his professional baseball career with the Yakima Bears.

Arizona Diamondbacks Signed Draft Picks - 2009
Round	Name	B/T	Ht	Wt	DOB	POS
1	Robert Borchering	S/R	6’4”	195	10/25/1990	3B
1	Allen Pollock	R/R	6’2”	200	12/05/1987	CF
1a	Matthew Davidson	R/R	6’2”	210	03/26/1991	3B
1a	Christopher Owings	R/R	5’11”	170	08/12/1991	SS
1a	Michael Belfiore	R/L	6’3”	220	10/03/1986	LHP
2	Eric Smith	R/R	6’3”	213	10/15/1988	RHP
2	Marc Krauss	L/R	6’3”	235	10/05/1987	LF
3	Keon Broxton	R/R	6’0”	187	05/07/1990	3B
4	David Nick	R/R	6’2”	180	02/03/1990	SS
5	Ryan Wheeler	L/R	6’4”	220	07/10/1988	1B
6	Bradin Hagens	R/R	6’1”	180	05/12/1989	RHP
7	Matthew Helm	R/R	6’2”	205	09/01/1990	3B
8	Paul Goldschmidt	R/R	6’4”	240	09/10/1987	1B
9	Robert Anderson	R/R	6’1”	170	11/30/1987	RHP
10	Tyson Van Winkle	R/R	6’0”	195	02/02/1988	C
11	Richard Allen	R/R	6’2”	170	07/03/1991	RHP
12	Charles Brewer	R/R	6’4”	205	04/07/1988	RHP
13	Patrick Schuster	R/L	6’2”	165	10/30/1990	LHP
14	Brent Greer	R/R	6’0”	185	10/16/1987	SS
15	David Narodowski	R/R	5’10”	195	08/03/1988	OF
16	Ryan Robowski	L/L	6’0”	175	02/03/1988	LHP
17	Andrew Wolcott	R/R	6’6”	240	09/08/1987	RHP
18	Roidany Aguila	R/R	5’10”	160	10/22/1990	C
19	Randall Hamrick	R/R	6’1”	195	08/27/1986	SS
20	Adam Worthington	R/R	5’10”	190	06/20/1987	RHP
21	Daniel Taylor	L/L	6’0”	205	07/25/1987	LHP
22	Evan Button	L/R	6’0”	195	09/05/1986	SS
23	Christopher Odegaard	R/R	6’3”	215	04/17/1987	RHP
24	Marshall Gemberling	R/R	6’3”	205	12/09/1986	RHP
26	Daniel Kaczrowski	R/R	5’9”	170	06/17/1987	SS
27	Willie Hale	R/R	6’7”	200	12/11/1985	RHP
28	Brian Budrow	S/R	6’3”	220	11/12/1986	RHP
31	Keith Cantwell	R/R	6’6”	215	09/09/1987	RHP
32	William Harvil	L/R	6’5”	230	06/17/1987	RHP
33	Bradley Wilson	R/R	6’1”	185	05/26/1987	RHP
40	Tim Sherlock	L/L	6’1”	185	11/30/1986	OF
44	Zachary Varnell	R/R	6’1”	200	06/25/1986	C

Overall the Diamondbacks were very successful signing each of the first 24 round picks and 32 of the 50 players drafted. It was interesting to me to see that two of the players they could not sign had ties to the Diamondbacks. Diamondbacks Area Scout Luke Wrenn's son Taylor went unsigned. Diamondbacks announcer and former player Matt Williams son Jake also chose college over signing and will go to the University of San Diego to play baseball.

With draft picks now under contract the focus will now be one of player development as the minor league coaches attempt to mold these young ball players to reach their potential so that we hopefully will see this new crop of Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field within a few short years.