Will Alec Rash be a Missouri Tiger?

Me and the family at the Twins Phillies game
(@alecrash19 on twitter, 6/14)

Alec Rash, a RHP from Adel, IA, signed a National Letter of Intent to be a Missouri Tiger back in November of 2011.

On June 5th of 2012 Rash was drafted late in the 2nd round by the Philadelphia Phillies.  That was about 20 days ago.  There are about 20 days left until the signing deadline, July 13th.

The question remains unanswered:  Will Alec Rash spend the next 3 or 4 years playing for Mizzou in the SEC?  Or will he begin his professional career this summer playing for the Williamsport Crosscutters in the New York-Penn League?

According to the Baseball America Draft Database, the Phillies have signed 14 of their top 16 draft picks, and are $218,100 under budget.

Under the new bonus slotting rules, if a player in the top 10 rounds is signed for more than 5% above the assigned slot, the team starts paying penalties and loses future draft picks.

Alec Rash, as the 95th overall pick, is slotted for a $500,000 bonus.  Not chump change, to be sure, but possibly not as much as a player who had been projected as a possible 1st round pick (with a $940,200 slot), had been hoping for.  However, even though the Phillies have an extra $218,100 to play with, if they exceed a bonus of $525,000, the penalties start kicking in.

According to Phillies blogger @Free_AEC on Twitter:

Jim Callis [of Baseball America] says #Phillies won't pay Alec #Rash even though they have the money available. David #Montgomery wants to be Selig's boy.

Translated, that means the Phillies ownership is fairly conservative and don't want to buck the new system and make MLB Comissioner and the other MLB owners mad by stepping too far out of the slot for an unproven 18-year-old draft pick.

That's the theory, anyway.

We all sit and wait.  And we wish Alec Rash all the best, no matter which direction he chooses to go.

But he'd look a lot better in the new Nike MU Baseball unis than in those Phillies pinstripes.  Just sayin'.