Blog: SB Nation

Baseball 1st Round Pick Gerrit Cole Picks UCLA Over Yankees

by Raisin on Aug 14, 2008 11:27 PM PDT

Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Orange Lutheran HS pitcher and Yankees first rounder Gerrit Cole spurns the Yankees for UCLA per the New York Times:

When the Yankees drafted pitcher Gerrit Cole in the first round of the June draft, they believed that Cole would sign with them and forego a college scholarship. It turns out that Cole has changed his mind and will go to U.C.L.A. instead.

According to a person involved in the negotiations, the Yankees have learned that Cole intends to go to college, no matter what they offer. The person was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly before Friday’s deadline for teams to sign drafted players.

Cole is represented by the agent Scott Boras, who is known for asking for lucrative bonuses. But the Yankees have reached deals with first-round Boras clients the last two seasons, and the person said the failure to sign Cole had nothing to do with him.

Instead, Cole and his father had a change of heart and decided to go to college rather than negotiate with the Yankees.

“It was not a negotiating issue,” the person said. “It was not a number issue.”

This is a huge coup for UCLA, he's one of - if not the best HS recruits and would bring a mid to upper 90s mph fastball and devastating hard slider to UCLA.

Cole does have till 9 pm tomorrow to change his mind. We'll see if this is just posturing, Scott Boras does know all the tricks in the book.

6 comments | 1 recs

The Fab 4 at the Nike Hoop Summit

by Raisin on Apr 11, 2008 11:00 AM PDT

Drew Gordon, Jerime Anderson, Jrue Holiday and Malcolm Lee will all 4 be in Portland.

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2 comments | 0 recs

Jrue Holiday Named Gatorade Nat'l Player of the Year

by Raisin on Mar 18, 2008 4:02 PM PDT

According to Tracy Pierson at BRO.

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Baseball Opener PPD Due to Rain

by Raisin on Feb 22, 2008 3:55 PM PST

Doubleheader tomorrow...as Mr. Cub would say, "let's play two!"

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2 Future Bruins to McD's All-American Game

by Raisin on Feb 19, 2008 4:34 PM PST

Bumped. Speaking of "young" ballers CONGRATS to Jrue and Malcolm. GO BRUINS. -N

Congrats to future Bruin Guards Jrue Holiday and Malcolm Lee. From BruinReportOnline.com:

Two of UCLA's signed recruits for 2008 -- Jrue Holiday of North Hollywood (Calif.) Campbell Hall and Malcolm Lee of Riverside (Calif.) North, have been named to the 2008 McDonald's All-American Game.

The game will be played on March 26th at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and televised by ESPN at 9:30 p.m. Here is the complete roster (warning: PDF file). North Carolina (3) and Ohio State (2) were the only other schools with more than one All-American.

UPDATE: Here is a little preview of Jrue:

And Malcolm:

Of course don't forget Drew Gordon and Jerime Anderson, the two other blue chippers who make up next year's number 1 recruiting class in America. GO BRUINS. -N