posted 8.16.07 at SI.com:Marching to their own beat
Tigers rattle commish's office with draft signing
Bud Selig is said to be livid over the Tigers' record $7.3 million deal for prep pitcher Rick Porcello. Yet the commissioner's well-known sentiments on the subject weren't about to stop the Tigers from doing what they do best, which is to spend for talent and take chances, especially in the draft.
With the blessing of their pizza king owner Mike Ilitch, the Tigers' front office has done what it took to quickly rise from an all-time dregs team with 119 defeats to rank among baseball's elite teams and it isn't about to stop now. The way they have engineered the turnaround is to identify young talent and pay for it. Good for them.
Porcello's four-year, major-league deal surpassed Josh Beckett's $7 million contract eight years ago as the biggest ever for a drafted high school pitcher and rankled Selig and other MLB powers who have worked hard and instituted new rules designed to scale back bonuses for amateur draftees, one area where they retain some fiscal control. Porcello's contract also shattered the $1.17 million slot figure MLB people had assigned to the 27th spot in the first round and was the latest coup for superagent Scott Boras.
Selig tried to discourage both Ilitch and Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski in separate conversations in which he spelled out the risks. "It's an opportunity he didn't necessarily believe in," Dombrowski conceded by phone of Selig. "We support the commissioner's program and have adhered to it in almost every single case .... You never like to do anything that may hurt another organization. But we're in a spot where we feel we have to do what's best for the organization." (Complete Story)
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