Mets Step Up and Pay Overslot

After all the ink spilled (literally and figuratively), the Mets went overslot and signed their 24th round pick, Eric Goeddel out of UCLA, for $500,000, or a figure closer to what a 3rd round pick would get. Goeddel red-shirted after an elbow injury and worked out the bullpen for the Bruins who went to the College World Series this year. As Michael Diaz from MetsMinorLeagueBlog.com states here, he may have been a 1st round pick in next year's draft. According to Baseball America (as quoted by the above link):

Goeddel enjoyed an eyebrow-raising outing Sunday. He fired a blistering four-seam fastball that sat in the 93-94 mph range and peaked at 95. Goeddel added a harsh 86 slider.

And this was from Keith Law's (ESPN Insider only) draft review:

The only good tough sign I see is 24th-rounder Erik Goeddel, a draft-eligible sophomore reliever from UCLA who's been 94-97 the past few weeks; his father was employee No. 3 at biotechnology company Genentech and later co-founded Tularik, and Goeddel is likely to go back to school to be the Sunday starter in 2011.

My Take: Outstanding for the Mets to buck the overwhelming evidence that they won't go overslot for players; they still had a very conservative draft (according to the experts), but if they can sign just one or two overslot guys in later rounds each year and take a high upside guy in the 1st round, I have no problem with them being conservative the rest of the draft. And for those counting at home, Matt Harvey has another 5 weeks before you will hear any word that he is signing (Aug 15/16). If Harvey doesn't sign, this signing means nothing, but I have faith he will sign.