Miami Marlins sign draft pick

The Miami Marlins picked Noble Meyer in the MLB Draft a few weeks ago. I thought that it was an intriguing move that had both upside and major risk. The risk of course coming from him being a high school pitcher. Some news came out about the young prospect yesterday, and it's time that we cover them and discuss what they mean for the team going forward.

Noble Meyer is officially a member of the Miami Marlins.

It appears that there's no consensus on what his actual ranking is. Baseball America put him at #7, #8 at MLB.com, #9 on ESPN, #12 at FanGraphs and finally #26 by Keith Law in The Athletic. The Jesuit High School (Beaverton, OR) product was seen as a top 10 prospect, but as you can see it was unclear just how good he really is.

Noble Meyer has a very good fastball and a good slider, with a "work in progress" in his changeup. The reason for his low ranking by the way is that high school pitchers don't have a very high level of success. It's this lack of success, that makes me concerned about him becoming an ace for the Miami Marlins in the future.

The Fish are known for being great at developing pitchers, so stockpiling highly promising ones is definitely a pretty solid strategy to say the least. Time will of course tell whether he'll actually ever become an ace, or even make it to the Major League roster.

So what are the big news with Noble Meyer? The #10 draft pick just signed for $4.5 million. This is great for the Miami Marlins, as the slot value for the #10 pick is actually $5.48 million. It will allow The Fish to use more money on other picks, and of course improving the farm system that declined over the last year.

The Miami Marlins saved money on the first round pick, and that is great news at a time when the team is coming off of a six game losing streak. Let's hope that Noble Meyer lives up to the hype.