In an article in the Examiner (which I'm not really sure what this publication does), Stephen Goff takes a good long look at Ross Seaton. An excerpt:
Tal Smith, Astros president of baseball operations, refused to let Seaton go undrafted by his hometown team. Smith acknowledges Spring Wood’s Roger Clemens, Spring’s Josh Beckett, Cy Fall’s Scott Kazmir, and Seaton as the top four high school pitchers ever to come out of the Houston area.
In order to persuade Seaton to sign with the Astros, Smith and owner Drayton McLane needed to come up with a substantially high offer. McLane values Smith’s opinion when it comes to young ball players. When McLane heard Smith describe Seaton as “one of the best ever to come out of high school,” the Astros owner made it a point to something special to sign Seaton.
McLane decided to offer Seaton a signing bonus higher than Commissioner Bud Selig’s slotting system for a typical third-round compensation pick. The Astros’ owner offered Seaton a $700,000 signing bonus to forgo his baseball scholarship to Tulane and a $252,000 college scholarship plan.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
