Not that Derek Fisher, and not that Houston - the Astros have announced a deal with OF Derek Fisher, their competitive balance pick (37th overall) in this year's draft, received as part of the Fud Borris trade. Jim Callis reports that the deal is for $1,534,100, or full slot value. Fisher was ineligible to sign until the University of Virginia completed their College World Series run last week.
Thanks to our good friend Jayne over at What the Heck, Bobby?, we see that this means only Mac Marshall (21st round), Michael Foster (38th round), and Brad Antchak (39th round) remain unsigned.
It is hopefully not noteworthy that no official deal has yet been announced with 1-1 Brady Aiken. We know he was in Houston early last week. Ken Rosenthal ominously opined yesterday, "The holdup bears a resemblance to the delays that occasionally occur in free agency when players fail physicals and teams try to rework deals." But that is pure speculation at this point, so don't read too much into it. (Yet.)
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
