You are king of the world. You have successfully negotiated contracts for Masahiro Tanaka, Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Ryan Howard, and Derek Jeter. You are married to former Miss America 1989 and current Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson. You are the F. Man.
And you represent Brady Aiken's family. The 1-1 pick in the draft has an assigned slot value of $7,992,200. The Houston Astros have selected Brady Aiken with the 1-1 pick in the 2014 draft. You have obviously been in contact with the Astros for quite some time so, while the selection may have been a surprise, you already know the parameters of possible negotiations. You know that the Astros have interest in not just Aiken but also UCLA-commit Jacob Nix, whom you also represent.
The Astros have offered $6.5m, which is just shy of $1.5m under slot. No matter, it's still $1.7m more than Carlos Correa received as the 1-1 in 2012, and about $150,000 more than Mark Appel received as the 1-1 in 2013. And it gives the Astros flexibility in the draft to sign their other draft picks.
On June 23rd the Astros fly you, Brady Aiken, and Brady Aiken's family out to Houston for a routine physical, contract signing, press conference, and Aiken throwing out the first pitch at that night's game.
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We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
