By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
August 17, 2010
LOS ANGELES-- The Los Angeles Dodgers signed first-round draft pick Zach Lee just before Monday's deadline, ensuring the two-sport star will leave LSU.
Lee received a franchise-record signing bonus of $5.25 million. The previous highest signing bonus for a Dodgers draft pick was $2.3 million to Clayton Kershaw in 2006.
Los Angeles selected Lee with the 28th overall pick in the June amateur draft. The 6-foot-4, 195-pound right-hander has a fastball that's been clocked in the mid-90s.
Lee passed for 2,565 yards for McKinney High in Texas last season, and had said he wanted to play football at LSU. But he will leave school, where he had already taken snaps at quarterback during fall practice, and focus solely on baseball.
"This player was deemed as unsignable," Dodgers scouting director Logan White said during a conference call. "If they thought they could have signed him, a majority of teams would have picked him. We feel really fortunate that we were able to get it done."
Last spring, Lee repeatedly said he was only interested in playing college football, which subjected the Dodgers to criticism after they used their top draft pick on someone who had enrolled in college and was throwing a football.
White thanked Dodgers owner Frank McCourt for his backing.
"I do think Frank has been unfairly criticized at times for the selection of this pick," he said. "Frank certainly had the courage to still allow us to do it even knowing he was going to get criticized."
White said he never thought the Dodgers wouldn't sign Lee.
"I thought we'd certainly be able to do it from the get-go," he said. "I understood the skepticism when we drafted him."
White said the key to signing Lee was the Dodgers' tradition of developing starting pitchers, dating back to Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.
"His family has a lot of respect for our evaluating ability, the fact that we were able to describe his potential down the road for baseball," White said. "We stressed our expertise on this side and our track record. That clicked for him. Here's a person who hadn't really had a lot of contact with baseball people to be told those things."
If Lee hadn't signed, the Dodgers would have received a selection immediately following the No. 29 pick in next year's draft as compensation.
With McCourt's divorce trial set to begin Aug. 30, talk has swirled that the Dodgers are focused on slashing payroll. Asked what Lee's signing indicated about the direction of the franchise, general manager Ned Colletti replied, "It tells you that when we have the right player we'll do what we have to do to get the right player signed."
Lee, 18, won 11 games with a 2.15 ERA and 90 strikeouts during his senior season at McKinney High. He throws three different pitches for strikes, including an effective breaking pitch and changeup.
White said it's possible Lee could make it to the majors by age 21 or 22. And he's not worried that he will return to football.
"He's the kind of kid, once he commits, he commits," White said. "It's not a risk factor of him leaving and taking all the money."
White said Lee compares favorably to two of the Dodgers' young starting pitchers, Chad Billingsley and Kershaw.
"He's a better athlete than both of them. He absolutely has a picture perfect delivery," he said. "He has power pitcher stuff, like Kershaw and Billingsley. Zach Lee at the same age has absolutely a better feel to pitch than Chad or Clayton. This kid has a good breaking ball and an excellent changup. Things come easy for him."
Lee is scheduled to travel to Los Angeles on Wednesday to take a physical.
Earlier Monday, the Dodgers signed 11th-round selection Joc Pederson and 26th-round pick Scott Schebler to give them a total of 30 of their 50 selections from the draft.
Although Lee won't be playing football at LSU, but all wasn't lost for Tigers fans.
Kevin Gausman, the Dodgers' sixth-round pick, informed the club that he will not sign and has reported to LSU.
"We let him have Kevin Gausman. He's going to be a good pitcher for them," said White, who admitted he probably won't be attending any LSU football games.
