With the international signing period opening tomorrow, baseball fans are set to receive some surely welcome transaction news as we continue to wait out a contentious lockout. While officially, tomorrow is supposed to open negotiations between players and clubs, the reality is that those have been going on for some time now, and that signings will roll in early and often once MLB sounds the bell on Saturday. At this point, we already know the destinations of most all of the class’s most highly-touted players, with only bonus dollars left to be finalized.
The Astros aren’t expected to come away with any of the tip-top names in this year’s crop, but that allowed for increased activity in the middle tiers, where they’ve been linked to a foursome of exciting young talents, with more names expected to follow as information on the lower tiers continues to become available.