Perry Signs; More on Dontrelle

As has been reported all over the place today, first round pick Ryan Perry signed for slot money. The most significant part of today's releases would seem to be that Perry appears headed for a September call up. With this, the Tigers now have locked up each of their first 17 draft picks. 18th rounder Scott Weismann, a high school pitcher out of Massachusetts is the highest pick left unsigned. Of the players who have signed, here are their current assignments:

Ryan Perry: Lakeland (soon)
Cody Satterwhite: GCL Tigers
Scott Green: West Michigan
Brett Jacobsen: West Michigan
Alex Avila: West Michigan
Tyler Stohr: Oneonta
Jade Todd: GCL Tigers
Andy Dirks: West Michigan (DL)
Anthony Shawler: Oneonta
Robert Weinhardt: Lakeland
Brandon Douglas: Oneonta
Brett Anderson: GCL Tigers
Jered Gayhart: Unassigned
Tyler Conn: Oneonta
Thad Weber: West Michigan
Rob Waite: GCL Tigers
Alden Carrithers: GCL Tigers
Ben Guez: Oneonta
Adam Frost: GCL Tigers
Mike Gosse: Oneonta
Carmelo Jaime: Lakeland
Billy Nowlin: Oneonta
Brent Wyatt: Oneonta
David Stokes: Oneonta
Keith Stein: West Michigan
Tyler Weber: Oneonta
Trevor Feeney: Oneonta
Mark Sorensen: Oneonta (DL)
Jordan Lennerton: GCL Tigers
Bryan Pounds: Oneonta
Steve Gilman: Oneonta
Nick Cassavecchia: GCL Tigers
Jordan Workman: Oneonta

Note that the highest drafted pitcher to start most of his games so far this year has been Thad Weber (16). While plenty of the players drafted early were thought of by many as relievers, I wouldn't take this as a sign that they aren't going to be tried out as starters, but instead as a sign that the team is taking it easy on arms that may have been overworked in school.

Dontrelle:
The first thing I wanted to do on the Dontrelle front is apologize to those close to the situation who may have read or heard about the post from Monday. After looking back, the tone was a bit too strong for something that was clearly speculative. Assuming an ACL tear based on the information those on the outside have is going too far. I am glad they took him to get checked out, and who am I to say that they should have done it earlier when they may have in fact done so? In fact, upon reading up on patellar tendinitis, it appears as if cortisone shots are prescribed sort of as a last resort if other treatments haven't been working for several months. Perhaps he was diagnosed with this problem back in May and it went unreported.

That said, the way in which Willis has been handled can be described as peculiar. It's not known if a sore knee is affecting his loss of control, but from the outside it seems that his knee should be 100% before taking the mound again. If knee pain is standing in the way of him repeating his mechanics, it makes no sense to have him continue to regain his control while his body won't allow him to.