Playing hard ball

Max Stassi sat anxiously with family and friends who were all tuned into the flat screen in his living room.

Dressed casually in a T-shirt, Vans sneakers and blue jeans, the high school superstar watched the broadcast of the MLB First-Year Player Draft, waiting for his name to be called.

But over the course of five hours, anticipation turned to disappointment. One hundred and eleven players were selected during the first three rounds on Tuesday — and the Yuba City High catcher was not among them.

The omission of Stassi's name — which was floated in the first round of many mock drafts — stems from signability issues — and the family isn't budging.

With a full-ride scholarship to UCLA on the table, the Stassis wanted "top 20 money" to pull the Honkers standout away from the Pac-10 school and into the pros, said Max's father and coach, Jim Stassi.

"We have a figure in our head what UCLA is worth," he said. "And when those clubs called, we said we are not going to make a deal at slot to get it done.

"He would have gone in the (compensation round) if we had settled for slot."

The problem was, organizations all pitched slot offers, which are a set amount based on estimates of a players' worth in relation to where they are selected in the draft, said Jim Stassi, who declined to give specific monetary details.

During the course of the draft, Jim Stassi answered calls on his Blackberry from the Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.

"(They asked) if slot was going to get it done, and we said no, he's going to school," he said.

As of right now, Jim Stassi will not say whether his son is going to study down south. He remains open to the possibility that his son will be selected today when the fourth round begins at 9 a.m. Rounds 31 through 50 will take place on Thursday.

"We're not going to make that decision until it is all over," said the elder Stassi about his son's college decision. "We would like to think he is in a pretty good position, being one of the top players left, and some clubs had only picked twice.

"You never know who may step up to the plate. We've already gotten calls that said, 'You're the best player out here,'" he said.

This past season, Stassi batted .538 with 11 home runs and 38 RBIs and was named the Tri- County Conference Co-Player of the year.

His career average at Yuba City is .513 and he holds the single season records for average (.580), hits (51), home runs (15), runs (47) and RBIs (45) and was named the Appeal-Democrat All-Area MVP three times. Entering the draft, he was ranked the No. 16 player in the Top 100 draft prospects by ESPN.com

With such numbers, and the full ride on the table, the family simply could not justify agreeing with the numbers most teams were offering, even if they were in the mid- to high six figures.

"There's no question, you get a high six-figure amount and you cut that in half and that's what you put in the bank. Say you get $700,000 to sign. After you pay your taxes and your adviser, it's 350K," Jim Stassi said. "That's not going to last very long for someone just out of high school and that's what we were looking at in the second round."

The Boston Red Sox, whom Max Stassi worked out for at Fenway Park on Monday, had called in the morning.

Projections had Stassi going to the Sox with the 28th pick in the first round, but instead the team opted to choose center fielder Reymond Fuentes out of Fernando Callejo High in Puerto Rico. After Fuentes' name was called, there remained hope that Boston would take Stassi with its second-round pick.

"That's where I expected him to go because they are a team that pays over slot," Jim Stassi said. "I thought they liked him, but that is the business side of things."

In all, eight catchers had their names called in the first three rounds.

"Hopefully, it will turn out pretty good," he said.