North Dakota Preps

just got a text from a friend that he signed a 7 yr contract with Philly...anyone else hear this and can confirm it? if its true congrats to him!!

From the Fargo Forum (Tuesday, August 4th):

MINOT, N.D. – Minot baseball standout Ryan Bollinger has decided to forgo a college career for a more immediate shot at the major leagues.

The left-hander has signed a seven-year contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. He will start his career with the Gulf Coast League Phillies, a rookie-level affiliate.

whats the contract worth?

baseball wrote:whats the contract worth?

probably the basic minor league salary (anywhere from $700-$1100/month)

Your former Eagle teammates are proud of you! Just heard that you signed with the Phillies AND YOU GOT AN INVITE TO INSTRUCTIONAL LEAGUE. That is HUGE. Hope to catch a game next year in Clearwater after college.

As far as people asking what the contract was worth . . . pretty much no one's business. My family was proud that there are still people who play professional baseball who are in it for the game and NOT AN EXTREME amount of money, especially those who think they are worth more than they really are. Once you put your Gulf Coast Jersey on, it really didn't matter where you were drafted. The fact you got drafted and proven to be one of the top 1500 baseball players in the US is amazing!!!!

LIVE YOUR DREAM!!!!

LOVING LIFE IN FLORIDA WHERE BASEBALL IS YEAR AROUND!!!! And yes that had a huge impact on where he got drafted. Look how many kids from the northern states got drafted compared to the southern states. That Ebert kid had to leave North Dakota and go to Florida in order to get drafted. Ryan would've went way higher had he lived in FL. Aside from that, it doesn't matter anymore . . . he's on his career path now that all of you will only dream about and no one can take that away from him.

Every time you post you just say the same thing..why? all you do is gush over the kid and tell us how happy florida is for him and that if he stayed there he would go higher....yea, we get it, thats how u feel about the opinion?

"As far as people asking what the contract was worth . . . pretty much no one's business." what is your deal about being so defensive about the kid? I asked that because I was curious as to what a kid from high school would get as a base contract for being drafted....so sorry for trying to dig deep into his personal life. i sincerely apologize, i guess?? if contract's were no body's business they wouldnt even talk about NFL holdouts, and free agent signings for record amounts. you seriously just have to loosen up about the topic..wow..

RSFAN6 wrote:Your former Eagle teammates are proud of you! Just heard that you signed with the Phillies AND YOU GOT AN INVITE TO INSTRUCTIONAL LEAGUE. That is HUGE. Hope to catch a game next year in Clearwater after college.

As far as people asking what the contract was worth . . . pretty much no one's business. My family was proud that there are still people who play professional baseball who are in it for the game and NOT AN EXTREME amount of money, especially those who think they are worth more than they really are. Once you put your Gulf Coast Jersey on, it really didn't matter where you were drafted. The fact you got drafted and proven to be one of the top 1500 baseball players in the US is amazing!!!!

LIVE YOUR DREAM!!!!

LOVING LIFE IN FLORIDA WHERE BASEBALL IS YEAR AROUND!!!! And yes that had a huge impact on where he got drafted. Look how many kids from the northern states got drafted compared to the southern states. That Ebert kid had to leave North Dakota and go to Florida in order to get drafted. Ryan would've went way higher had he lived in FL. Aside from that, it doesn't matter anymore . . . he's on his career path now that all of you will only dream about and no one can take that away from him.

#1- Ebert was not good enough out of HS to get drafted. He was draft eligible the past 2 years at Iowa Western and did not get drafted either. Apparently he had to go even farther south so he wasn't considered a NORTHERN KID to actually get drafted now. I saw a kid go to NDSU that was drafted out of HS in the late 20's rounds. Chose to go to a JUCO and recruited the school instead of the school recruiting him because of his choice of major. He wasnt good enough to crack the lineup over a catcher from Fargo and a Catcher from Wadena, MN who were never drafted and given a chance.

#2- You might be right that Ryan MIGHT have been drafted higher. Maybe in the 30's and not the 40's.

#3- The question about the contract is a valid question because it shows what kind of package they offered him to convince him to forgo college so they could keep him and not risk being able to redraft him after one year of junior college.

#4- I hope he makes the most of his opportunity but your attitude on here has been WAY over the top. Saying he is one of the top 1500 is an incorrect number. He is among those that are draft eligible. There are countless other players who are better that are attending 4 year colleges that are not draft eligible yet competing at the DI or II level. Considering you are not from here you have NO IDEA the level of players here. So far it appears he is way over his head (Which I hope turns around soon) because he is hitting .077 going 1x13 with 5 Ks. He is not good enough to have played more then 4 games so far in over 2 weeks. The true measurement will be next spring as to if he made the right decision or not.

I don't want to wish bad things towards him but I wonder if he is having 2nd thought about picking pay right away instead of going to college atleast 2 years.

Probably, because he's like 2-16 so far. Might not have been the smart choice for him, but it was his choice so I wont say any negative things. Just for some guys, Ebert is a the short-A season for the Red Sox, is around a 4.50 ERA. Charlie Shirek is in AA for the White Sox and is moving up the ranks quite quickly, his A ball stats were unbelievable and his AA stats aren't too far off. I really don't know of too many other kids that are in any systems right now besides them, besides Hoerst, but I haven't heard about him.

Carr is in single A I believe with the Twins.

Yeah, Carr is in low-A for the Twins. Nice call.
Team League W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB SO GO/AO AVG
Minors 1 2 2.61 24 0 0 0 5 38.0 29 17 11 3 14 52 1.90 .199

bball99 wrote:Yeah, Carr is in low-A for the Twins. Nice call.
Team League W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB SO GO/AO AVG
Minors 1 2 2.61 24 0 0 0 5 38.0 29 17 11 3 14 52 1.90 .199

Good numbers....good to see hiw HR's down. one year i konw he gave up something like 25HR in 65 innnings or something. Wonder if he would have been better if he was down south instead of coached basketball in Linton this last winter.

From everything I heard, the U of M coaches really kind of messed up his mechanics, he was throwing like, 90's from the full, and would drop down to 82, 83 from the stretch. This had to have been corrected and I'm sure it took some time. I saw he was closing some games, which means he must have some more pop on that fastball now.

bball99 wrote:From everything I heard, the U of M coaches really kind of messed up his mechanics, he was throwing like, 90's from the full, and would drop down to 82, 83 from the stretch. This had to have been corrected and I'm sure it took some time. I saw he was closing some games, which means he must have some more pop on that fastball now.

Standard Gophers philosophy. Clone all of their pitchers to be Fastball/Curveball guys and not power pitchers with a fastball/slider combo. They lengthened his arm action to get him to throw a better curve ball. It may work for some but not everyone like they try to do. Best choice he could have made was to sign and get out of that program with his style of pitching.

Exactly, Todd Oakes has done this to a lot of pitchers. I have a feeling Carr was probably switched back to a more compact, quicker arm action in the minors. From what I remember he was a fastball/slider guy in HS.

RSFAN6 wrote:Your former Eagle teammates are proud of you! Just heard that you signed with the Phillies AND YOU GOT AN INVITE TO INSTRUCTIONAL LEAGUE. That is HUGE. Hope to catch a game next year in Clearwater after college.

As far as people asking what the contract was worth . . . pretty much no one's business. My family was proud that there are still people who play professional baseball who are in it for the game and NOT AN EXTREME amount of money, especially those who think they are worth more than they really are. Once you put your Gulf Coast Jersey on, it really didn't matter where you were drafted. The fact you got drafted and proven to be one of the top 1500 baseball players in the US is amazing!!!!

LIVE YOUR DREAM!!!!

LOVING LIFE IN FLORIDA WHERE BASEBALL IS YEAR AROUND!!!! And yes that had a huge impact on where he got drafted. Look how many kids from the northern states got drafted compared to the southern states. That Ebert kid had to leave North Dakota and go to Florida in order to get drafted. Ryan would've went way higher had he lived in FL. Aside from that, it doesn't matter anymore . . . he's on his career path now that all of you will only dream about and no one can take that away from him.

.. and i totally understand the defensive statement about how much he is making a year....spouses salaries are none of our business, onlny yours

im really gettin sick of hearing how much rsfan6 talks up bolli. bolli is good but to say that he would have been drafted higher if he had stayed in florida is a lie. in florida he would have been just another kid the throws mid to uper 80's and is left handed. compare the florida state champs to the nd state champs and it will be no comparison who would be a better team. ya its a great accomplishment to be drafted but you dont really see anyone else on here talking about frenzel or carr or elgie all the time trying to say how great they were now do you? he got drafted, give it a rest

I truely think people under-estimate how much of an advantage a lefty has compared to a righty when it comes to the MLB draft. a 6'3-4" lefty in baseball is like a 6'11" guy in basketball. there's a kid with one arm who signed a D1 schollarship for basketball, he's a 7 footer.

Look at the stats:
Orioles - 9 lefty, 20 righty
d'backs - 6 lefty, 17 righty
Braves - 4 lefty, 17 righty

these are just 3 teams yea, but its like that all over the league.

it's that way in high school too. in the 06 state tourney, Jordan Grover shut down Thompson and gave up something like 3 hits. There were pitchers who threw harder and had a better breaking ball, but when the ball is coming at you from the other side of the plate it takes a while to get used to it. Shane Schoenberg from Jamestown, threw maybe 65, I dont remember ever beating him when he pitched against us. Tanner Lorenz from Harvey, threw 85-88, i dont remember ever losing to him when he pitched.

riders said it best, if he stayed in Florida he would've just been another kid who threw in the 80's and was left handed. maybe it would have helped him get drafted higher, but maybe he wouldnt have got drafted at all if he stayed. numbers likely wouldnt have been as good and certainly wouldnt have been the one getting all the ink for his team. Who knows, maybe if he was from the Dominican Republic he wouldve been the #1 pick!!

baseball wrote:I truely think people under-estimate how much of an advantage a lefty has compared to a righty when it comes to the MLB draft. a 6'3-4" lefty in baseball is like a 6'11" guy in basketball. there's a kid with one arm who signed a D1 schollarship for basketball, he's a 7 footer.

Look at the stats:
Orioles - 9 lefty, 20 righty
d'backs - 6 lefty, 17 righty
Braves - 4 lefty, 17 righty

these are just 3 teams yea, but its like that all over the league.

it's that way in high school too. in the 06 state tourney, Jordan Grover shut down Thompson and gave up something like 3 hits. There were pitchers who threw harder and had a better breaking ball, but when the ball is coming at you from the other side of the plate it takes a while to get used to it. Shane Schoenberg from Jamestown, threw maybe 65, I dont remember ever beating him when he pitched against us. Tanner Lorenz from Harvey, threw 85-88, i dont remember ever losing to him when he pitched.

riders said it best, if he stayed in Florida he would've just been another kid who threw in the 80's and was left handed. maybe it would have helped him get drafted higher, but maybe he wouldnt have got drafted at all if he stayed. numbers likely wouldnt have been as good and certainly wouldnt have been the one getting all the ink for his team. Who knows, maybe if he was from the Dominican Republic he wouldve been the #1 pick!!

Do you know or have heard how hard Carr or Shirek or Hoerst or Ebert or Lorenz throw now and how their doing? Also, how did Elgie do at Kansas? What do you expect from the kid going to Arizona? I agree with you on the lefty statements, but I do have one comment. In ND HS baseball it may effect some players with getting used to, however, in college ball and past high school, it isn't that big of a factor on hitters, especially right handed hitters like HS. My main point is did you see any of those lefties go anywhere after HS? The lefties that are valuable are ones that can throw it 90+ or ones that have special arm slots or great breaking stuff. A lefty has to have half the stuff of a right handed pitcher to play at a high level.

bball99 wrote:

baseball wrote:I truely think people under-estimate how much of an advantage a lefty has compared to a righty when it comes to the MLB draft. a 6'3-4" lefty in baseball is like a 6'11" guy in basketball. there's a kid with one arm who signed a D1 schollarship for basketball, he's a 7 footer.

Look at the stats:
Orioles - 9 lefty, 20 righty
d'backs - 6 lefty, 17 righty
Braves - 4 lefty, 17 righty

these are just 3 teams yea, but its like that all over the league.

it's that way in high school too. in the 06 state tourney, Jordan Grover shut down Thompson and gave up something like 3 hits. There were pitchers who threw harder and had a better breaking ball, but when the ball is coming at you from the other side of the plate it takes a while to get used to it. Shane Schoenberg from Jamestown, threw maybe 65, I dont remember ever beating him when he pitched against us. Tanner Lorenz from Harvey, threw 85-88, i dont remember ever losing to him when he pitched.

riders said it best, if he stayed in Florida he would've just been another kid who threw in the 80's and was left handed. maybe it would have helped him get drafted higher, but maybe he wouldnt have got drafted at all if he stayed. numbers likely wouldnt have been as good and certainly wouldnt have been the one getting all the ink for his team. Who knows, maybe if he was from the Dominican Republic he wouldve been the #1 pick!!

Do you know or have heard how hard Carr or Shirek or Hoerst or Ebert or Lorenz throw now and how their doing? Also, how did Elgie do at Kansas? What do you expect from the kid going to Arizona? I agree with you on the lefty statements, but I do have one comment. In ND HS baseball it may effect some players with getting used to, however, in college ball and past high school, it isn't that big of a factor on hitters, especially right handed hitters like HS. My main point is did you see any of those lefties go anywhere after HS? The lefties that are valuable are ones that can throw it 90+ or ones that have special arm slots or great breaking stuff. A lefty has to have half the stuff of a right handed pitcher to play at a high level.

Which was exactly my point. people are underestimating just how much being a lefty means to a person when it comes to the draft. Carr had a decent year in Single-A ball as a relief man. Elgie hit .305 with 3 HR and 9 RBI in 33 games (28 starts). had a slow start but played well come March-April.

bball99 wrote:

baseball wrote:I truely think people under-estimate how much of an advantage a lefty has compared to a righty when it comes to the MLB draft. a 6'3-4" lefty in baseball is like a 6'11" guy in basketball. there's a kid with one arm who signed a D1 schollarship for basketball, he's a 7 footer.

Look at the stats:
Orioles - 9 lefty, 20 righty
d'backs - 6 lefty, 17 righty
Braves - 4 lefty, 17 righty

these are just 3 teams yea, but its like that all over the league.

it's that way in high school too. in the 06 state tourney, Jordan Grover shut down Thompson and gave up something like 3 hits. There were pitchers who threw harder and had a better breaking ball, but when the ball is coming at you from the other side of the plate it takes a while to get used to it. Shane Schoenberg from Jamestown, threw maybe 65, I dont remember ever beating him when he pitched against us. Tanner Lorenz from Harvey, threw 85-88, i dont remember ever losing to him when he pitched.

riders said it best, if he stayed in Florida he would've just been another kid who threw in the 80's and was left handed. maybe it would have helped him get drafted higher, but maybe he wouldnt have got drafted at all if he stayed. numbers likely wouldnt have been as good and certainly wouldnt have been the one getting all the ink for his team. Who knows, maybe if he was from the Dominican Republic he wouldve been the #1 pick!!

Do you know or have heard how hard Carr or Shirek or Hoerst or Ebert or Lorenz throw now and how their doing? Also, how did Elgie do at Kansas? What do you expect from the kid going to Arizona? I agree with you on the lefty statements, but I do have one comment. In ND HS baseball it may effect some players with getting used to, however, in college ball and past high school, it isn't that big of a factor on hitters, especially right handed hitters like HS. My main point is did you see any of those lefties go anywhere after HS? The lefties that are valuable are ones that can throw it 90+ or ones that have special arm slots or great breaking stuff. A lefty has to have half the stuff of a right handed pitcher to play at a high level.

Here are the final stats-
Kyle Carr- Low A- http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... pid=473827
Charlie Shirek- AA- http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... pid=457654
Jeremy Horst- AA- http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... pid=456662
Jeremy Horst Interview Podcast- http://redlegnation.com/2009/05/22/rnr- ... -joins-us/
Tom Ebert- A Short Season- http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... pid=572830
Ryan Bollinger- Rookie Gulf Coast League- http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb ... pid=571503

this is a waste of time hes an average left hander at best with a mid 80s fastball. yeah he dominated north dakota but thats not hard when there are only 5 legit hitters in the whole state that even have potential to play minor league ball.

gunslinger13 wrote:this is a waste of time hes an average left hander at best with a mid 80s fastball. yeah he dominated north dakota but thats not hard when there are only 5 legit hitters in the whole state that even have potential to play minor league ball.

He's not pitching........... cool story bro

well im glad hes not pitching it would end bad for him. what is his average then?