Aflac Players Sign Big Contracts Again In 2007

The 2006 class of Aflac All Americans have all either signed with Major League clubs or decided to attend top college programs.  The last day to sign was yesterday August 15^th.

This year, former Aflac All Americans received over $23 million in signing bonuses from various major league organizations.  The largest bonus ever was received by former Aflac All American and Jackie Robinson award winner, Justin Upton (the first overall pick) a couple years ago, when the Diamondbacks paid him $6.1 million to start his pro career.

Rick Porcello was the last Aflac player to sign yesterday and it was the biggest one of all high school players.   The 27^th pick by the Tigers received $3,580,000 in signing bonus and a Major League deal worth about 4 million more. 

It has been estimated that in just the past four years, Aflac All Americans have signed for over $100,000,000 by Major League teams.  Now we are into the time frame where every year some former Aflac All Americans will become eligible for the draft coming out of college.  Look for the number of high draft picks and large signing bonuses to keep growing larger each year.

This year marked the first Aflac All Americans to appear in the Major Leagues.  In June, Homer Bailey, Aflac class of 2003, got his first start and win for the Cincinnati Reds.  Then shortly before this year’s Aflac Classic, Justin Upton was called up by the Diamondbacks.  This is only the beginning as there are many former Aflac players knocking on the door to the big leagues.  Some of the top prospects at every level of the minor leagues are former Aflac All Americans.

In the first four years of the Classic there were 154 players selected Aflac All Americans.  Of those 154 players, over 130 were drafted including 42 who were picked in the first round.  This adds up to more than one out of each four Aflac All Americans has become a first round draft pick the following year.  There have been many others who were selected in the second round.

Another interesting note is that a few Aflac All Americans dropped down in the draft because of injuries and/or signability concerns.  Austin Jackson went in the 8^th round.  Dellin Betances went in the 8^th round.  Nick Adenhart, Dexter Fowler, Matt Latos, Jordan Walden, Cale Iorg all went in later rounds.  All of those players mentioned above signed for 1^st or 2^nd round money.  So it should be apparent that they were in fact first round talents.

Now with this year’s class of 38, there have been 192 Aflac All Americans.  It should be interesting to see how the draft plays out next June.