Hot Sexy Mariner Draft Pick Update

In case you weren't already aware, today brings us a new deadline - teams have until 9pm PT to negotiate contracts with their draft picks, or else said teams miss out and the players regain their draft eligibility. The Nationals are currently in a race against time with Bryce Harper, but they're not the only team up against it, and, sure enough, the Mariners have a few high-level players yet to be signed of their own.

Most notable among them are second-round selection (#67) Marcus Littlewood and third-round selection (#99) Ryne Stanek. As the team's second and third picks of the draft, the Mariners would obviously love to sign both, but here we are on deadline day, and we're yet to see any pens put to paper. For what it's worth, Jason Churchill has Littlewood as a "great bet" to sign, while Stanek's looking for a major payday. As sources go on this kind of thing, Churchill's about as good as you're going to find. Should the Mariners fail to sign either, or both, they will receive a corresponding compensation pick or two next June.

The Mariners' fourth-round selection (#132), James Paxton, is also unsigned, but because he was drafted out of the independent leagues rather than high school or college, he is not subject to the same Monday deadline.

To round things out, the M's have also made little progress with 11th-round selection (#342) Jon Keller, and just yesterday signed 16th-round selection (#492) Jordan Shipers to a pretty big contract. Given that Shipers is a high-end talent who fell due to massive signability concerns, this is a bit of a coup on the Mariners' part.

Finally, 47th-round selection (#1422) James Wood signed a while ago, and he went to Trinity College, so he's totally awesome.