Notes: Brewers Claim Rob Scahill; Nick Lodolo Says He Won't Sign

A couple quick notes:

-P- The Brewers have announced that they've claimed Rob Scahill and optioned him to Triple-A. This is nothing to get worked up about, obviously -- Scahill's chief asset is that he's optionable. His actual performances have been forgettable.

-P- Pirates Comp Round A pick Nick Lodolo tweeted today that he's going to TCU rather than signing with the Pirates. Before that happened, Jim Callis tweeted that Lodolo was likely to be the highest pick in this year's draft to go unsigned. Lodolo is a tall lefty from California who the Pirates selected with the No. 41 overall pick.

The Bucs still have until Friday to negotiate, and you never know what might happen -- the Pirates might sweeten their offer in that time (although they have a limited range in which to work, given the players they've already signed and the significant penalties for dramatically exceeding their draft pool), or Lodolo might soften his stance as the deadline approaches. But it sounds like there's a real possibility the Bucs might lose him. If that happens, they'll lose his pool value of $1,576,000, although that shouldn't have a significant impact on other draftees -- they've signed all their other top picks, and likely budgeted something close to the pool number for Lodolo anyway.

If Lodolo fails to sign, the Pirates would get a 2017 pick similar to the selection with which they got Lodolo. They would also get a corresponding increase in their 2017 pool. So this is similar to the Mark Appel / Austin Meadows situation in which the Bucs failed to sign a top pick but got a similar one the next year. Maybe Lodolo will turn out to be the next Randy Johnson, but based on the information currently available -- he's a high school pitcher who's a million miles from the majors and wasn't that highly rated to begin with -- I don't think we should see it as a problem if he doesn't sign.