No Deal Yet With Bootcheck

In danger of having a first-round draft pick go unsigned, the Angels negotiated late into Tuesday night hoping to come to a bonus agreement with Auburn right-hander Chris Bootcheck. The sides began the day about $500,000 apart, the Angels having offered $1.6 million.

Bootcheck did not attend classes or team functions Tuesday, according to Auburn Coach Steve Renfro, as Angel scouting director Donny Rowland and Bootcheck advisor Scott Boras negotiated a day into Auburn’s fall semester.

The Angels hope negotiations continue but fear Bootcheck will attend classes today. In the meantime, they seemed hardly distraught at the notion they might never reach an agreement with Bootcheck, who was 8-1 with a 3.60 earned-run average in his junior season and then became the 20th pick overall.

“If we don’t sign Bootcheck, it’s not going to hurt our recruiting,” General Manager Bill Stoneman said Tuesday afternoon. “We would get a sandwich pick in what is reputedly a great draft next year and we have other areas we could allocate the resources we have earmarked for him.”

In that case, the Angels would be awarded a draft pick between the first and second rounds in next June’s draft and probably use the financial windfall on free agents on the international market.