2012 MLB Draft: LHP Andrew Heaney, Oklahoma State (via PerfectGameBaseball)
With the draft deadline passing yesterday there were a few shockers, with Mark Appel not signing and Andrew Heaney actually signing after everyone thought he was going back to school. A few interesting tidbits..
If every player in the top 10 would have signed and each team would have spent the extra 5% allowed, $15,344,185 more could have been spent. This does include what was slated for Appel and the rest that did not sign, but that is a very large number.
In total $184,054,490 was spent in pool, according to BA.
$1,532,992 in taxes will be paid for those going over their bonus pools. No teams will receive penalties beyond tax. The Blue Jays were the most aggressive coming within $340 of losing a draft pick exceeding their draft pool by 4.996%. I love that aggressiveness.
Quite a few teams had very good draft plans. We don't know how it will turn out in 5 years but right now the Nats, Padres, Cubs and Royals did very well. The Astros used their position extremely well and the Blue Jays executed their plan very well. It's fun to see how each team did after the dust settled.
Here are a few thoughts on the lowest spending 10 teams:
The Yankees were under their allotment by nearly 10%. Vince Jackson and Ty Moore were both worthy of $500k offers and they could have spent up to $715,000 on one of them or $815,000 if they would have split that. I think they wasted an opportunity here by not signing one or both.
The Twins were left with the second largest total under their allotment but when adding in the 5% that a team could overspend, they left over a million dollars on the table. That number would be close to $900k without the Mazilli signing but 100k is not counted for the players taken after the 10th. Erich Knab and James Marvel would have been good targets to offer that extra money to. The Twins could have drafted and signed a million dollar talent and chose not to. This is a failure in my eyes. They were put in a position to make an impact and did not use any strategy. They took a pile of college arms in a weak year for college arms. I am disappointed. Sorry for the rant, it frustrates me listening to Twins management on the radio about their thoughts, then seeing a plan poorly administered.
The Rockies had plenty of cash left over but the only player that I see left on the board was Dansby Swanson and he may not have been willing to sign for 600K. He's heading to Vanderbilt.
The Phillies decided not to sign Alec Rash after his velocity fell off. They will receive a compensation pick for him but overall, that was a miss. They could have offered Kyle Cody or Daniel Starwalt $538,000 to sign them from Kentucky and Stanford respectively. I'm not sure either would have taken it though but that would have eased the loss of a 2nd rounder. The comp pick will likely be a mid 3rd rounder next eyar with fewer comp picks.
The Indians signed the tough signs in the top 10 rounds. I wasn't sure they would get D'Vone McClure but they did. They got Nelson Rodriguez, that is a plus. Cory Raley, Andrew Calica and Justin Garza could have received some of the $400K+ they had left over. I hadn't heard any were real tough signs.
The Mets left $500k plus on the table, even after excluding the non- sign of Stankiewicz. They could have thrown $608k at Austin Barr, Mikey White or David Gonzalez. Barr could surprise at Stanford.
Outside of not signing Kyle Twomey, the A's didn't have any later round guys that they could have targeted with their extra money. They could have offered him $994,000 without losing a pick to sign him.
Holden Helmink and Max Schrock was the only players that would have been worth the extra $300K that the Tigers had left over.
I'm not going to say anything poorly about the Pirates draft. They got a few guys I liked and didn't overpay Appel. I'll talk about the good more later but not doing something dumb is so much better than doing something stupid when backed against a wall. I commend the Pirates.
I liked the Reds draft. They got a couple late round guys that I like and didn't leave any big guys out there. I like Adam Matthews and Kyle Wren but neither were worth a big pay day.
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