2018 was the 8th year for my Shadow Giants organization. It was a very different experience drafting at the top of each round and having a larger than usual bonus pool.

We all know "best player available" is the way to go 99/100 in the MLB draft, but I also intended on taking less of a risk early. My plan was to target a top tier college performer (Mize, Madrigal, Bart, India, Bohm, Swaggerty) and then take my best player available regardless of risk profile in the 2nd round (45th overall). Because this draft was flush with high school arms I went in expecting to go in that direction, though I made sure I wasn't locked into any particular player profile. I planned on doing the new CBA thing where I'd draft a couple college seniors in the top 10 in an attempt to grab a tough signability player later than expected (round 11 especially). In the late rounds I wanted to focus on power armed pitchers, solid defensive catchers, and infielders (not 1b). The outfield in my shadow system is crowded so I felt I could afford to wait a bit and focus on finding some gems elsewhere. Here is what I ended up with (bolded players reported as signed):

My total bonus pool with the 5% penalty is $12,334,875. So far I've spent $6,305,000 which gives me a little over $6,000,000 to play around with. Madrigal's slot amount at #4 overall is over that so making this all work plus two college seniors seems unlikely.

Probably won't be able to make this draft work financially. My plan as of now is to switch out Jake Wong for New Mexico State's Kyle Bradish. That would create a savings of roughly $400,000. If that is not enough I will switch out Kelvin Smith, Saul Gonzalez, or Jason Bilous (in that order) until the money works.

I feel like I did a pretty good job of sticking to my overall plan. Got my strong profile, low variance cornerpiece in the 1st, went riskier in the 2nd round, saved money early to get some well over slot guys (Siani, Northcut, Alexander), drafted an assortment of power arms, didn't take an outfield late until the 22nd round, and I got a couple catchers that profile well defensively behind the dish.

Was able to draft five players (Madrigal, White, Wong/Bradish, Siani, Riley) that I ranked in my top 100 and another three (Northcut, Alexander, Carranza) that were juuuuuuust a bit outside my top 100.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I'll include some notes on my selections as well as other players I was strongly considering. Thanks for reading!