They came down hard on the Red Sox and especially the Braves for making deals that violated the bonus pool rules, and banned the entire country of Mexico from signing because players were getting more than they were supposed to, so they do police whether or not bonus pool rules are followed, just not when they signed them.
I just saw the MacTaggart article was updated with some bonus amounts. In addition to Lorenzo ($1.8M) and Morales ($275k), we have numbers for these guys: C Juan Santander $700k C Fernando Caldera $350k OF Everett Cooper $325k OF Richi Gonzalez $310k Lorenzo should slot into the 15-20 range of the org’s prospect rankings. Santander should fit in the 30-40 range. Caldera, Cooper, Gonzalez, and Morales get on the radar but are non prospects until they show something stateside. Overall an average haul, I’m sure they have some money left, but probably not a ton, as the known bonuses total ~$3.8M, with another 7 guys whose bonuses aren’t known; their pool was $5.4M.
Also interesting they only signed 2 pitchers. Word is most teams are holding money back and evaluating pitching later in the cycle. So my expectation is that Houston has $500k-$1M of their pool left and will use that to sign a handful of pitchers they uncover over the next 10 months.
Danyuri Guzman is listed as a pitcher on his player page. But I think hunting for late blooming pitchers has been the Astros MO for some time now.
Spoiler - 20-round draft - owners want to implement it ASAP - specifics subject to change - picks are tradeable - every pick has a hard slot value; if the slot value for a particular pick is $500,000, the player signs for that amount - picks in first three rounds are protected - undrafted players can sign for up to $25,000 - would probably be held in August - instead of going by record like the domestic draft, the draft order would be determined by division; example cited would be the NL East teams getting the top five picks one year and then another division would get the top five picks the next year - there's now a greater divide between trainers and international scouts on whether to have a draft, mainly as a way to deter 13/14-year-old kids from committing to teams before they can officially sign contracts
There should be only 1 amateur draft. All players wanting to play mlb should be required to enter through that draft unless they are 27+ years old. I’m ok with hard slot values. Not sure about trading picks, maybe allow picks after the 1st round to be traded. If I were czar: -1 draft, 50 rounds -rounds 1-3 protected (unsigned player results in comp pick next year) -Hard slots for rounds 1-25 -Bonus pool based on revenue for rounds 26-50 (no slot values) -All players must enter the league thru the draft unless they are 27 years old on Opening day for the first year in which they want to play -1st round picks and round 26-50 picks may not be traded until 1 calendar year from their draft day -2-25 round picks may be traded at any time -Undrafted players may sign for up to $200k
Just get rid of the draft. Give teams a bonus pool you can tweak based on record/market size/whatever else you want, and then let them sign whoever they want. Why shouldn't players get to choose the team they play for?
Because then the worst teams and teams in small markets would never be able to get good players. The league would have no parity. Players do have some say in where they go. They can refuse to sign with teams they don’t like or have different bonus demands for each team. Nix is an example of that this year and it’s something we may see more of as time goes on.
If bonus pools are based on record with a small adjustment for market, only way bigger markets, best teams get the best players is if the best players decide to take less.
Right, this seems like a pretty easy fix. Maybe it'll help teams in talent rich areas a little bit more than others if players give slight hometown discounts, but you avoid all these under/overslot shenanigans, as well as issues arising with players not signing when drafted. Teams will also have more incentive to treat minor leaguers better, which is a benefit in my eyes.
Big issue would still be shenanigans for international players. Also, the tough part would be monitoring to make sure teams and third parties aren't paying players outside the allotted bonus pools. Interesting that this freshman baseball prodigy's mom got this huge salary in downtown Arlington well over her previous salaries. Shoe/other endorsement companies may give amateurs two contract offers...a NY offer and a Milwaukee offer.
Agreed. A draft with fair slot values as far down as they can manage it to go would be best towards combating all the dark money that gets tossed around in international markets and washed/laundered by these “agents” or liaisons in each country. A draft with a finite bonus pool per team is a compromise but still better than the current system of signing periods with cap numbers per team that are pretty much meaningless at this point.
The Astros are in the process of extending more assets and man power toward the international scouting part of the organization. They intend to start getting a lot of their prospects from that facet of the organization. They made moves this winter accordingly. I will be curious to see how successful they are.
Necrobumping this thread. As this period nears its end, based on the amounts tallied in this thread, Houston should have a significant amount of money left in their pool (my rough guess is about $1M). Has anyone heard of any meaningful prospects expected to sign before the new period begins on 7/2/20?