Quote:
Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat
and will be rivals. One is going to Oklahoma and the other to Texas.
|
Best way to look at that is that if you get all of your picks signed (through 42 or whatever) you've probably screwed up.
My position is always that somewhere in the 30s/40s you should grab 1 or 2 of the tough signs that way if you get through your first 10 for cheaper than you realized and a guy you took in the teens won't sign for less than 1st round money, you have some fallback options to use that 'buffer' overage that comes with only monetary penalties rather than a draft pick one. If you don't use that overage, you've effectively wasted a chance to add a guy with top 5 round value.
Dave Stewart managed to not even spend to his regular bonus pool a time or two and that was one of the things that got him fired. With the new slotting/bonus pool system, you have to have a couple of fallback plans that aren't just 'draft some college SRs and give them more than their leverage says they should get'.
Most of the time some top 100 pick gets drafted in the 33rd round, the team that takes him had no real intention of getting him signed. It was mostly done as an emergency measure should they be unable to come to terms with someone in the teens that doesn't cost them a draft pool penalty but then leaves them with more bonus pool money that they now can't find a good way to spend. If you took a tough sign in the 30s, now you can reallocate that money to that guy and maybe you change his mind. So few of those picks end up mattering anyway that I see no problems with taking 2 or 3 of them just to have in your back pocket if the rest of the signings don't go to script and you have money to burn.
I suspect the Royals knew that if they got Singer signed, they wouldn't be able to get all the rest. Those guys were there in case they needed a fallback for that $900K overage or in the event that Singer blinked and decided that going back to school as a SR could gut his negotiating leverage next season.
Truth be told, I'm surprised it took him that much to sign. That's a hell of a gamble on his part.