Quote:
Originally Posted by Mecca
Basically instead of paying Porcello the Royals go with the approach of paying 5 guys instead.
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Its not just as simple as that. The Royals are grabbing guys who should have been drafted in the first round, but teams were scared off because they were asking more than what MLB recommends for the slot. One pick the Royals literally paid more than 10 times the recommended bonus.
They are definitely "overpaying" to get talent in the draft, but "overpaying" here means only another $10MM or so for a bunch of top kids, vs a crapton per player in free agency. That may not last beyond the 2011 draft, the owners seem to be very serious in asking for an NBA-style hard slotting system in the 2012 CBA. Ironically, a change which would cap spending would hurt the Royals in this case.