*** Official 2018 Royals Repository ***

[duncan_idaho]

The season is upon us, even if spring is not.

2018 MLB Draft Picks
#18
#33 - Compensation (Eric Hosmer)
#34 - Compensation (Lorenzo Cain)
#40 (Competitive Balance Round A)

018 Draft Names to Watch

RHP Kumar Rocker, N Oconnee HS, Georgia.

Spoiler!

Possibly goes top 10 but is a big, physical SP with ace potential. Moore and co. will be all over him if he slips a bit and could offer top 10 money at No. 16

OF Jarred Kelenic, Waukasha West HS, WI

Spoiler!

Kelenic is the top prep bat, toolsy OF. Royals would be ecstatic to have shot at him.

1B Triston Casas, American Heritage HS (FL).

Spoiler!

Tremendous raw power, best in HS bats. Royals typically like HS arms or HS bats with "special" tools. He qualifies.

RHP Carter Stewart, Eau de Gallie HS (Ga).

Spoiler!

Another big, physical specimen with huge upside. More likely to be available mid-first than Rocker.

ANY Any, Any (Any). Any current top projected pick who slides for injury concerns. Includes current top prospect prospect SP Brady Singer, U of Florida.

Current Prospects to Watch:

OF Seuly Matias - Huge tools. Hit 2 HR in Lexington (A) season opener.

1B Nick Pratto - Top pick in 17 has advanced approach and good glove; needs to start tapping into power in first full year in minors. Also at Lexington.

OF Michael Gigliotti - Good defender in CF, good OBP skills, plus baserunner. Next mainstay in CF for KC, IMO. Advanced college bat also starting at Lexington.

OF Khalil Lee - Probably has highest upside in Royals' system. Could hit 30 HR in majors, could steal 30 bases. Plus defensive ability in RF. Nice test at Wilmington this year.

3B Emmanuel Rivera - Really nice approach and good contact skills. Power is still developing. Also getting a good test at Wilmington.

SP Foster Griffin - Made nice strides in 2017. Needs to continue to progress in 2018. Could be a lefty version of Jakob Junis (good breaking ball that he can really manipulate, OK fastball, good command).

1B Samir Duenez - Duenez still is intriguing, hoping for a step forward in his power production this year at Northwest Arkansas, which would turn him into a legit prospect.

Others to keep an eye on:
SP Gerson Garabito (Wilmington), OF Marten Gasparini (Lexington), C MJ Melendez (Lexington), RP Tyler Zuber (lexington), RP Richard Lovelady (Omaha), SP Dan Tillo (Lexington), SS Nicky Lopez (NWA), SP Scott Blewett (NWA), OF Brewer Hicklen (Idaho Falls),

In general, Lexington and Wilmington are the most interesting spots to watch. Nice depth and a lot of interesting pieces at both.

[Al Bundy]

Spoke to the advisor to one of the Royals (soon to be) unsigned draft picks. Says they worked all night on a deal, but Brady Singer's $900K overslot "absolutely killed" them and couldn't make the numbers work. Would imagine that's the case for the other unsigned guys too.

— Shaun Newkirk (@Shauncore) July 6, 2018

[Valiant]

I don't know enough of how that works.
I assume if we can't sign he goes back into the draft next year and we get a comp pick?

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Al Bundy

Spoke to the advisor to one of the Royals (soon to be) unsigned draft picks. Says they worked all night on a deal, but Brady Singer's $900K overslot "absolutely killed" them and couldn't make the numbers work. Would imagine that's the case for the other unsigned guys too.

— Shaun Newkirk (@Shauncore) July 6, 2018

Assume that is Milan Walla or Ty Madden. Too bad.

College for them!

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Valiant

I don't know enough of how that works.
I assume if we can't sign he goes back into the draft next year and we get a comp pick?

HS guys go to college or juco. College guys go back to college.

They won’t get a comp pick - it just dissipates unless a first rounder.

[Mecca]

I do wonder how these guys turn out after Florida abused them.

[KChiefs1]

No Royals in the Futures Game?

[Prison Bitch]

Dude we just got 1 dude (lee) in the top 100 of BB America after a 2 year absence. #99 baby!


Good job Moore. Good job scouts

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

HS guys go to college or juco. College guys go back to college.

They won’t get a comp pick - it just dissipates unless a first rounder.

I'm not sure if that's a new rule but it didn't used to be the case.

When the Cardinals didn't get Trevor Megill signed at 104 in 2014 they were awarded the 105th overall pick in 2015 as compensation for losing him. They used that pick on Jordan Hicks.

It worked out okay...

My recollection is that it's the first three rounds and I believe they have to have declined a 'slot' offer. So teams can't lowball guys to pass a pick into the next season but if they take someone in the first 3 rounds, make them the slot offer and the player doesn't sign, they'll get a compensation pick the following season of approximately what they lost the season before.

EDIT: Looks like all the Royals top 10 players have signed so they didn't lose any slot but won't get any compensation for not getting anyone signed this year. As a draft eligible Sophomore, looks like Heasley has some runway still and could easily boost his stock past the $125K the Royals can offer him at this point. Of course any of the HS guys have an easy path forward as well.

[OmahaChief]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

No Royals in the Futures Game?

Seuly Matias is playing for the World team.

[WhawhaWhat]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Assume that is Milan Walla or Ty Madden. Too bad.

College for them!

and will be rivals. One is going to Oklahoma and the other to Texas.

[DJ's left nut]

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.

[DJ's left nut]

For the Mizzou fans, there's an interesting real time example.

Trey Dillard is a pretty exciting recruit coming to Columbia in the fall should he not sign. He was considered a top 3 round prospect but a little bit of a tough sign. The Dodgers have a pittance of a bonus pool ($5.3 million) but just lost damn near half of it by not getting JT Ginn signed. So their 'money' bonus overage is based on a pretty small figure; 4.99% of a mere $5.3 million. But when they lost the $2.275 allocated to Ginn, that amount got even smaller. now it's 4.99% of roughly $3 million.

So they had $150K in 'fun money' they could pay with no real penalties after the 10th round. They spent $25K on that by going over slot to get Julian Smith signed, so they're down to $125K. And the first $125K of any bonus after 10 doesn't count against those penalties so they could throw roughly $250K at Trey Dillard.

Meanwhile, had Ginn signed at slot that figure could've been nearer $375K. Mizzou's odds of getting their big shit prospect on campus now have to be seen as pretty good.

There are just a whole slew of moving parts in these drafts now so these GMs have to have guys littered throughout that are decent fallback plans. The Dodgers had one of those in Dillard but when Ginn didn't sign he tied their hands and then when they went way over slot to get Grove done (which was on odd pick when made and even stranger when signed), they effectively torpedoed any remaining flexibility they had.

The MLB draft is a fascinating look at strategy and if you want to see someone that's just murdered it over the years, your guy is Jeff Luhnow. He always seems to have a plan and executes it exceptionally well. Sure, the large pools have helped, but 2012 was a masterclass in using resources when he saved $2.4 million under slot by taking Correa instead of Buxton, then plowed that saved pool money into getting McCullers out of his FL commit.

In 2014 he refused to blink when a medical exam found something off in his #1 overall picks elbow. He offered something like 2/3 of slot value (the lowest he could offer to get a pick the following year) and Aiken balked. By losing the pick and the slot overage that would've come with it, Luhnow also lost Jacob Nix and he got blasted by the national media for it. But rather than knuckle under and pay too much for damaged goods, he took his comp pick the next season and used it on Alex Bregman.

He got BLASTED by the national media for that but it was smart and of course they came out well ahead for it.

Luhnow does the draft dance as well as anyone in the game.

[Discuss Thrower]

Really though, Luhnow's success is a lot more indicative of the sports media not being the authorities that they often purport to be.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

Really though, Luhnow's success is a lot more indicative of the sports media not being the authorities that they often purport to be.

Lil' bit, yeah.

If you piss in an agents cheerios, you can bet Jon Heyman will come along to blast you for it at some point even if it was obviously in the best interests of your franchise to do so.

That dude's such a mouthpiece. If you look closely you can actually see Scott Boras and Casey Close's lips moving anytime Jon Heyman speaks.

I mean, he's not a Bob Nightengale "**** it, I have column inches to fill so I'll make stuff up" kind of hack, but his angle is predictable as can be every single time he puts something up. He has his sources so he often has useful information, but he gets those sources by kissing loads of agent ass.

[Al Bundy]

Hammel looking great tonight.