NEWSLETTER
As noted in this morning’s Bullets, the Yankees have signed Raul Ibanez, thus setting the 2012 MLB Draft order (assuming Derrek Lee isn’t going to get a big league contract, which, at this point, he’s not).
Wasting no time, Baseball America’s Jim Callis went to work finalizing the bonus pool allotments that each team will get for the Draft (recall, starting in 2012, each team will have a pool of money that they can spend on the first 10 rounds of the draft (teams get $100K with which to work for each pick after the 10th round, but if you go over $100K for one of those picks, it counts against your pool), and, if you go over the pool, the penalties can include a massive tax and lost future draft picks).
The Cubs’ pool, according to Callis, is $7,933,900 – the 8th largest pool. The Cubs pick 6th, but a couple teams behind them have more picks at the top of the Draft than the Cubs, thus, they slot in at 8th in funds to spend. The Astros and Cardinals, for what it’s worth, come in at numbers two and four, respectively, with $11,177,700 and $9,131,100 to spend.
Teams can go over by as much as 5% without losing a future draft pick (instead, they pay a 75% tax on the amount of the overage), so the Cubs could spend as much as $8,330,595 (by paying an addition 75% on that extra $400K).
The Cubs spent $6.555 million in the top 10 rounds last year, so everything is gravy, right? Well, not exactly. For one thing, the Cubs failed to sign their 8th round pick, Taylor Dugas, so their bonus pool would have been reduced by his slot amount. Secondly, and more importantly, the Cubs overspent big-time on picks after the 10th round, signing at least six kids to overslot deals in rounds 11 through 50, including big money for Dillon Maples ($2.5 million) and Shawon Dunston, Jr. ($1.275 million). Those would have counted against the pool were today’s rules in effect back then.
In other words, replicating last year’s draft will probably not be quite possible. Then again, the Cubs have far more high picks than they did last year, so the overall haul of talent could be comparable. The Cubs will have four of the top 65 picks (numbers 6, 43, 56, and 65) in 2012.
