Here you’ll find a list of our draftees, in the order in which they were drafted. You’ll find his info, and then links to any articles about him and his selection by the Phillies. Players in BOLD have signed. Bonus amounts listed when given.

01.19 – Joe Savery, LHP (Rice University) – 6′3, 215 lbs – 11/4/85. Article #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6,
01.37 – Travis D’Arnaud, C (Lakewood HS) – 6′2, 195 lbs – 2/10/89. Article #1, #2,
02.19 – Travis Mattair, 3B (Southridge HS) – 6′5, 210 lbs – 12/21/88. Article #1, #2, #3,
03.13 – Brandon Workman, RHP (Bowie HS) – 6′4, 195 lbs – 8/13/88.
03.19 – Matthew Spencer, LF (Arizona State) – 6′4, 225 lbs – 1/27/86.
04.19 – Tyler Mach, 2B (Oklahoma State) – 6′1, 195 lbs – 12/11/84. Article #1,
05.19 – Michael Taylor, RF (Stanford University) - 6′6, 250 lbs – 12/19/85. Article #1,
06.19 – Matthew Rizzotti, 1B (Manhattan College) – 6′5, 235 lbs – 12/24/85. Article #1
07.19 – Tyson Brummett, RHP (UCLA) – 6′2, 180 lbs – 8/15/84. Article #1, #2,
08.19 – Chance Chapman, RHP (Oral Roberts) – 6′4, 210 lbs – 2/27/84. Article #1
09.19 – Chris Kissock, RHP (Lewis and Clark State) - 6′4, 195 lbs – 5/2/85.
10.19 – Joseph Rocchio, RHP (Cal St Northridge) – 6′5, 200 lbs – 10/15/84.
11.19 – Justin DeFratus, RHP (Ventura College) - 6′4, 215 lbs – 10/21/87.
12.19 – Julian Sampson, RHP (Skyline HS) – 6′5, 210 lbs – 1/21/89.
13.19 – Luke Wertz, RHP (U Nebraska, Lincoln) - 6′0, 175 lbs – 9/20/85. Article #1
14.19 – Jesus Andino Villegas, SS (Porterville College) – 5′11, 175 lbs – 9/21/86. Article #1, #2, #3
15.19 – Karl Bolt, 1B (US Air Force Academy) – 6′3, 220 lbs – 8/16/85. Article #1, #2, #3
16.19 – Brian Schittler, RHP (College of Charleston) - 6′5, ?? – 12/21/85. Article #1, #2, #3
17.19 – Zach Sterner, RHP (Tennessee Wesleyan) – 6′1, 180 lbs – 11/7/85. Article #1, #2, #3
18.19 – Mark Adzik, LHP (William Penn Charter School) – 6′4, ?? – 4/23/88. Article #1, #2, #3
19.19 – Cedric Johnson, CF (Thatcher HS) – 6′2, 185 lbs – 1/10/89. Article #1, #2, #3
20.19 – Carlos Moncrief, RHP (Hillcrest Christian HS) – 6′1, 210 lbs – 11/3/88. Article #1, #2, #3
21.19 – Adam Sorgi, 2B (Stanford University) – 6′1, 180 lbs – 12/17/84. Article #1, #2, #3
22.19 – Nathaniel “Jiwan” James, RHP (Williston HS) – 6′4, 180 lbs – 4/11/89. Article #1, #2, #3
23.19 – Gerard Breslin, RHP (La Salle U) – 6′2, 205 lbs – 7/24/84. Article #1, #2, #3
24.19 – Caleb Magnum, C (North Carolina State) – 5′11, 185 lbs – 1/3/85. Article #1, #2, #3
25.19 – William Harris, LHP (Deleware) – 6′1, 200 lbs – 1/19/85. Article #1, #2, #3
26.19 – Nolan Mulligan, RHP (Lynn University) – 6′5, 190 lbs – 1/30/85. Article #1, #2, #3
27.19 – Richard Austin, RHP (Seton Hill U) – 6′3, 210 lbs – 1/16/85. Article #1, #2, #3
28.19 – Chris Rhoads, RHP (U of Arkansas, Fayetteville) – 6′1, 160 lbs – 8/12/85. Article #1, #2
29.19 – Derek Hall, C (El Dorado HS) – 6′2, 195 lbs – 3/23/89. Article #1, #2, #3
30.19 – Jacob Diekman, LHP (Cloud County CC) - 6′4, ?? – 1/21/87. Article #1, #2, #3
31.19 – Jeff Richard, RHP (Central Michigan U) – 6′5, 245 lbs – 8/27/86. Article #1, #2, #3
32.19 – Kirk Bacsu, C (U of Evansville) – 5′10, 180 lbs – 5/16/85. Article #1,
33.19 – Richard Prall, C (La Salle U) – 6′0, 210 lbs – 1/29/85. Article #1, #2, #3
34.19 – Brett Hambright, C (Temescal Canyon HS) – 6′1, 215 lbs – 11/29/88. Article #1, #2, #3
35.19 – Zach Cleveland, RHP (Golden HS) – 6′1, 165 lbs – 3/5/89. Article #1, #2, #3
36.19 – Kyle Benoit, RHP (Cardinal Leger SS) – 5′11, 200 lbs – 2/9/89. Article #1, #2, #3
37.19 – Kyle Slate, RHP (Christian Brothers Academy) – 6′5, 200 lbs – 4/23/89. Article #1, #2, #3
38.19 – Joe Paylor, CF (Hillcrest HS) – 5′10, 160 lbs – 1/17/89. Article #1, #2, #3
39.19 – Michael Branham, RHP (U Florida) – 6′3, 210 lbs – 6/24/86. Article #1, #2, #3
40.19 – John Hinson, SS (AC Reynolds HS) – 6′1, 195 lbs – 9/13/88. Article #1, #2, #3
41.19 – Tyler Gilder, RHP (Butte HS) – 6′6, 200 lbs – 4/17/89. Article #1, #2, #3
42.19 – James Mahler, RHP (Jordan HS) – 6′5, 230 lbs – 9/2/88. Article #1, #2, #3
43.19 – Cory Vaughn, RF (Jesuit HS) – 6′3, 215 lbs – 5/1/89. Article #1, #2, #3
44.19 – Brandon Bonner, RHP (Lakewood HS) – 6′5, 220 lbs – 3/16/89. Article #1, #2, #3
45.19 – Michael Morrison, 1B (Bishop Luers HS) – 6′1, 220 lbs – 3/17/88. Article #1, #2, #3
46.19 – Damian Seguen, RHP (North Bergen HS) – 6′2, 220 lbs – 4/25/89. Article #1, #2, #3
47.19 – Jeremiah Manning, RF (Bartow HS) – 6′4, 220 lbs – 10/2/88. Article #1, #2, #3
48.19 – Cody Winiarski, RHP (Union Grove HS) – 6′3, 190 lbs – 8/27/89. Article #1, #2, #3
49.19 – Navarro Hall, CF (Kennesaw Mountain HS) – 5′11, 170 lbs – 1/1/89. Article #1, #2, #3
50.19 – Jeremy Penn, RHP (All Saints Cathedral School) – 6′3, 160 lbs – 12/15/89. Article #1, #2, #3

Reader/commenter SteveB did the math I was planning to do (thanks again) and showed the bonus amounts for teams in the first 10 rounds. The key here is to subtract the first pick in the draft for each team, since the teams at the top are going to be forking over huge bonus amounts for the top 5 picks. If you remove everyone’s top pick, you get to see what the teams did where it takes more creativity. Here are the top 5, then the Phillies, then the bottom 5, in terms of bonus dollars spent on picks in rounds 1b-10

1. Washington: $5.469M
2. San Diego: $4.503M
3. New York Yankees: $4.082M
4. Detroit: $3.725M
5. Toronto: $3.523M

17. Philadelphia: $1.939M

26. Chicago White Sox: $1.244M
27. Milwaukee: $1.177M
28. Minnesota: $1.087M
29. Cleveland: $696K
30. Houston: $536K

This, to me, is kind of disturbing for a number of reasons. First, we have a major league payroll of $95M, we’re not a small market team who doesn’t have funds to be able to afford to draft premium talent. I’m not saying we have to spend 7M on Rick Porcello, or sign 5 bonus babies and give them $1M each, but come on. Brummett may turn into a nice #4 starter, but we took a college senior in the 7th round and gave him $25,000 to sign, tied for the lowest bonus given in the round. The Red Sox took a guy named David Mailman, a promising prep 1B prospect and signed him for $500,000. I’m not saying we need to sign that guy, but were there no better players available in that range? The second disturbing thing about these figures is the team at the top. Washington has the weakest major league roster in baseball, based on pure talent, and the weakest farm system in baseball, top to bottom, but they had an infinitely better draft than we did this year. They got a solid pitcher up top, but signed another promising arm in Josh Smoker (a guy I lobbied for at 19) and signed Jack McGeary away from Stanford, kind of. The Nationals realize that building through free agency is a lot more costly than building through the draft, and they spent the money. It should also be noted that the Nationals are slowly establishing themselves in Latin America as well, another area where the Phillies are a bit behind the curve. That’s bad news for the Phillies, because it means an already tough division is going to get tougher. The Marlins are the only team in the division that spent less than the Phillies, checking in at $1.428M. The Mets spent $3.328M in their first 10 picks and didn’t even have a first round pick, and they are one of the biggest spenders in baseball in Latin America.

Now, the positives. We did sign Julian Sampson, and to me, this is the only saving grace, at this point. Sampson is the exact type of guy they should be targeting in the draft, but they should be taking and signing 5 guys like him every year. Not every prospect is going to pan out, in fact, most of them don’t pan out at all, which is why you need strength in numbers. A guy like Chris Kissock or Chance Chapman, at best, has the ceiling of a #4 starter or 7th inning reliever. You know that when you draft them, you understand the upside. Now, they could really flip the switch, learn a new pitch, or make an adjustment which greatly increases their command, and you might be able to upgrade them to a #3 starter or a setup/closer type reliever, but still, the ceiling is limited. A guy like Sampson has much more potential based on where he is now and where he can go. Those are the guys you need to fill your system with. The Jiwan James signing is nice, Cedric Johnson is a good effort, though he seems like a huge question mark going forward, it’s nice to have more high ceiling athletes in the system.

In the last few days, we’ve seen the comments here like “it’s too early to know how the draft will work out”, and that’s certainly true. Chris Kissock could turn into the next Rollie Fingers, Tyson Brummett could turn into the next Brad Radke, and Matt Spencer could turn into the next Lance Berkman, but the odds of those things happening are very remote. You can look at a player’s skill set, look at his track record, and have a general idea of what to expect. You won’t know for 2-3 years what a player is likely to become, and in many cases, you won’t even know at that point. But you can look at who was picked where, what else was available, and what other teams did and evaluate the decisions made at the time. Baseball is unpredictable, so you don’t know what will happen, but you can give first impressions, and that’s really all this is about.

The bottom line is, the Phillies are still drafting like a small market team, while taking one or two chances to see if they can catch lightning in a bottle. The goal should be to be as aggressive as possible in the first 10 rounds, fill your system with as much high end talent as possible, and hope to win the numbers game and get a few upper echelon prospects out of each draft. Unfortunately, looking at this year’s draft, I don’t see that as being the Phillies strategy, and it’s kind of disappointing. Time will tell.

* The Phillies signed Jiwan James to an above slot deal ($150,000)

* The Phillies signed Jacob Diekman to an above slot deal (unknown)

* The Phillies signed Kyle Slate and Cedric Johnson, two prep prospects. Slate was given an $80,000 dollar bonus, plus $80,000 towards a college education should he later pursue that. For comparison’s sake, Tyler Mach got $95,000 in an under slot deal in the 4th round, while Tyson Brummett got $25,000 as a 7th round pick. No bonus amount has been published that I’ve seen on Johnson.

* The Phillies did not sign Brandon Workman, and will receive a compensation pick between the 3rd and 4th round of next year’s draft.

So, how’d they do? I’m planning a more in depth piece looking at the other NL East teams and how they did in the draft, as well as comparing the Phillies to a few other teams on both ends of the spectrum. But, weigh in, share your thoughts on this draft. Just remember to be civil.

There were two above-slot signings of late-round picks. The Phillies landed Washington high school righthander Julian Sampson (12th round) for $390,000, while the Rangers locked up California prep righty Kyle Ocampo (13th round) for $250,000.

MLB wants picks after the fifth round to receive no more than the last slotted bonus in the fifth round, which was $123,300 this year.

So far, so good. If it was only going to be one of either Sampson or Workman, I wanted Sampson, so this is a good start.

That’s the big question we face, with the signing deadline tomorrow. It’s nothing new at this point, our two best unsigned prospects are Brandon Workman and Julian Sampson, both RHP. Workman is a 3rd round pick, and if he doesn’t sign, the Phillies receive a compensation pick in next year’s draft, which I believe will come between the 3rd and 4th rounds. If Sampson does not sign, the Phillies receive nothing but a thank you note from the Commish. If you’ve been following my blog and my writings, you know where I stand on this. As a front office, you have two decisions; you either play by the unofficial rules, or you do what you want. The Commissioners Office makes recommendations on slot bonuses, but if you follow the proper path, you can sign a player for whatever you want. A lot of teams do not go against the wishes of the Commissioner, but some teams do, and the most notable team of late is the Detroit Tigers.

As you all know, the Tigers broke slot to sign Cameron Maybin in 2005, and they did it again with Andrew Miller last year. Miller was the consensus #1 overall pick, but dropped to Detroit because of bonus demands. The Tigers snapped him up, paid him his money, and he’s already contributed at the big league level. This year, Rick Porcello was the consensus #2 pick behind David Price, and he tumbled down the board because of bonus demands in the Josh Beckett neighborhood. Well, he got to Detroit, and again they took the chance, and it now appears they are going to sign him for somewhere around $7.7 million dollars, a sum which a lot of teams probably won’t spend on their entire draft. Is it any surprise that Detroit lost 119 games in 2003 and then won a pennant in 2006? If you don’t spend money on young talent, you won’t improve. Look at teams that have taken the cheap route the last few seasons, and notice they are always picking in the same spot in the draft because they don’t understand how to improve their team.

Look, I’m not saying that you should give every kid out there a million dollars to sign, that’s not realistic. Brandon Workman and Julian Sampson may very well never make it out of A ball, they might both blow out their arms. But, one of them might be the next Kyle Kendrick, or the next Joba Chamberlain, or Brett Myers. Who knows. With prospects, you seriously don’t know. But ask yourself this, isn’t it troubling that the team is willing to overpay a guy like Rod Barajas, but they aren’t prepared to roll the dice on a young prep arm that could be a difference maker in 4 years? Barajas cost the Phillies $3M this season, and for $3 million dollars, they could have taken 4 quality high school arms in rounds 4-7, signed all of them to above slot deals, and hoped one of them panned out. If even 1 of those 4 guys turns into an elite pitching prospect, you’re already getting more value than you are for signing Rod Barajas, a guy who hasn’t contributed much at all, and a guy who was surplus goods considering you already had Carlos Ruiz and Chris Coste. Some people contend that a draft budget isn’t related to the major league budget, but I think that thinking is unfounded and untrue, especially within this organization.

The Phillies have always played nice with the Commissioners Office, and that’s not surprising, considering the role of Bill Giles in the organization. But it’s time for the Phillies to realize that they have to spend money here to compete, especially when they aren’t willing to raise payroll above their self imposed $95M salary cap.

Here is a look at the bonuses confirmed for 3rd round picks, to date. The numbers were even lower than the $500,000 that I was thinking about yesterday.

3.1 Nick Barnese, RHP (High School) – $366,000
3.10 Scott Carroll, LHP (College) – $310,000
3.12 Jameson Smith, C (Comm College) – $310,000
3.14 Brandon Hicks, SS (College) – $283,500

Workman, of course, is 3.13 and is unsigned. It’s clear he won’t get slot, but what does he realistically want to sign? Here are some of the confirmed signings in the second round

2.1 Will Kline, RHP (College) – $513,000
2.12 Mike Stanton, 1B (College) – $475,000

None of the announced deals in the 2nd round are over slot by anything more than a few thousand dollars. If he’s asking for more than $500,000, then he’s basically asking for supplemental first round money. That seems optimistic to me, considering he wasn’t really a first round talent, more of a fringe guy in the 2nd or 3rd round. If this is the case, you can understand the Phillies being reluctant, but if he wants $500,000, and the slot for his spot is $310,000, is the extra $200,000 worth losing him to Texas? Sampson, on the other side of the coin, was rumored to want 3rd round money, and looking at the list above, you can see what 3rd round money is.

If I had to pick one, I’d rather have Sampson, because he is more refined than Workman and has a bit more polish. Also, if we do sign Sampson and not Workman, we get the above mentioned compensation pick. My gut feeling? We won’t sign either guy, and the Phillies will spin it as them trying their hardest, but not being able to come to terms. The reality will be, the Commissioner leaned heavy on the Phillies to not buck the trend, and the Phillies will listen. They’ve signed two guys to above slot deals in Jiwan James and Jacob Diekman, but they saved cash on Tyler Mach, and the two above slot deals were not huge deals in the neighborhood of what Workman is looking for. If the Phillies want to prove to the fans that follow this stuff that they are for real, they’ll sign both. If they want to make a step in the right direction, they’ll sign Sampson. If they again show that they just don’t get it, they’ll sign no one and give the status quo response. I guess we’ll see soon enough.