2014 Draft Pool Complete

2014 Draft

Jon Mayo reported today that 3rd Round Pick Aaron Brown has signed for a good bit over slot, $750,000. This completes the Bonus Pool for the first ten rounds, and gives us a pretty good idea what The Phillies have to spend on the rest of their picks. I’ve updated the Draft Tracker, and you can take a quick look at what we know below if you haven’t been following closely. There’s more analysis after the jump…and click the graphic to make it, you know, readable.

Draft Tracker 2014

The long and short of it is this – The Phils have a total of $111,400 to spend over the $100k they’re allotted for any pick after Round 10. So they could give someone $211,400, and be limited to $100,000 each for any or all of the rest of the picks.

Beyond that, you can go up to 5% over the bonus pool of $6,896,700 if you’re willing to pay a 75% kicker on every dollar you spend. The 5% number is $344,835, which when added to the $111k+ makes $456,235, which they can split up as a sweetener to any or (theoretically) all of the picks from rounds 11-40. Might one of their late round fliers take a couple hundred grand to sign? Perhaps.

I know what you’re thinking…Paying Extra? The Phillies? NEVER!!! Well, if you missed 2013, you may be surprised to know that the Phillies did pay around $55k in tax last year to sign Denton Keys and Tyler Viza from the mid-late rounds at bonuses in excess of $100k. Though the slots for not signing 5th and 6th rounders was backed out of their Bonus Pool, the club must have had those 5th and 6th round bonuses factored into their internal budget before the draft, and so would have had some funds available to soften the blow of paying a tax. Whether they would do so again in this draft with no such budget surplus remains to be seen.

A note on Austin Davis (rd. 12) – I’m calling him signed based on an abundance of circumstantial tweets from the player, but no one in the main stream has confirmed this yet. He may be a guy who gets a little bit of a sweetener above $100k to sign, and they may have needed to wait for Brown to finish his deal before knowing what they had available to close on Davis. I have also called Scott Harris (27) and Scott Tomassetti (34) listed as signed by the same standards I used for Davis. Any of those deals could still fall apart, I suppose, but it seems pretty good. (update – Davis and Scott Harris are on the Phillies main transactions page, though not on the draft list page…ok, whatever)

Assuming Davis is good to go, and Nathan Thornhill signs (13, a likely $100k or under senior who is not eligible to sign until Texas is done at the College World Series), Ryan Powers (22) appears to be the earliest non-sign for the club. That would be a positive turn after the last couple years that saw them miss on two top Ten Round guys in 2011, Alec Rash (2) in 2012, and (infamously) both Ben Wetzler (5) and Jason Monda (6), plus picks from rounds 12 & 13 in 2013.

 

35 thoughts on “2014 Draft Pool Complete”

    1. That must have happened very recently. Thanks, Jim!

      Also, I missed Scott Harris and I was not using the transactions page but rather their draft page. That’s funny that the two aren’t tied to one another. They need someone to program that.

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      1. I wouldn’t be surprised if they used a decent portion of the 110K they saved in the top 10, on signing Austin Davis. He was a redshirt sophomore. He could have gone back to school. I would be surprised if he signed for just 100K.

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  5. I really don’t want them to sign thornhill, he will be 23 in September, and cant break a egg, what is the upside, offer the money to a hs kid and hope he gets better.

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    1. What are you talking about? He’s a senior. He probably got $5,000 dollars. Everybody signed under 100K, is irrelevant to the bonus pool.

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    2. He only costs you a couple thousand, he holds down a rotation spot for a bit, maybe transitions to the bullpen and you see if the stuff ticks up enough he cna the guy we thought Kyle Simon would be

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    1. KLaw was asked about him in his chat yesterday. Responded he thought his upside was as of a 4th OF.

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  8. Does anyone know what is going on with Nola and Imhof. I assume they are down in Clearwater working out, but not sure? Are we taking our time to assign and get them. started because of innings limits? Oliver?

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    2. Read somewhere that Nola pitched in a simulated game in clearwater with some of the rehabbing guys. I’m thinking the Phillies are trying to limit his innings for the remainder of the season

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  9. As easy as it has been to criticize the Phil’s front office over the past couple of years……. They do get a shout out of approval this time for signing all their top 10 picks and all but one of their 11-20 picks

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    1. Remember that they chose all jr and sr until the late 20’s. Of course they signed them all. Now can they actually negotiate a difficult contract without overpaying. Lets see if these HS and jc players get signed.

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      1. Why is that an of course statement? We were told multiple times by posters, beat writers, national writers – that the Phillies wouldn’t be able to sign college guys due to the Wetzler incident.

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        1. Apparently. all the negative the ballyhoo about the Wetzler incident has blown over.
          Actually among GMs and owners, Ruben and the Phillies were admired for what was perceived they did.

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          1. Not for Wetzler it didn’t. He went 5 rounds later this year. Apparently reneging on a pre-draft deal isn’t looked upon favorably by other clubs.

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        2. That was a silly comment at the time and virtually everyone on here said so. It may have cost them some on-campus time, but guys tend to make their signing decisions on things that effect them, like money and opportunity, not on the experience of some guy named Wetzler in an incident they know they cannot fully understand. Signing college kids shouldn’t be a big strain. It’s not that this year was such a cause for humongous kudos as last year being a real mess-up. They do get kudos from me for signing a projectable HS pitcher at slot in round 8. In years past, we didn’t sign all of our top 20 or top 10 mainly because some very difficult to sign HS kids were included in those rounds, as well as some quite profound mess-ups like J. D. Drew and Wetzler. In years past, it didn’t matter as much if you failed to sign one of your top 10, as your budget wasn’t affected.

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    1. Yup, I saw that – I’m adding it to the regular draft tracker, so you can find it and any other news there. Follow the link above.

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    1. What’s the time deadline for the guys to sign? I recall that it’s earlier than it used to be.

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  13. Saw Ruben in Clearwater tonight. Assume most of the Phillies brass are going to be down here for Nola’s debut tomorrow.

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  15. Quick question. What stops a team from giving a guy 100,000 grand and just paying him a higher salary in the minors? Like, we sign Nola for 100,000 but give him a 200,000 month salary?

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