Kevin Gausman has now signed for the Orioles

[Can_of_corn]

IMO, a more plausible criticism (if you must criticize) is drafting Poche in the first place. There is an argument to be made we should've spent our 5th round pick better and had a sense he was going to be a guy that was going to be too difficult to sign. I still think that's a stretch, but less of one than the other criticisms that are being made.

Word is that Poche changed his number after being selected. Not much to fault the O's on there.

[Malike]

I would have loved to get the #15 pick in the draft in the Organization, but I'm not willing to freak out that they gave 130k over slot to Gausman. Frobby nailed it when he said that if Gausman pans out, the numbers 5 and 15 picks will just be footnotes. I'm fairly surprised that so many people are freaking out about signing our first round pick and missing on the number 15 pick. I am also not convinced that what happened in this draft is a guarantee that every Duquette draft during his time here is going to go overslot. People can say he wouldn't have left have 4M on the table, but who knows? People do dumb things all the time, and when you least expect it. There is an awful lot of angst about signing our first round pick. I'm glad to have him in the Org.

[Can_of_corn]

For the record I am not freaking out. I am just annoyed and do not think they handled the situation properly.

[Flash- bd]

Not upset about Poche at all. Word out of Velazquez's mouth was 500K. They O's could have signed Gausman for slot and still gave him 500K. Instead they waved the white flag and overpaid. I guarantee you whomever the O's pick in the first round next season, their adviser is going to point out that they went over slot for Gausman.

Only if they wanted to pay the tax.

Malike's post above pretty much sums up my view in a nutshell. Would rep if I could.

C_o_C: when you say there's not much room to criticize the Poche choice I agree. That wasn't exactly my point, though...

[Malike]

For the record I am not freaking out. I am just annoyed and do not think they handled the situation properly.

There just isn't enough information that I am privy to, to make that determination. I'm just not too upset with any of the moves DD has made so far, barring the Kim fiasco. He got a late start as a hire, didn't have a ton of time to evaluate the entire farm, and I am impressed that we are playing competitive baseball.

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[TradeAngelos]

I think (hope) he was being sarcastic, as people really thought that there was a chance he wasn't going to sign. I was being sarcastic in my post, despite the lack of the smiley.

Didn't realize some would take that seriously.

[Can_of_corn]

Only if they wanted to pay the tax.

Malike's post above pretty much sums up my view in a nutshell. Would rep if I could.

C_o_C: when you say there's not much room to criticize the Poche choice I agree. That wasn't exactly my point, though...

Pay the tax. Take it out of the free agent relief pitcher budget. A couple hundred K in penalties should not be enough to preclude adding a potential talent to the team.

As I said before, after the top 3 (4 now) there is very little in the O's farm system.

[waroriole]

For the record I am not freaking out. I am just annoyed and do not think they handled the situation properly.

For better or worse, he ain't MacPhail.

[baltfan]

Pay the tax. Take it out of the free agent relief pitcher budget. A couple hundred K in penalties should not be enough to preclude adding a potential talent to the team.

As I said before, after the top 3 (4 now) there is very little in the O's farm system.

How many fifth rounders make it? Of those that have, how many are like Jake who it took $1mm to sign?

I don't think this is a big deal. People would have freaked if we didn't sign Wirsch or Ryan Berry. They don't look like the best investments now

[baltfan]

For better or worse, he ain't MacPhail.

Nobody was a better negotiator than AM. The man had ice water in his veins.

[Crazysilver03]

How many fifth rounders make it? Of those that have, how many are like Jake who it took $1mm to sign?

I don't think this is a big deal. People would have freaked if we didn't sign Wirsch or Ryan Berry. They don't look like the best investments now

The difference of course being that Arrieta dropped due to signability while the others were projects.

[Roll Tide]

Good to hear ... Glad to hear he's a O'

[weams]

Nobody was a better negotiator than AM. The man had ice water in his veins.

No wonder he wore the sweaters.

[waroriole]

Nobody was a better negotiator than AM. The man had ice water in his veins.

I'd love to sit in on negotiations he was conducting.

[Lucky Jim]

In the end, the O's signed their most important pick in the draft. However, their strategy looks pretty bad compared to most other teams. I mean, good thing the O's didn't sign more under slot guys in the first 10 rounds. Something tells me that Gausman's advisors would have gotten all of that extra money as well. People kept saying he had no leverage and I agree for the most part. However, the threat of not signing was leverage and it was enough to scare the O's. We don't know who made the final decision though. Was it first time scouting director Rajsich who caved in, not wanting to have a black mark on his first draft? Was it Duquette, who decided to just get it done and not take any chances? Or was it Angelos who decided to pay up and not put up with the inevitable bad publicity? Poche and Velasquez may turn into nothing, but playing the system to get as many of these types of prospects increases your odds. It's a numbers game and the O's didn't play it as well as they should have. Plain and simple, Gausman's advisors used little leverage to get the O's to fork over practically every last dime they had. The Royals had a pre-draft deal with Zimmer. Some thought Zimmer was equal or better to Gausman. It just seems as if the O's are one step behind when it comes to draft strategy and milking it for all it's worth. They could have done better, unless you feel that Gausman is just THAT GOOD.

This. Is, say, Gausman > Zimmer + Velasquez + Poche?