Orioles' 2008 Draft Expenditures by BA

[jamesenoch]

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/ask-ba/2008/267034.html

The Orioles are 10th in that last. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. However, look who came in at second and at third. Plus, both of those teams increased spending from 2007 to 2008 while the Orioles decreased!

[Frobby]

Our spending decreased because we spend $3.2 mm less on our no. 1 pick - otherwise we spent more on our remaining draftees, which is not surprising since we had no no. 2 or 3 pick in 2007.

We did pretty well if you ask me. The only guy out of our top 10 we didn't sign was the no. 10 guy. We signed 36 of our picks, which is among the highest on the list. The main guys we missed had reasons other than money for not signing.

I'm fine with the draft, I just wish we were getting some international talent to go with it.

[hoosiers]

There are a lot of variables here and I am surprised BA did not go into more detail like $ spent above slot, etc.

Not sure it's a good thing when the team drafting fifth and having all of its picks spends the 10th most. Obviously, we did not have any supplemental picks, but my guess is that we are well down the list on $ spent above slot after the first round or so - since those guys normally get more than slot.

I am very pleased with Joe Jordan's picks, but our organization needs to spend more on the draft - whether it's making more $ available to JJ or making him spend more $ on over-slot signings.

[orioles327]

I am very pleased with Joe Jordan's picks, but our organization needs to spend more on the draft - whether it's making more $ available to JJ or making him spend more $ on over-slot signings.

I agree so much. We should invest a lot more of our later draft picks in players that are considered hard signs beacuse of salary demands or over the fact that they might want to go to college. It is alot cheaper to build through the draft even if your are spending a lot over slot value. Interantional signings would also be a big step in advancing the organization.

[jamesenoch]

Our spending decreased because we spend $3.2 mm less on our no. 1 pick - otherwise we spent more on our remaining draftees, which is not surprising since we had no no. 2 or 3 pick in 2007.

We did pretty well if you ask me. The only guy out of our top 10 we didn't sign was the no. 10 guy. We signed 36 of our picks, which is among the highest on the list. The main guys we missed had reasons other than money for not signing.

I'm fine with the draft, I just wish we were getting some international talent to go with it.

Don't get me wrong. I think we had a good draft, its just that seeing that list and realizing that both the Red Sox and the Rays spent over $3 million more than the Orioles each, well, that bothers me.

With the Rays, at least, the difference between them and the Orioles can be attributed to the $$ they gave Beckham, the #1 draft pick.

The Red Sox's first pick wasn't until #30 (although they did give Casey Blake $3 million). That equates to what the Orioles gave Matusz. Take those 2 out from each team's list, and the Red Sox still outspent the Orioles by a ton.

[hoosiers]

The Red Sox's first pick wasn't until #30 (although they did give Casey Blake $3 million). That equates to what the Orioles gave Matusz. Take those 2 out from each team's list, and the Red Sox still outspent the Orioles by a ton.

The BoSox had an additional supplemental first round pick and then signed their fourth rounder for $1M and their fifth rounder for $2M. They also signed three other players after those rounds to bonuses at $300k or above and had numerous other signings above $100k.

This far outpaces the $ spent by the Os after the first three rounds.

The Os need to make a stronger effort to close this spending gap.

[clarence]

This is one area where we cannot allow our competitors to outspend us. Another couple million for a few higher level players is what it is going to take to keep up with the $150M+ payrolls of the yanks and bosox. If the Rays are smart with their current talent, they can keep their farm system stocked for years by just trading a Crawford/Kazmir type before free agency. They can go get Bedard type returns and they have the system to replace their guys. They are going to have pitching to trade real soon and few teams have that. Taking a few extra million dollar gambles on kids who seem to be tough gets would go a long ways.