Callis echoes my desire for higher draft spending

[Greg Pappas]

http://masnsports.com/steve_melewski/2010/06/talking-os-drafts-and-draft-budgets-with-jim-callis.html

"But to me the easiest way to build a team is through the draft. Quite frankly, if the Yankees want a Major League free agent, they will get him. If the Red Sox want him, they are probably going to get him. The Orioles can't spend like those teams and the Sabathias and Teixieras won't come there until the team starts winning.

"The only way to compete is in the draft. If the Orioles were my team, I'd spend even more in the draft and have the commissioner's office screaming at me. They are more aggressive than most teams, but if you are spending eight, why not spend ten or twelve (million). Not every guy you get will hit, but the rate of return on the investment is high.

"They have not been cheap, but to me, if I had a bad team in the AL East, I'd be as aggressive as possible in the draft, I'd spend 10 or 15 million a year. The way the system is set up, if you are willing to spend, the system winds up driving the players who are not going to sign for slot money, to the teams that are willing to pay them the extra money.

Excellent series by Malewski.

Back in November I began a thread entitled What is your Draft Philosophy? Within I made the point that we need to raise the bar on draft spending to more fairly compete. While I noted $15-20m, Callis goes $10-15m. The point remains the same. Many disagreed, and likely still do, but it's nice to find that Callis sees it much the same way as I do.

Again, excellent series.

[Duke2010]

I completely agree with Greg and Callis. The O's haven't been cheap in the draft, but they need to do more. We will never sign the top tier guys until we're competitive, so we need to add talent through other means, and the draft and international market is where we must make up ground. The Sox, Rays, and Yankees all spend in the draft, so we need to exceed their efforts in this market.

I'm a firm believer that the organization should allocate 12-15 million dollars to the draft every year. Assuming that we get good value out of that money spent, I believe we'll begin to close the gap on the AL East.