Draft Placements and Post Signing Thoughts

It has been about a week since I have written about the draft.  In that time some stuff of note has happened.  For all signings and bonuses you can go here.  Lets just do a quick rundown of things to care about.

Signings:

• The Phillies have signed (or agreed to sign) 28 players.  That is 27 of their first 28 picks plus Andrew Amaro.  The only player not sign was UNLV RHP Joseph Lauria.  Lauria, a senior, chose to forgo a $1,000 offer from the Phillies (his childhood favorite) to go to grad school and be an assistant coach at UNLV.
• Luke Williams graduated yesterday so he should sign soon, same with Mark Laird who was eliminated from the CWS.  Florida is still in so it could be a little bit before Joshua Tobias is signed.
• No bonus after round 10 so far has been over $100,000 (two at $100,000) so there have been no hits against the bonus pool
• Kyle Martin was $298,200 underslot in the 4th round.  Bailey Falter was $46,900 overslot and Greg Pickett was $176,100 overslot, a total of $223,000 over slot.  That leaves them with $75,200 to spend on overslot bonuses, assuming everyone signs for slot (which might not be true).
• The Phillies can go over their pool by about $350,000 on which they would have to spend 100% tax (an additional $350,000).  This gives them about $425,000 on late overslot bonuses if they want to.
• I didn’t expect them to sign up Will Stewart so early and without touching the pool amount, he is a good get.
• I expect them to sign 1 to 2 more players from later in the draft.  I would love to see them get Ben Pelletier, though I won’t qwibble about projectable HS arms.
• I like what the Phillies did here because they went out at got the guys they wanted, got them signed and got them into camp.  None of the guys they took and signed look like one year use up and throw away.  Some of the relievers will flame out, but they all have a chance to stick around.

Assignments:

We don’t know all the assignments but we have some rumors so let’s go off of those.

• Reportedly Scott Kingery and Kyle Martin will skip short season and go right to Lakewood.  It appears that Grenny Cumana will go to Williamsport to make room.  Emmanuel Marrero has also moved from Clearwater to Williamsport.  The rumor is that Malquin Canelo and Rhys Hoskins will be heading to Clearwater soon to join Ricardo Pinto and Carlos Tocci.
• Tyler Gilbert and Luke Leftwich are both ticketed for the Williamsport rotation which already has five SPs, so there will be some more reshuffling there.
• The HS signees are all going to the GCL to start, but we don’t know how long Cornelius Randolph will be there.
• Williamsport is full on catchers which leaves a bit of a crunch with Edgar Cabral, Austin Bossart, and Gregory Brodzinski all needing roster spots, meanwhile in the GCL 17 year old Rodolfo Duran will need playing time.
• The general feeling is that Saturday is the big moving day.