Bonuses for Draft Picks

[rcankosy]

Guys,

I just wanted to confirm that we are not allowing standard contracts for upcoming draft picks.  If that is the case, we probably want to remind owners of that fact even though it's in our rules.  I took the liberty of looking at the Mets roster, since they have the #1 pick.  He's got 11 prospects and could save $5.5m if he cut all of them either before or during the draft.  Absent that, he'll have to unload $6.5m in guaranteed salary via trades to afford the $7.5m signing bonus.  That could be a daunting task given that few teams are willing to take on additional salary.  I just wanted to throw this out there, so everyone is familiar with the particulars involved here, since I believe this will be our first draft.

Roy

[Colby]

It is true that only signing bonuses can be given in the draft.  Spreading those bonuses out in the form of a standard contract would be nice though.  Either way, we'll have to let some of the less active GMs aware of their situation.

[Canada8999]

Did we agree on a source for ranking the players?  We can probably put together the signing bonus list now, and let teams adjust accordingly.

[Colby]

Did we agree on a source for ranking the players?  We can probably put together the signing bonus list now, and let teams adjust accordingly.

I think we just said it would be easy to go with the MLB draft results.

[Canada8999]

I think we just said it would be easy to go with the MLB draft results.

I'm not sure that's what we wanted.  MLB will draft players early to pay them less / late because they'll want so much - this will skew our rankings, and actually make the easy signability guy cost more than the player who dropped for demanding a large bonus.

We were going to get the BP rankings of all of the prospects, ranked thru 64 (all after that don't require a bonus).

[Colby]

I'm not sure that's what we wanted.  MLB will draft players early to pay them less / late because they'll want so much - this will skew our rankings, and actually make the easy signability guy cost more than the player who dropped for demanding a large bonus.

We were going to get the BP rankings of all of the prospects, ranked thru 64 (all after that don't require a bonus).

As long as we still have the top 64 BP rankings then I am fine with that.

[kungfuwig]

Im just wondering, i was planning on using the cap space that comes off my roster after 2010 for my bonuses, but do I need to clear cap space before the draft? or can I draft guys and sign them after money comes off the books?

[Dan Wood]

Money is needed before the draft... unless we move the draft to football season

[Canada8999]

It was made clear before the season that teams should plan for the draft and save money, as it will be held before the 2010 contracts end.

EDIT: I can't seem to find the thread where I thought this was noted on the main page, but there is some discussion here http://profsl.com/smf/index.php?topic=2416.0

[Colby]

Correct... even though the draft will spill into after the playoffs, the books don't close for 2010 until after the draft is over.