I'll be disappointed if we don't pick the BPA with our #8 this season. last year it was widely know that Porcello was a top 5 type talent but slid down becuase of bonus concerns, with the 8 pick this year we'll already be paying a large bonus so we have absolutely no excuse to take a lesser talent just to avoid paying a big bonus

 

Just like the stupid Twins did when they took Mauer over Prior.

Yeah, but that's not really what he's saying. Mauer and Prior were the consensus 1 and 2; he doesn't want us to take a Jordan Danks with #8, is all.

There are several clubs that dont go over slot.

Definitely. However, when you look at the teams that are consistently contending in baseball and you look at there recent draft history, every single one of them is willing to go over slot money, especially in the later rounds.

 

The Yanks, Red Sox, Angels (probably more so than any other team), Dodgers, Tigers have all on a regular basis taken fliers on guys later in the draft (in the Angels case, best example is Adenhart) and than given them over slot money (basically they were first couple round talents that slid and once you slide far enough teams assume you either are a lock to go to college or are just impossible to sign because you are still going to ask for early round money despite ending up going later and most teams won't man up).

 

If the Sox really wanted to, they could easily add 2-3 top 4 round talent's in the later rounds by spending a whopping 1.2 M or so extra on the draft each year. Really thats a small price given the significance that if every two years, one of those 6 players panned out into something decent (which is relatively likely) you'd have a guy that would be a steal. Plus some of those players could easily allow you to get more major league talent (via trade).

 

Hell, it is one thing if you have a very deep system and aren't going over slot money, but when your system is thin there is no better way to re-stock it than by having 1-2 (maybe even 3 drafts) where you throw a bigger budget out there and hord in extra talent (by going over slot a few times). What is the MLB really going to do, not a gosh darn thing (and really you aren't hurting things because these are all players that are going to get drafted early anyway and they are fully worth the money).