Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Signing the draft picks

Byron Buxton took batting practice Tuesday at Target Field
with manager Ron Gardenhire and hitting coach Joe Vavra
paying attention. Buxton hit one ball into the bullpen in
left center.
Byron Buxton, the No. 2 overall pick in the amateur draft last week, had his physical Tuesday and took batting practice. Today, so we are told, he and the Twins will complete his contract, and then he'll head off to Fort Myers to begin the process of turning tools into skills.

According to Jim Callis of Baseball America, Buxton will get $6 million, which is $200,000 under the slot value but 25 percent more than No. 1 pick Carlos Correa got from Houston.

Adds Callis:

Buxton becomes the 16th player in draft history to earn a bonus of $6 million or more. He matches Eric Hosmer (Royals, 2008) as the recipient of the largest straight bonus (not spread over multiple years under provisions for two-sport athletes) ever given to a high school position player.

So Buxton got less than slot, but it's still significant money. I wonder what he would have gotten under the old system.

The Twins so far have signed six of the 13 players they took in the first 10 rounds, and they are, according to Baseball America, a bit more than $208,000 under budget. (They've been at or under slot on five of the six, and over on one — sixth-rounder Andre Martinez, a high school lefty they had to buy out of his Florida State scholarship.)

Callis said on Twitter that he expects "several" teams to exceed their caps by up to 5 percent — a level at which they will be taxed 75 percent on the overage. I doubt the Twins will be one of them.

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Eddie Rosario, a primo prospect playing for Beloit, was hit in the face Tuesday by a line drive during batting practice and has at least one facial fracture.

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