2024 MLB Draft

The Dodgers always seem to have a good system but who have they produced that is that good? Their 3 best players they got from either FA or trade. And the guys they traded werent that good. Verdugo was decent. Buehler was good for a couple of seasons till he got hurt and Will Smith is good. But they arent what people make the Dodgers out to be when it comes to churning out players.




No one should be compared to a team that pays 300 million to a prospect
 
I would agree that currently our farm is not in great state. I do, however, take issue with people saying that reason is because we haven't drafted well. We've simply traded away much of that talent and we've had some earlier than anticipated graduations like Harris, Elder, AJSS, and Schwellenbach.

I won't deny the current outlook for position prospects looks dire. Hopefully some position prospects take a step forward.

To me it seems like they have drafted heavily for pitching and have produced quite a bit of major league quality pitching including an Ace and All Star along with the Nebraska kid. They have three or four guys who might be rotation piece in minors along with at least two others who are rehabbing TJ.

They have just returned to the international market which is where a lot of orgs like the dodgers have built depth so those guys are still unknown.

Obviously they also drafted a regular CF. Seems like they've traded away a couple of catchers and Vaughn Grissom.

I'm not sure how many guys a system is supposed to produce in five years but it doesn't seem empty to me. It seems more productive than most.

If the knock is that it isn't loaded with above replacement level position players at every spot, then ok. But that isn't where they've spent their draft capital.
 
In addition to Dodger prospect inflation I have to remember how at one point the Padres were supposedly a model rebuild for prospect accumulation and basically none of them from that specific crop panned out for them or anyone else.

It's a weird thing.
 
Draft signings so far:

2nd Rounder Carter Holton: $1,350,000 (slot: 1,385,000)
7th Rounder Brett Sears: $12,500 (slot: 245,900)
8th Rounder Logan Samuels: $7,500 (slot: 205,300)
9th Rounder Owen Hackman: $2,500 (slot: 188,600)
10th Rounder Jacob Kroeger: $2,500 (slot: 178,800)
15th Rounder Owen Carey: $150,000
 
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Draft signings so far:

2nd Rounder Carter Holton: $1,350,000 (slot: 1,385,000)
7th Rounder Brett Sears: $12,500 (slot: 245,900)
8th Rounder Logan Samuels: $7,500 (slot: 205,300)
9th Rounder Owen Hackman: $2,500 (slot: 188,600)
10th Rounder Jacob Kroeger: $2,500 (slot: 178,800)
15th Rounder Owen Carey: $150,000

Not surprised Rounds 7 through 10 came in well below slot (but I'm surprised it's this far below slot). Also a bit surprised Carey signed for slot. I thought they would have to throw a little bit more to the post-10th round high school players (and they still may have to do a bit of that to sign Goode). Curious how much of the savings go to Caminiti. Montgomery and Bagwell also have some leverage with commitments to good college baseball programs. I have to believe 4th round pick Hernandez will come in below his slot value as well. The late first-day discounts do give them breathing room if any of the first-day picks decides not to sign and the corresponding pool amounts evaporate.
 
looks like all the top 10 picks for the Braves have signed except Cm at 1 and the 5th rounder

Can someone please help me understand why the Braves just paid ~500K to that 4th rounder with a 6+ ERA from Miami who wasn't even ranked by any boards except one at almost 500 on the list.. What are we missing on this kid.. I mean 5'10 pitchers are known to dominate.. so maybe that is it.
 
That regime has produced two bonafida stars (Strider, Harris), some up-and-coming players who look like they can be solid-to-better regulars (Smith-Shawver, Schwellenbach, Waldrep, Elder still with the Braves; Langaliers, Grissom, Malloy on other teams now), and a wave of pitching (Murphy, Ritchie at the top) that looks like it will move up the rankings once they're healthy enough to actually pitch some innings. They've also signed very-highly-regarded international position players each of the last two cycles, after finally getting the punishment monkey off their back.

Have they been perfect? Obviously not. I've had my gripes—not least the heavy emphasis on pitching in the draft, which seems a counter-intuitive allocation of resources towards the riskier population-bin. However, they seemingly have more confidence in their amateur pitching identification and minor-league pitching development, so prioritizing pitching in the draft makes sense. (Though that prompts the question: What are they doing to improve their minor-league hitting development?) However, while not perfect, they've been by no means the unmitigated disaster several in this thread are alleging.

the model seems to be pitching in the draft, position players in the international market
 
looks like Cam will sign for slot value which leaves about a million to sign the catcher in the 5th round. Not going to be much left for the 11 and up rounders unfortunately..
 
It looks like 5th round C Montgomery at around $1 million and 6th round RHP Bagwell at around a reported bonus of just over $800,000 is where most of the savings went. Both high school guys with D1 commitments. Curious to see what 4th round pick Hernandez signed for because I'm thinking that's where the biggest savings was on a single pick (but I could easily be wrong). Reported here and read elsewhere that RHP Goode and Canadian OF Hartman were the post-10th round guys who went over slot.

Have to give the staff credit because they always hit their marks in figuring out how to best utilize the pool to get everyone signed.
 
It looks like 5th round C Montgomery at around $1 million and 6th round RHP Bagwell at around a reported bonus of just over $800,000 is where most of the savings went. Both high school guys with D1 commitments. Curious to see what 4th round pick Hernandez signed for because I'm thinking that's where the biggest savings was on a single pick (but I could easily be wrong). Reported here and read elsewhere that RHP Goode and Canadian OF Hartman were the post-10th round guys who went over slot.

Have to give the staff credit because they always hit their marks in figuring out how to best utilize the pool to get everyone signed.

I don't think it's all that difficult.

You can determine what it will take to sign guys before the draft and plan accordingly.

There tends to be a little too much suspense as to whether guys are going to sign.

When they went 20, the flyers and favor drafting largely has gone away.
 
I don't think it's all that difficult.

You can determine what it will take to sign guys before the draft and plan accordingly.

There tends to be a little too much suspense as to whether guys are going to sign.

When they went 20, the flyers and favor drafting largely has gone away.

True, but given the current rules, there is going to be some shuffling of slot money and the team has to find the way to save early so they can go above slot later. Take Montgomery and Bagwell for instance. There's the risk when taking high school guys with leverage too early because if they don't sign, you lose that slot money and your flexibility is greatly affected. A lot of us conjecture about why teams just don't take a more straightforward approach, but the way the bonus pool operates now risk reduction has to be taken into account. Montgomery and Bagwell isn't unlike the approach they took with Smith-Shawver and Collins in 2021.

But you're right about the bottom line. The scouts likely knew the number for every guy they drafted and how much--if any--money they had to move around. I thought they would save more on Hernandez, but they banked about $750,000 with savings in rounds 7 through 10 which they then used to go over on a few guys.
 
It looks like 5th round C Montgomery at around $1 million and 6th round RHP Bagwell at around a reported bonus of just over $800,000 is where most of the savings went. Both high school guys with D1 commitments. Curious to see what 4th round pick Hernandez signed for because I'm thinking that's where the biggest savings was on a single pick (but I could easily be wrong). Reported here and read elsewhere that RHP Goode and Canadian OF Hartman were the post-10th round guys who went over slot.

Have to give the staff credit because they always hit their marks in figuring out how to best utilize the pool to get everyone signed.
He was underslot but not as much as I'd expect... slot value was $551,100 and he signed for $472,500... most of the savings came with the Senior signs in rounds 7-10.

The Battery Power guys do an annual signing tracker:

https://www.batterypower.com/2024/7/17/24200108/atlanta-braves-2024-mlb-draft-pick-signing-tracker-cam-caminiti-carter-holton-josh-montgomery
 
I nosed around the internet this morning and looked at Battery Power and another site and found a bunch of stuff related to the bonuses. I was a bit surprised that there wasn't more savings with Hernandez, but one of the sites pointed out that he was a draft-eligibile sophomore, so he did have some leverage. It's almost like the Braves could have made the guys they drafted in rounds seven through ten pay them for the privilege of playing.
 
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