Indians draft signings so far - 7/26 Update

We now know all the guys the Indians have signed and what they signed for, thanks to MLB.com.

If I do my math right we currently have a $187,500 surplus if you subtract what we paid these guys from their draft slot values.

There have been no reports that we signed Jake Miller (20th)

Analysis so far:  We have $187,500 left from our bonus pool.   The Indians, since the inception of the bonus slotting system, have never had more than $10,000 left from a bonus pool.   So, what will happen with the rest of this bonus pool?

Three scenarios about what the Indians will do with this leftover money:

• They may use a little of it to sign our 20th round pick, Jake Miller, although only the part of his bonus OVER $125,000 would count against our draft pool total.  My guess is, at the most, you are looking at a $175,000 bonus meaning, worst case, we would STILL have a $137,500 surplus.
• They can still sign guys who weren't drafted.   They still get $125,000 to sign each one and anything over that goes against their draft pool.  If you anticipate that they have the entire $187,500 left over, they will have over $300,000 left to spend without going over their pool budget.   This is beginning of 6th round money, meaning they might still be able to get a pretty good prospect.  Looking at the undrafted players left after the draft here are guys who they might be able to entice with that amount of money
• Troy Melton, RHP San Diego St.
• Dylan Ross, RHP, juco pitcher
• Nick Maldanado, RHP Vanderbilt
• Seth Stephenson, juco SS
• Jaelen Battle, Arkansas SS

...and, of course, a whole slew of highly rated HS players who likely already have solid college commitments that this kind of money won't move the needle for them to sign.

• They could just keep the money and not use it on the draft.  Remember, it can't be carried over to next year or added to our international spending budget.

One word about not spending the money.  Baseball's player development system is a lot like the R&D budget at a company.  Most of that budget ends up being wasted on projects that don't work out.  Still, R&D is the lifeblood for new products at many companies, especially small companies...and the player development systems of many (especially small budget) major league teams.   Not spending part of your draft budget is like a company taking a portion of their R&D budget and putting it in their general budget.  It just doesn't allow you company to grow effectively.   If the Indians don't spend close to their draft budget it is a bad sign.   So, somehow, some combination of the first and second bullets above is what SHOULD happen.   Let's hope it does.   

Stay tuned.  I will update this post as I learn more about where the missing surplus has been spent or if it is going to go unspent.