Angels at Guardians Game Thread

Wow TT you seem a little sassy today, I’m not arguing over Gordon’s Jordan’s or Prager’s relative talent levels. That was never my point. My point was ( and still is) that you are wrong to assume that Gordon’s signing precluded the Angels from signing Prager once the Angels made the decision to draft Gordon in the 4th round

But after reading your tutorial on how the MLB Rule 4 Draft Slot Bonus system works, I’m not too sure you really do.

Yes I get you can pay the draftee at, above or below slot but the bottom line is you still have to sign them. If you don’t, then you end up with NOTHING because the entire slotted amount is removed from your total bonus pool. So when the Angels couldn’t sign Prager they lost $948,600 to their overall bonus pool. ( and ironically they are only going to get abut 2/3’s of that back with their 2025 comp pick) The Angels even lost the ability to go over the Prager slot amount by additional 5% ( $47K) since the penalties up to a 5% overage are very light.( its only money right?)

In the case of Gordon, his slot value was $663K. They signed him for about $90K less. If they had not signed him the Angels would not have had another $696K ( $663K + 5%) to add to the Prager kitty. they would have had exactly Bupkis as their Draft Bonus pool would have been reduced by $663,000 . Get the picture? You could argue that Gordon out of the kindness of his heart would have signed for much less than he did but unless you know a guy who knows a guy that would be foolhardy supposition.

In the draft bonus signing game, timing is everything and it would appear the Angels got caught with their pants down by not signing Prager. the 2 largest over slot signings were Trey Gregory-Alford who signed for a record $1.96 million bonus when his 11th round draft slot amount counted Diddley against the Angels Bonus Pool and the 5th rounder Dylan Jordan who got a whopping bonus of $1.25 Million when his draft slot value was only $480K . Both of these players significantly impacted Pragers signing as if either one (or even 3rd round pick Ryan Johnson who signed for $744K over slot) had not been signed the Angels would have had at least $700,000 more to apply to Prager’s Bonus. But apparently The Angels must have liked all of those 3 players more for since there was no money left over to sign the current Texas A & M ace.

So contrary to your postings the signing of Gordon was completely irrelevant in the Prager Sweepstakes .

Hopefully this cleared up any confusion you may have had on how the bonus slot system works.

Incidentally in 2025 the Angels should have $15.86 Million ( + 5%) for their 2025 Draft Bonus Pool. So we can have some more fun interactive discussions next July when the Angels fail to sign another one of their early round round draft picks.