The Tampa Bay Devil Rays made David Price a very rich man.

Last week saw a flurry of activity and a whole lot of money being thrown about, all reaching a heightened frenzy right before Wednesday’s midnight deadline for teams to sign their draft picks from this year’s draft. This is the first year the Aug. 15 deadline has been set in place, and it seems Major League Baseball’s intention with the deadline backfired horribly.

In an effort to decrease signing bonuses, the commissioner’s office slashed the slotting recommendations for signing bonuses—which they have no power to enforce—  by ten percent and implemented the Aug. 15 signing deadline in hopes that this would force draftees to accept deals closer to the recommended figures. Also under the new draft rules, teams that don’t sign their picks from the first and second rounds will get a selection in the following year’s draft right after that same number pick. But these new rules, instead of driving down escalating bonuses, only seemed to make them balloon even more.

According to Baseball America, the draftees in the first five rounds of the 2006 draft (the only rounds completely slotted by MLB) signed for five percent over slot. The 2007 group signed for a whopping 20 percent over slot. Obviously there need to be much more drastic measures taken if MLB hopes to rectify this situation and bring more parity to the current draft system.

Signings-wise, though, the 2007 draft proved a very successful one. All of the 30 first-round picks were signed for the second straight year.

This year’s top pick David Price, the hard-throwing lefty out of Vanderbilt, signed a six-year major-league contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays worth $11.25 million. Price is guaranteed $8.5 million under the deal, including a $5.6 million signing bonus. That bonus is the second-largest in draft history, behind only Justin Upton’s $6.1 million (Arizona Diamondbacks) in the 2005 draft. The guaranteed value of Price’s contract is also one of the highest in draft history, third behind Mark Prior’s $10.5 million (Chicago Cubs) and Mark Teixeira’s $9.5 million (Texas Rangers) in the 2001 draft.

The Detroit Tigers made a big splash when they announced the deal made with New Jersey prep right-hander Rick Porcello, the No. 27 pick overall. Porcello signed a four-year major-league contract worth $7.3 million, which eclipsed Josh Beckett’s record $7 million guarantee as the largest ever for a high school pitcher. Porcello’s bonus was $3.58 million, and his contract shattered the recommended slotting of $1.7 million for the No. 27 pick.

Commissioner Bud Selig was reportedly livid over the deal, but the most popular reaction to this news was surprise—both at the amount of money and at the fact that the Tigers would give Porcello, a pitcher fresh out of high school, a major-league deal. Tigers officials have said they don’t want to rush Porcello but feel he is talented enough to reach the majors quickly. A possible rotation of Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, Andrew Miller and Porcello in a few years is mighty impressive.

As always, the New York Yankees made some waves of their own when they signed Andrew Brackman, the towering right-hander from N.C. State, to a four-year major-league contract worth $4.55 million, which includes a $3.35 million bonus, as well as three option years that could escalate the deal to seven years and as much as $13 million. This was a great risk for the Yankees, but it also could prove a very smart and rewarding one. Brackman recently visited famed orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Alabama, who said Brackman does not yet need surgery on his elbow as many believed would be the case. However, there was one caveat—that “yet.” If Brackman does end up having the surgery in the future, it will take roughly 18 months for him to recover, which is most likely the reason for the three options tagged on his contract.

As much of a gamble as this deal was for the Yankees, it could end up paying dividends in the end if Brackman pans out the way he projects; if not for signability concerns and worries over injury, Brackman would have gone much higher in the draft. The 6-foot-10 pitcher has possibly the best pure stuff of any pitcher in the draft, with a fastball that can hit 99 mph and a plus spike curve, and he is also extremely athletic—he also played basketball for N.C. State before quitting so he could play baseball full-time. The Yankees also have a pretty good recent track record in drafting pitchers—see Hughes, Phil; Chamberlain, Joba; Kennedy, Ian; and Horne, Alan (who also had Tommy John surgery, though that was before the Yankees drafted him).

Of course, Brackman was only the tip of the iceberg with the Yankees. In all, they spent more than $7.4 million in signing bonuses to nail down their picks from the first ten rounds, including $500,000 for California high school catcher Austin Romine (second round), $1.3 million for Texas third baseman Brad Suttle (fourth round) and $1 million for Louisiana prep shortstop Carmen Angelini (tenth round).

Rumors abounded in the days leading up to Wednesday’s deadline that No. 5 pick Matt Wieters, a catcher from Virginia Tech drafted by the Baltimore Orioles, and No. 10 pick Madison Bumgarner, a lefty high school pitcher out of North Carolina taken by the San Francisco Giants, would not get signed. These failures to sign would have been huge disappointments for both teams, but both Wieters and Bumgarner eventually reached deals with their respective teams, Wieters for $6 million and Bumgarner for $2 million.

There were some high-profile draftees who did not sign, however. Chief among them was Matt Harvey, the highly-touted prep right-hander from Connecticut, who could not reach an agreement with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Harvey fell to the third round because of signability concerns. He will join a North Carolina staff that should be very exciting to watch in the 2008 season.

Other non-signees:

• Reliever Josh Fields, a second-round pick from the University of Georgia, will return for his senior season with the Bulldogs instead of signing with the Atlanta Braves and may even play himself into a Casey Weathers-type deal.

• Fellow second-rounder Hunter Morris, a tall power-hitting first baseman from Alabama, will honor his commitment to the University of Auburn instead of signing with the Boston Red Sox.

• Florida prep right-hander Tommy Toledo, taken in the third round by the San Diego Padres, opted to stick with his commitment to the University of Florida and join a fresh pitching rotation that will be under the tutelage of new head coach (and former Clemson pitching coach) Kevin O’Sullivan.

• Slugging phenom Kyle Russell, drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the fourth round, will return to the University of Texas and try to outdo his outstanding sophomore campaign.

• And right-hander Kyle Blair, a fifth-round pick who only fell so far because of signability concerns, couldn’t come to terms with the Los Angeles Dodgers and will go to the University of San Diego instead.

Now that the dust has settled and the books are officially closed on the 2007 draft, the biggest winner on draft day appears to be—what a shock—the Scott Boras Corporation, with as much wheeling and dealing as they accomplished and the pricey contracts they garnered for their many high-profile and lesser-known clients. Team-wise, the Yankees and the Tigers had the best drafts and were able to sign all of their top priorities, though they had to shell out major bucks to do so.

On the other side, the Astros and the Angels both failed to come away with much. Houston did not have picks in the first or second rounds and failed to sign their third- and fourth-round picks. The Angels missed out on Harvey and also failed to sign Tanner Robles, a power lefty out of high school in Utah.

But the commissioner’s office is probably the biggest loser of all. For all of the new rules and implementations put in place to discourage against over-slotting, none of it seemed to do any good. Though some teams toed the line and mostly followed the new slot recommendations, many teams still shattered those numbers without a second thought. And there still isn’t a thing Selig can do about it. 

Complete First-Round Signing Bonuses

(Major-league contracts in italics)

1. Tampa Bay Devil Rays: David Price, LHP, Vanderbilt, $11.25 million, 6-year contract
2. Kansas City Royals: Michael Moustakas, SS, Chatsworth (Calif.) HS, $4 million
3. Chicago Cubs: Josh Vitters, 3B, Cypress (Calif.) HS, about $3.2 million
4. Pittsburgh Pirates: Daniel Moskos, LHP, Clemson, $2,475,000
5. Baltimore Orioles: Matt Wieters, C, Georgia Tech, $6 million
6. Washington Nationals: Ross Detwiler, LHP, Missouri State, $2 million
7. Milwaukee Brewers: Matt LaPorta, LF, Florida, $2 million
8. Colorado Rockies: Casey Weathers, RHP, Vanderbilt, $1.8 million
9. Arizona Diamondbacks: Jarrod Parker, RHP, Norwell (Ind.) HS, $2.1 million.
10. San Francisco Giants: Madison Bumgarner, LHP, South Caldwell HS, Hudson, N.C., $2 million
11. Seattle Mariners: Phillippe Aumont, RHP, Ecole Du Versant HS, Gatineau, Quebec, $1.9 million
12. Florida Marlins: Matt Dominguez, 3B, Chatsworth (Calif.) HS, $1.8 million
13. Cleveland Indians: Beau Mills, 1B/3B, Lewis & Clark, $1,575,000
14. Atlanta Braves: Jason Heyward, CF, Henry County HS, McDonough, Ga., $1.7 million
15. Cincinnati Reds: Devin Mesoraco, C, Punxsutawney (Pa.) HS, $1.4 million
16. Toronto Blue Jays: Kevin Ahrens, SS/3B, Memorial HS, Houston, $1,440,000
17. Texas Rangers: Blake Beavan, RHP, Irving (Texas) HS, $1.5 million
18. St. Louis Cardinals: Peter Kozma, SS, Owasso (Okla.) HS, $1,395,000
19. Philadelphia Phillies: Joe Savery, LHP, Rice, $1,372,500
20. Los Angeles Dodgers: Christopher Withrow, RHP, Midland (Texas) Christian HS, $1.35 million
21. Toronto Blue Jays: J.P. Arencibia, C, Tennessee, $1,327,500
22. San Francisco Giants: Timothy Alderson, RHP, Horizon HS, Scottsdale, Ariz., $1.29 million
23. San Diego Padres: Nick Schmidt, LHP, Arkansas, $1.26 million
24. Texas Rangers: Michael Main, RHP, Deland (Fla.) HS, $1,237,500
25. Chicago White Sox: Aaron Poreda, LHP, San Francisco, $1.2 million
26. Oakland Athletics: Donald Simmons, RHP, UC Riverside, $1,192,500
27. Detroit Tigers: Rick Porcello, RHP, Seton Hall Prep, West Orange, N.J., $7,285,000, 4-year contract
28. Minnesota Twins: Ben Revere, CF, Lexington (Ky.) Catholic HS, $750,000
29. San Francisco Giants: Wendell Fairley, CF, George County-Lucedale (Miss.) HS, about $1 million.
30. New York Yankees: Andrew Brackman, RHP, N.C. State, $4.55 million, 4-year contract

Questions and comments may be sent to Shannon at shannonmccarthy@sportsgrumblings.com