quote:
Baseball America has listed signing bonus's when available for the top 10 rounds. It was surprising to me to see how some players signed for as little as $25,000 in the 4th round while those around him signed for considerably more.
It’s been a pretty hectic summer, so I’m about 2 months late looking at the list 2009 draftees and their respective signing bonuses. But be that as it may. . .
I was looking at the bonuses as supplied by pgcrosschecker.com and made an interesting observation. Of the 321 players selected in the top 10 rounds, 22 were listed as college seniors [C (4)] and 1 was listed as a 5th year senior [C (5)]. As mentioned, these players were almost always signed for significantly less bonus money than the player selected before or after them.
Being a bit of a numbers guy, I imported the data to Excel to analyze it further. The most any college senior signed for was 95.4% of the preceding draftee and 83.9% of the draft pick that followed. As a group, the average signing bonus for a college senior was 34.6% of the preceding draftee and 30.7% of the draft pick that followed.
The data would suggest that the “average” cost of that final year of college is about 65% - 70% of the “normal” bonus money. I sure hope those 23 guys left with a diploma in hand, ‘cuz that was an expensive final year of college. It would also suggest that when a player has no other option of where he can continue to play the game and pursue the dream, he has little bargaining power at he negotiating table.
# of Seniors..23.........23
Bonus as ..% 0f Following... % of Proceeding
Max............83.9%.........95.4%
Min.............1.3%.........5.0%
Ave............30.7%.........34.6%
Median.........27.9%.........25.0%
Here are a few examples:
Pick....POS........SCHOOL.........TYPE....%Following...%Preceding...BONUS
80......LHP.........Chipola JC......JC............................$450,000
81......RHP.........Georgia.........C (4)....45.8%....44.4%.......$200,000
82.....2B-3B.......North Carolina..C.............................$436,500
128......RHP.........Connecticut.........C (2)....................$222,300
129......RHP.........Mississippi.........C (5....34.7%....33.7%....$75,000
130......SS.........Dallas Baptist.......C........................$216,000
149......RHP.........Randleman HS........HS........................$200,000
150......LHP.........Texas...............C (4)....59.4%....50.0%...$100,000
151......3B.........Auburn...............C.........................$168,300
152......RHP.........Louisiana State.....C (4)....60.4%....59.4%...$100,000
153......3B.........Brigham Young........C.........................$165,600
154......RHP.........Ragsdale HS.........HS........................$325,000
155......RHP.........Faulkner (Ala.).... C (4)....43.8%....21.5%....$70,000
156......1B.........Loyola Marymount.....C.........................$160,000
157......C.........Oklahoma..............C (4)....83.9%....81.3%...$130,000
158......SS.........Elon.................C.........................$155,000