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The new draft rules have been in place since 2012 (much longer than I realized) and people are still trying to wrap their brain around the changes. Below is a primer to help understand the complexity of draft spending.MLB DRAFT BONUS POOLS Long gone are the days of signing players to MLB contracts (immediately putting them on the 40-man roster) and uncontrollable signing bonuses. In are the days of assigned slot values and team bonus pools. Once the draft order is set, each pick in the first 10 rounds is assigned a value. Though it’s not a “hard-slotted bonus” for the player selected with the pick, the value of that pick is part of the team’s overall bonus pool. The Twins own picks in each round of the draft and one extra “Competitive Balance” pick this year. There values are as follows: Round 1, pick 13 overall: $4,197,300 Comp Round A, pick 39 overall: $1,906,800 Round 2, pick 54 overall: $1,338,500 Round 3, pick 90 overall: $657,600 Round 4, pick 119 overall: $483,000 Round 5, pick 149 overall: $360,800 Round 6, pick 179 overall: $274,800 Round 7, pick 209 overall: $214,900 Round 8, pick 239 overall: $173,000 Round 9, pick 269 overall: $154,100 Round 10, pick 299 overall: $145,000 TOTAL BONUS POOL: $9,905,800 If only it was that simple, right? So the Twins are allowed to spend nearly $10 million on their draft picks, but there are a few additional rules to know. If the Twins fail to sign a pick that has value attached to it, their pool is reduced by the value of the unsigned pick. This happened with Kyle Cody in 2015. The 73rd pick did not sign and the Twins draft pool was reduced by $839,700. Because he was unsigned in the top three rounds, the Twins received the 74th pick in the 2016 draft. (Jeremy’s note: At some point during the “will he/won’t he sign” debacle, I broke the news that it had to do with a concern over Cody’s elbow. The Twins reduced their offer to Cody - which would have allowed them to spend additional money elsewhere. Ultimately, Cody didn’t sign, went back to Kentucky and was drafted by the Rangers the following year. Cody had Tommy John surgery and is currently on the shelf. Guess the Twins weren’t crazy…) (But wait there’s more! Up until this point, I never revealed what the plan was with their additional money. And this seems like as good of time as any. Had the Twins signed Cody, they would have also signed two other prospects as well: Kyle Wilson, a pitcher drafted in the 19th round, and Jonathan Engelmann, an outfielder drafted in the 28th round. Wilson and Engelmann went on to play collegiately at Crowder College and Michigan, respectively, and were both re-drafted later. Wilson is pitching in the Mets system, currently at high-A. Engelmann had a very good pro debut in the Cleveland system last year and has yet to break a lineup in 2019. You’re welcome!) The other thing to know is that every team can spend up to $125,000 to sign picks outside of the Top 10 rounds. If they spend more, that money is counted towards their pool. So, in theory, the Twins could sign their Top 10 round picks for $8,905,800 collectively (one million less dollars than their pool) and then sign their 11th round pick for $1,125,000. A strategy used often is teams will draft seniors in the back half of the first ten rounds and then sign them for significantly less than their assigned value. They’ll use that savings to spend more on a player than their assigned value or to be able to sign a non-top 10 round player. It’s become very important for area scouts to know before the draft exactly what players’ demands are. It should also be noted that there are penalties for teams exceeding their bonus pools. The Twins haven’t - and won’t - ever exceed their pool, so I’m not even going to tell you about the penalties. We’ll visit the rules surrounding International Spending Pools before International Free Agency opens in early July. ~Articles in the Finer Points series~ Options The Fourth Option DFA/Waivers Rule 5 Click here to view the article

Over the past handful of years the signing deadline has come and gone with very little drama as far as the Twins are concerned. In fact, since the draft rules changed, only the 2012 deal with Zack Larson for $190,000 as a 20th round pick been an overslot, deadline deal.This year, as the deadline of 4 pm Friday approaches, the Twins are facing some drama. Their second choice, Kyle Cody, selected in Comp Round B with the 73rd overall pick - a pick worth $839,700 - remains unsigned. Cody, who is compared frequently to Mike Pelfrey, entered the season as a potential first-round pick, but some mid-year struggles caused him to drop down some teams' draft boards. Even with the struggles and subsequent drop down boards, both Cody and the Twins seemed destined to find common ground and get his professional career underway. Rumors had him accepting less than slot value as long as everything went smoothly in his physical. Well, something didn't. Though Cody isn't physically injured, whatever turned up caused the team to drop their offer. It's unknown what the current offer is, but one thing is sure: It's not the three-quarters-million-plus that he would have likely gotten before. This isn't without precedence: 2012 6th rounder Andre Martinez originally came to terms with the Twins for $260,000 - $60,000 over slot - before his physical showed something amiss with his left shoulder. Martinez and the Twins eventually signed for $80,000. Most of the savings then went to sign the aforementioned Larson. Martinez hasn't resurfaced since being released after one appearance for the AZL White Sox in 2014. His Twins career ended in 2013. Both Cody and the Twins are in a difficult situation. Cody could return to Kentucky and pitch his senior season. He would re-enter the 2016 draft with little leverage as well as having the whatever-is-wrong-with-him now black cloud hanging over his head. That is, as long as nothing else happens between now and then. The Twins are in a better place, but still handcuffed to the bonus pool. If Cody goes unsigned, those dollars are lost but they'll be awarded the 74th pick in the 2016 draft. If he signs for less, they can re-invest that money into later draft picks... but only until Friday afternoon. It seems as though the Twins are still hopeful a deal will still be reached, which appears to be the best-case scenario for all parties involved, though it's an unfortunate development for Kyle Cody. The Twins remain engaged in talks with a handful of their other selections as well. Prep pitchers Kyle Wilson and Colton Eastman, as well as prep outfielder Jonathan Engelmann, haven't all completely ruled out turning professional. Currently, the Twins sit $77,600 under slot, which means they could pay any of of the non-Top 10-round picks up to $177,600 without incurring any fines. However, none of the prep trio mentioned above are expected to sign for less than a few hundred thousand dollars. Dollars that aren't available unless Cody signs for less than slot. With only about 72 hours left until the deadline, drama remains. And for a Twins fan under these rules, that's different. --- Don't forget, you can read up on all 40 draft picks by downloading the TwinsDraftbook, available in PDF form on Lulu.com for only $2.99 Feed your addiction. And my family. Click here to view the article

If you’re anything like me, you bought a copy of the original Seth Stohs Twins Prospect Handbook in 2009– you remember, the one with the hideous red cover– and it started some sort of an information addiction. Then you turned around and bought the square edition in 2010 and wondered why it didn’t fit in this “collection” that you just started. ----- DRAFTBOOK AVAILABLE NOW FOR ONLY $2.99 ----- Since then, you’ve done the same thing each and every holiday season, building this collection and randomly looking back to see names you’ve long since forgotten. Fortunately, I was asked to come on board a few years ago to help Seth with what had become an enormous project. What was once a job that outgrew one guy soon seemed like a boatload of work for three guys. But it was just so much fun. At one point while compiling the 2015 Prospect Handboo I started to mess around with some formatting things. You know, trying to make it a little more pleasing to the eye. I realized quickly that making modifications to such a huge project mid-project was a silly idea. But I kept the file that I had started and made up a fake profile for Kolby Allard, who, at the time, was one of the top prep pitchers in the nation. Lightbulb. ----- DRAFTBOOK AVAILABLE NOW ----- I got to thinking about our Handbook and how we wrote up nearly 200 prospects, but when June rolls around and the short seasons get ready to begin, our Prospect Handbook doesn’t serve the purpose that we intended it to do when we wrote it: To give you the most informative, in-depth breakdown of all the prospects in the system. We fall two teams short of doing that. While it would be impossible to give you accurate information about the players that are graduating from the DSL and starting their careers in the GCL, we certainly could fill your plates with our breakdown of the recent draft picks. The Twins typically sign 22-27 of them. And then it became a question of when. When would be the best time to present this flood of information? At first, I settled on the July signing deadline. We’d all know who signed, where they’re playing and what they’re about. But by then, it’s too late. As the “arrival” time kept getting earlier and earlier, it was obvious: This supplement to the Prospect Handbook—known simply as the 2015 Twins Draftbook—needed to come out as soon as humanly possible after the draft came to a conclusion. And it needed to include all the draft picks. Because, well… we include everyone from the GCL and up in the Prospect Handbook, so we need to include all 40 draft picks. ----- DRAFTBOOK AVAILABLE NOW FOR ONLY $2.99 ----- So that’s what this is. Information overload on 40 guys. Some won’t sign with the Twins. Some won’t be in the organization for long. But all deserve a chance to earn you as a fan. And some, who don’t sign, will get drafted again– maybe by the Twins– and this is your chance to get a head start. You may be asking yourself, “Can’t you just dump this information on Twins Daily?” The simple answer, “Sure. I could.” But then it gets lost with all the articles, updates and other things that are uploaded every day. These players that were drafted deserve something of their own. And this is it. We hope you enjoy. Here it is, the first-ever Twins Draftbook. We've also slashed prices on the 2015 Prospect Handbook and the e-book. Click here to view the article

UPDATING LIVE WITH EACH PICK! Last night, the Twins added two high-ceiling college pitchers to the organization in LHP Tyler Jay, Illinois, and RHP Kyle Cody, Kentucky. You can even go more in-depth on Tyler Jay if you'd like to read his TwinsDaily pre-draft profile. You can also listen to me, John Bonnes, Seth Stohs talk about the selection of Tyler Jay. We were joined in the last segment by Twins West Coast Scouting Supervisor Sean Johnson, who told us what the Twins saw in Tyler Jay. On Tuesday, the Twins will add eight more players to the organization.This is the place to be for Tuesday's selections. I will be updating the picks as we progress through the day. So comment frequently and refresh often! Until the draft starts at noon, you can read up on my Top 10 Twins mock. I missed on Dillon Tate with the 6th pick, but correctly projected Kyle Cody to go 73rd overall. Round 3 (80th overall): Travis Blankenhorn, 3B, Pottsville (Pa) High School. Committed to Kentucky. Blankenhorn is an exceptional three-sport athlete (including being a 3rd team All-State basketball player) who has an advanced ability to square up the ball from the left side of the plate. Blankenhorn draws comparisons to Alex Gordon for his tools, looks and athletic background. His high school coach calls him "the total package". Blankenhorn played SS in high school, but seems destined to move to a corner. Round 4 (110th overall): Trey Cabbage, 3B, Grainger (Tenn.) High School. Committed to Tennessee. Cabbage, who just recently turned 18, is another multi-sport athlete, and has a very similar profile to Blankenhorn. Cabbage also did this. (You're welcome.) Still raw, Cabbage is very projectable, with the future that including hitting the ball well and hitting for power. Round 5 (140th overall): Alex Robinson, LHP, Maryland College closer! Robinson is a fastball-slider pitcher. His fastball is mid-90s, but his slider is still a work-in-progress. Robinson profiles best as a lefty-specialist, doesn't appear that he'll get the opportunity to start as a professional. Round 6 (170th overall): Chris Paul, RF, California Paul is a senior and will come in under budget. Paul had a very good senior season and checked in at #403 in Baseball America's Top 500. Despite being a senior, Paul has significant upside as a hitter. Round 7 (200th overall): Jovani Moran, LHP, Carlos Beltran Academy (Puerto Rico) Another hard-throwing projectable lefty. Interesting head dip during his delivery. Round 8 (230th overall): Kolton Kendrick, 1B, Oak Forest Academy (Louisiana) Kendrick might wind up a huge steal. Baseball American had him ranked 62nd out of the Top 500 draft prospects heading into the draft. Mega-power potential from the left-hand side. Kendrick is committed to Southeastern Louisiana and has been asked about being drafted in the 2nd to 4th rounds where his rankings projected him to be. He said it would be difficult to pass up the opportunity to play pro ball. Round 9 (260th overall): LaMonte Wade, CF, Maryland Wade is a raw as a center fielder, but has an advanced approach from the left side of the plate. Wade missed time with a hamate injury and really struggled in the Cape Cod League last year. He bounced back this year to bat .335 and have a 2:1 BB:K rate (30 walks, 20 strikeouts). Round 10 (290th overall): Sean Miller, SS, South Carolina-Aiken Glove-first defender who profiles best as a utility player. Likely one of a few high-character selections that are made with some money-savings in mind. And that's it for today! Twenty-five percent complete. Won't you come back tomorrow?! Click here to view the article