The larger the major league salaries are, the larger the amount teams will be willing to pay to get young talent, either via the draft or as an international free agent. Just simple economics. The higher the potential value of that player, the more a team will be willing to pay.

I am betting the next labour agreement will have a form of salary cap for drafted players, and maybe an international draft. That way clubs make more while current major & minor league players still make the same. An easy thing for the union to give up, while still having high value for the owners.

I suspect that it is not quite so simple. Risk tolerance influences draft selection perhaps more than major league acquisitions. I was not advocating the choice of Pelfrey, but it is interesting to juxtapose the decision to choose Ricky Romero over Pelfrey, where salary demands seemingly played a significant role, with the free agent contracts of this winter.

Perhaps the draft team simply felt that Romero was/is as good. Perhaps they felt that he was closer to major league ready. Perhaps they felt surer about the success of Burnett and Ryan than Pelfrey and were more willing to take a large financial gamble on a perceived better risk than a relatively smaller financial gamble with greater uncertainty.

I remember hearing a few days ago (I believe it was on MLB Radio) that the draft was probably going to have some changes in the next CBA. Bonuses will be slotted and there will be no more compensation picks when a team loses a FA.

It's a joke when players like Pelfrey, Drew, and Hansen really slip in the draft not because of talent, but because of high bonus demands. Personally I would allow teams to trade away their draft picks.

I agree with John, except that if bonuses were pre-determined I think the money saved in the draft would end up going to current major league players (or at least it would with a large majority of teams).

But even if bonuses were determined based on where a player is drafted it's only going to save money for those teams who are paying more than slot money now (which isn't a lot). The real benefit to fixed bonuses is that players won't fall due to signability.

"I remember hearing a few days ago (I believe it was on MLB Radio) that the draft was probably going to have some changes in the next CBA. Bonuses will be slotted and there will be no more compensation picks when a team loses a FA."

Well, the same talk was going around the last time the CBA was done and they never got around to making any changes so I think it's one of those 'I'll believe it when I see it' deals.

The Jays would likely be one of the teams most hurt if a change in compensation picks was done. With Lilly, Hillenbrand, Speier and SS Loogy all being free agents next year they stand to pick up a lot of extra picks.

REPORT: Jays sign Ben Weber to minor league contract

Perhaps the draft team simply felt that Romero was/is as good. Perhaps they felt that he was closer to major league ready.

I thnk the perfect recent example of this is Chad Cordero. The Expos were generally derided when they chose Cordero with the 20th selection with screams of signability echoing everywhere. But the organization felt he was someone that would progress quickly and help them immediately. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20 but no-one seems to complain about his selection anymore. He is could arguably be considered the steal of the draft when considering his immediate impact weighed against his relatively low cost.

The Weber signing is interesting. Assuming he's healthy, he'd be a good fill-in in the case of a bullpen injury, allowing the Jays to keep Marcum, League and McGowan locked into their regular jobs in Syracuse.

Ricciardi agreed the team did League a disservice last year keeping him up and not giving him any work. Good to see that at least in that regard he's learning from his mistakes.

I remember an interview with Keith Law last June, just after the draft, where he stated that the Jays felt that Romero was the third best pitcher in the draft. Unfortunately the 2 best were Boras clients (I think Pelfrey was one) and they didn't feel that those 2 pitchers were worth the extra outlay and headaches.