MLB Draft: Reactions from Around the Nation

With the signing period now complete, here's some of the reactions from around Baseball Nation to how their teams did.

Despite failing to sign their top draft pick, Bluebird Banter likes what they saw from their draft this year, and have a great writeup comparing the 2010 draft with this year's class.

Jeff Sullivan over at Lookout Landing isn't concerned with the size of the contract that the Mariners gave to top pick Danny Hultzen:

As far as the actual money is concerned, whatever. I don't really care what these guys get paid so long as they get signed, since I figure the Mariners wouldn't commit more than they can afford. So Danny Hultzen has a lot more money today than he had yesterday. Good for him. I hope he got one of those giant checks. You can't take those anywhere!

Federal Baseball has some great quotes from an interview that Baseball America's John Manuel did on MLB Network Radio:

"The Nationals' strategy is to throw a ton of money at amateur players," Mr. Manuel continued later in the discussion on last night's signing deadline, "and I think it's going to pay off. It worked for Mike Rizzo [as] the Scouting Director in Arizona and I think it's going to work for him in Washington. Between [Stephen] Strasburg and [Bryce] Harper and then [Anthony] Rendon those are the last three years, they had the top player, for what it's worth, on the Baseball America draft board." 

Brew Crew Ball has a good breakdown of how the draft actually went for the team, including the impact this draft will have on improving a depleted farm system.

Bucs Dugout revised their top 30 prospects to include draft signees. He did surprise me though with putting top pick Gerrit Cole behind Jameson Taillon, but gave his explanation on that:

Reasonable people can disagree about whether Taillon or Cole should go first, and in fact I think most people would put Cole first, but I'll wait to see how Cole does against pro competition before putting him in the top spot. Cole had mechanical issues that needed to be resolved, which led to his less-than-stunning performance this year at UCLA. Those struggles weren't, in themselves, a great reason to draft someone like Danny Hultzen instead – ultimately, the draft is about what a player can eventually become, not what he currently is. This is more about Taillon being a great prospect. I wouldn't hesitate to put Cole first if Taillon weren't so good. It wouldn't surprise me if both started out at Bradenton next year, and it also wouldn't surprise me if Taillon's numbers were better.

True Blue LA reviewed how the Dodgers did with signing their draft as well.

Finally, Grant Brisbee of Baseball Nation talks about the Pirates and their record-setting spending on the draft.