As we close in on midnight, the draft is still, well, pretty much a mess, but there looks to be some direction finally with the Rays at number one overall. It’s not because they’ve made a decision on who is the best player, and it’s not because they’ve decided to go for ceiling (Tim Beckham) over certainty (Buster Posey). It’s because of money. On the final night of the draft, many decisions are made with checkbooks. Teams looking at multiple players begin to make calls to agents to gauge signability, and those discussions can help steer teams one way or the other. Late this evening, multiple sources have indicated as to Buster Posey’s draft-eve asking price, and it’s a doozy at $12 million. Right now, that looks like more than enough to make up the Rays mind, and they’ll likely be taking Tim Beckham unless that number reverses dramatically in the next 12 hours. The real question is to the reason for the number, as some believe it’s a posturing maneuver to drop Posey to a team with deeper pockets, though many feel that strategy would backfire, and somebody with a early pick will call the bluff.
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