Your take: Twins draft spending

Sorry I haven't filed minor league notes in awhile. I do plan to write something on hard-throwing prospect Bruce Pugh, whom I interviewed recently. Stay tuned for that.

For now, I want to throw this out for consumption. The folks at Baseball America have released three-year bonus spending patterns of teams, and the Twins are ranked near the bottom.

Here it is

I'm a big believer that if a team isn't willing to sign a $10 million free agent if better be willing to spend that much in signing young talent. The Indians just spent a club record $9.3 million on this year's draft because they are mad as hell and won't take it anymore.

This list suggests the Twins have stuck to slot money. And, thanks to BA, here are the bonuses and slot recommendations for the Twins' first five rounds:

Pick Player '10 Bonus '10 Est. Slot

21. Alex Wimmers, rhp $1,332,000 $1,332,000

71. Niko Goodrum, ss $514,800 $514,800

135. Eddie Rosario, of $200,000 $200,700

165. Nate Roberts, of $149,000 $149,400

I know there are a few cases where they have gone over slot. They signed righthander Dallas Gallant, their 23rd round pick this year, for $122,500, which is sixth or seventh round money. That BA list also doesn't reflect foreign player signings, such as Miguel Angel Sano - and the Twins have increased their spending outside the USA.

I know the draft is a crapshoot and first-round picks fail every year. But if a team feels strongly about a player it shouldn't let a difference of a couple hundred thousand dollars kill a deal. I would love to know how much the Twins offered righthander DeAndre Smelter, their 14th round pick, who has worked with Kevin Brown and is headed to Georgia Tech. He seems to be the type of pitching prospect the Twins need more of in their system.

Detroit has said, ``screw the slot," and signed Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello. They gave their sandwich pick this year, third Nick Castellanos, $3.45 million when the slot recommendation was $776,700 (that's really high).