Written by Amit Lal | 20 August 2010

Baseball America has compiled the signing bonuses for all 30 MLB teams in the 2010 draft, and the Diamondbacks rank #21 at a total of $4.4M.  The highest totals in 2010 were the Nationals and the Pirates, both around $11.9M, followed by the Blue Jays at $11.5M. This year's signing bonus total is way down from 2009, when the Diamondbacks had seven picks in the first two rounds and spent $9.3M on bonuses to get them all signed. Even if the Diamondbacks had signed first rounder Barret Loux at his projected price of $2M, the team's total would still have been below the league average of $6.49M. Out of the $4.4M spent this year, more than half was spent on the three high school players signed on the deadline day - Ty Linton ($1.25M, 14th Round), Tyler Green (8th, $0.75M), and Blake Perry (6th, $0.5M).  Those three were the only players that signed "over-slot"; the team's other high selections all signed for basically MLB's assigned slot value - J.R. Bradley (2nd, $643K), Robby Rowland (3rd, $395K), Kevin Munson (4th, $243K), Cody Wheeler (5th, $168K), Jeffrey Shields (7th, $150K), Zachary Walters (9th, 97.5K), and Kawika Emsley-Pai (10th, 70K).  The fact that so many players were signed at slot indicates that those players did not have significant leverage, either because they were college players who were ready to leave, or high schoolers without a strong commitment to college.  The two main players who went unsigned besides Loux were 13th Round pick Kevin Ziomek, who decided to attend Vanderbilt, and 23rd Round pick Roberto Padilla, who will go from JC to San Jose State. In both cases, the Diamondbacks were willing to go over slot, but still weren't able to get the signings done.