Sunday BP: Undrafted free agency begins

Hello, Happy Sunday. I hope your weekend has been great, and that it continues to get better.

Today is a funny day for baseball: It’s undrafted free agency day. This is a huge day in the NFL, and a decent-sized day in the NBA, and a complete unknown in MLB.

Usually the MLB Draft is 40 rounds but, due to the coronavirus, the draft was only 5 rounds this year. The San Francisco Giants drafted 7 players when they should have drafted 42.

To try and make up for that, MLB is allowing teams to sign undrafted players. Teams can sign as many undrafted players as they want (as long as they stay within their slot money), but cannot offer more than a $20,000 signing bonus.

It will be curious to see what happens. That’s not a lot of money at all, as far as draft bonuses go. Players could be sacrificing a lot of money by taking $20,000, when they could take their extra year of college eligibility (or head to college for the first time if they’re a high school player) and enter the draft next year.

But the 2021 MLB Draft is highly uncertain as well. There’s something to be said for getting into a professional organization as quickly as possible, and making the timeline between now and your first Major League check as short as possible.

The Giants will sign some players today, and likely many local talents. What remains to be seen is if they sign any players who had legitimate aspirations of being drafted on Wednesday and Thursday, or if they’re only signing players who would have been on the board in the final rounds of a 40-round draft.

Did Barry Bonds hit a home run today?

Yes.

June 14, 2001: Against the Anaheim Angels, Bonds hit a solo home run in the 6th inning off of Lou Pote. It gave the Giants a 9-3 lead, and they would win 10-4. It was his 34th homer of the year.

June 14, 2006: Against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Bonds hit a 3-run home run in the 9th inning off of Jose Valverde, scoring Omar Vizquel and Ray Durham. It gave the Giants an 11-4 lead, which was the final score. It was his 9th homer of the year.

Have a great Sunday, one and all.