D-backs want to stick to their strengths in Draft

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Want to know how important the MLB Draft is to the Arizona Diamondbacks? Just look at the roster of the team that leads the National League West.

Outfielders Corbin Carroll, Alek Thomas and Jake McCarthy came through the Draft. Starting pitchers Ryne Nelson, Tommy Henry and Drey Jameson were all drafted and brought through the farm system.

“The Draft is incredibly important,” D-backs scouting director Ian Rebhan said. “I think we take that approach every year.”

Last year, the D-backs had the No. 2 overall pick and nabbed outfielder Druw Jones after the Orioles selected shortstop Jackson Holliday.

This time around, Arizona's first selection doesn’t come until No. 12 -- the first of three picks the organization has on Day 1 of the Draft. The club also has a second-round pick (No. 48) and a Competitive Balance Round B pick (No. 64).

• Draft Central | Order | Top 250 prospects | Bonus pools

While the D-backs' pick is different, the process that leads up to the club setting up its Draft board doesn’t change.

“The prep is the same,” Rebhan said. “You really don't know what's going to happen. I think that's the thing we all really enjoy about the Draft is the uncertainty, and every year is different. You still have to line them up the way you like them and get them in the right order. I guess the real difference is how long we're going to have to wait on that first day before we get to kind of breathe a sigh of relief.”

Here's more of what you need to know about the D-backs before the Draft:

Spending money
Each team gets an allotted bonus pool equal to the sum of the values of its selections in the Draft. The more picks a team has, and the earlier it picks, the larger the pool. Each selection in the top 10 rounds comes with an assigned value (slot value), and the total for each club’s selection equals what it can spend in those rounds without incurring a penalty.

Clubs that outspend their allotment by 0-5 percent pay a 75 percent tax on the overage, and teams lose future picks at higher thresholds. If a player taken in the top 10 rounds doesn’t sign, his pick’s value gets subtracted from the team’s pool.

The D-backs have a total pool of $11,084,300 to spend -- the 11th-largest in the Majors -- with a slot value of $5,043,800 for the 12th pick, $1,783,000 for the 48th pick and $1,213,200 for the 64th pick.

Who might they take?
As Rebhan noted, the D-backs will have to wait for a while before they make their first pick. Unlike last year when they could narrow their choices down to a couple of players, this time will be different.

In MLB Pipeline’s Jonathan Mayo's most recent mock draft, he had Parkview (Ga.) High School shortstop and MLB Pipeline’s No. 12 Draft prospect, Colin Houck, going to the D-backs. Other names Mayo mentioned include high school bats Arjun Nimmala (No. 11), Aidan Miller (No. 13) or Colt Emerson (No. 29).

Trend watch
The D-backs like athletic, up-the-middle-of-the-diamond players. This is evident by the early selections of Carroll, Jordan Lawlar and Jones.

“I know we've had success in that demographic recently,” Rebhan said. “But I think leaving all the doors open makes you end up making the best selection. I think you do want to stick to your strengths, but I think our strength is how thorough we are in covering every [type of player] and really giving us all the options to then line it up and pick which one we like.”