The MLB amateur draft bonus pools for teams has been finalized, now that Raul Ibanez has signed. The bonus pool is a de facto cap on team's total bonuses for the first ten rounds of the draft. Baseball America has a write up on the aggregate pool amounts. The aggregate pool amounts are a function of the bonus amounts assigned to each slot in the draft, plus the supplemental picks for each team. The Astros, with the first pick in the draft, have the second highest aggregate bonus. The Twins have the highest aggregate bonus ceiling, $12.3 million, with the Astros in second with $11.1 million. The Angels have the lowest cap, at $1.6 million. This is likely to be a crappy draft for the Angels, but that is mostly caused by signing of Type A players Pujols and Wilson.

As shown in the BA article, the Astros' pool for the first ten rounds is almost three times (2.85 times, to be exact) the bonus amount that the Astros spend on the first ten rounds in 2011. If the Astros use up their full slot amount on the first pick, the team will have approximately $4 million to expend on the remaining 9 regular picks and 1 supplemental pick in the first ten rounds. The draft picks after Round 10 don't count toward the aggregate bonus unless the team spends more than $125,000.

Teams which will take huge reductions in their draft budgets, compared to the amounts spent in 2011, include the Pirates, Royals, Red Sox, Nationals, Rays, and D-Backs.