Expect Dodgers to take college kids on Day 2 of the MLB Draft

LOS ANGELES — Day 2 of the MLB Draft is here, with rounds 3-10 on Tuesday. Expect the Dodgers to draft heavily from the college ranks on this day, which would be consistent with their last three years.

From 2015-17 under scouting director Billy Gasparino the Dodgers drafted college players with 30 of their 34 selections through the first 10 rounds. That’s pretty much par for the course given the recommended slot bonuses, and with LA generally picking in the lower end of each round their pools are generally smaller than most.

This year the Dodgers pick last in every round and have the smallest bonus pool in baseball at just under $5.3 million.

“It does take us out of play on a number of high school kids that have higher price tags,” Gasparino said Monday. “We are limited in some of those cases.”

On Monday the Dodgers drafted a pair of hard-throwers, including high schooler J.T. Ginn in the first round. Michael Grove, who had Tommy John surgery in 2017 and missed his junior season at West Virginia, was picked in Round 2.

The allotted slot bonus values for those picks are $2,275,800 and $917,000, respectively.

“We’ll make a great effort and hope to sign both kids,” Gasparino said.

Since MLB instituted the bonus pool system in 2012, with penalties for going over slot, no single team has spent more than 5% over their bonus pool, which would have incurred the loss of a first-round draft pick. In the previous six drafts, of the 469 picks through the first two rounds, 13 (2.8%) didn’t sign, including just two in the last two years.

The Dodgers failed to sign Louisville right-hander Kyle Funkhouser after drafting him with a supplemental first-round pick in 2015, number 35 overall.

The draft resumes at 10 a.m. PT on Tuesday with the beginning of Round 3. The Dodgers’ next pick is 104th overall, and they have eight picks in total on the second day of the draft:

• Round 3 (pick 104): Dodgers’ last 104th pick was pitcher Ricky Stone in 1994
• Round 4 (pick 134): Dodgers picked Joe Thurston 134th in 1999
• Round 5 (pick 164): Scott McGough, part of the Hanley Ramirez trade in 2012, went here in 2011
• Round 6 (pick 194): Dodgers took Shane Victorino here in 1999, then lost him in two Rule 5 drafts
• Round 7 (pick 224): Best MLB 224th pick to date might be Tony Fossas, though the 12-year major leaguer didn’t sign when picked by the Twins in 1978
• Round 8 (pick 254): Dellin Betances was picked here in 2011 by the Yankees
• Round 9 (pick 284): Jason Hammel (2002, Tampa Bay) and Mark Melancon (2006, Yankees) were picked 284th
• Round 10 (pick 314): Mike Easler, better known as Hit Man, was taken here by Houston in 1969.

There is no television coverage of the draft today or tomorrow. The draft will be broadcast online at MLB.com.