Cubs fined $500,000 by MLB

[Fish Troll]

The Cubs' fine for violations related to the June draft of first-year players was a whopping $500,000, SI.com has learned.

Major League Baseball ruled that the Cubs violated a couple of baseball rules, including failing to report a signing to MLB's New York offices and putting the player on the field before receiving approval for the signing from MLB offices.

The Cubs were said by people familiar with the case to have exacerbated the situation by how they responded to MLB's concerns. MLB higherups apparently didn't believe Cubs people were completely forthcoming regarding their actions in the case when questioned about them.

Baseball disallows teams from making pre-draft deals, but it isn't known whether such an early deal is related to this case. However, the extent of the fine makes it clear how displeased MLB"s powers are about the situation.

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/07/22/cubs.fine/index.html

[Zack Attack Troll]

That was stupid.

The MLB was going to be pissed anyways that they gave $500,000 to their fourth round pick that early in the process, but then they didn't even tell them they signed him? What's better--

-Pissed
-Pissed and having them fine you.

Hmm.

[diehardmetsfan]

is $500,000 bonus in the 4th round good or bad on average?

[Zack Attack Troll]

Well, for the player it's good. The Royals are about to pay their fourth rounder $1.5 million.

Without getting too confusing (I'll try anyways)...The MLB loosely slots each pick with a value through the fifth round. They would LIKE teams to keep to the slots, but sometimes they will ignore them if the player wants more to sign. The slot value for this particular pick was about $235,000, so obviously the Cubs gave the guy well over slot money. The MLB doesn't like it when teams go over slot, but they can't do anything to punish them if they do because it's not against the rules.

But obviously in this case...the Cubs didn't report the signing to the MLB which they were supposed to do. Pretty stupid too.