Draft Disaster?

The August 15 signing deadline for draft picks is less than a month away, and the Giants still have yet to sign any of their top four picks: catcher Buster Posey, third basemen Conor Gillaspie, outfielder Roger Kieschnick, or shortstop Brandon Crawford. And, according to Baseball Prospectus, they aren't even that close.

Catcher Buster Posey, the fifth overall pick and recent Golden Spikes award winner, has had few discussions with the Giants, and there's no reason to believe that he's backed off from pre-draft talk that had him looking for a big-league deal worth over $10 million. The problems don't end there. Supplemental first-round pick Conor Gillaspie slipped a bit in the draft when he told teams how much money he'd need, which one team categorized as "delusional." In addition, third-round pick Roger Kieschnick and fourth-rounder Brandon Crawford remain well apart from the team in negotiations. Both saw themselves as potential first-rounders at various points in the season, and still want to get paid as if they had been.

I'm still confident the Giants can get their picks signed. Combined with last year's draft, Brian Sabean has the chance to win back some credit by rebuilding this team's farm system. But if he can't at the very least lock up Posey and Gillaspie, his job may, and should, be on the line.