More on Manny and a few other things

In the end, the O's added three draft picks today getting top pick Manny Machado, seventh-round pick Matt Bywater and 19th-round pick, pitcher Kenneth Wise. Scouting director Joe Jordan told me tonight that Manny Machado did not get a Major League contract. It wasn't expected that he would. I asked Jordan what had to happen to officially finalize this deal that the sides agreed to about three minutes before the midnight deadline. Was it just a matter of hitting a few computer key strokes? "We had most of the terms entered," Jordan said. "We put together the other parts of the contract beyond the signing bonus. There is language, there is school money, we had all of that figured out before hand. We just had to plug in the bonus and the payout schedule," Jordan said. Machado got a bonus between five and six million. "It doesn't take long when you've got good help and someone like Matt Klentak there ready, who deals with contracts with our club. Again, we spent a lot of time and work getting ready. Now I look forward to talking with Manny, I haven't spoken with him yet," Jordan added. He said the O's will exceed last year's draft spending of 8.7 million. He also said the O's looked into signing others today, but that just didn't happen. "We tried to do some other things. But again, the three guys we got, that completes it. I really like what we did and putting this guy at the top of it completes it for us. It's a good day." Jordan said the sides did have some contract talks before that final hour, but that's when it all really heated up. "We had some meaningful discussions during the evening. Once other things start coming in, it kind of sets the pace and the tone and your deal kind of gets slotted in. Then it's our time to go. The last 30 minutes were definitely where the progress was made and where we got the deal done." He also said the O's never got back into any contracts today with sixth-round pick Dixon Anderson, who is expected to return to Cal for his senior season. So it came down to the wire as expected and the O's got their guy. "It's one of those things, you just have to keep telling yourself, you've done the work. Then you trust yourself. You have all kinds of oppurtunities to run from that but we stayed with our plan."