I was glancing through the award winners from my league last year and several of them were signed as international players... and when they initially signed (assuming I was reading the information correctly), they received signing bonuses of $15M to $32M, which really blew my mind.

Does money for signing international players come from regular payroll?  Or does it come from the money you have set aside for prospects?  How would a team budget in order to have an extra $30M to throw at an international player?  If it comes out of their prospect budget, do they just write off the amateur draft?

On first glance, being able to give a player a bonus that large doesn't seem feasible, but obviously people have done it.  Anyone care to explain to me how this works?

Comes from prospect.    You transfer unused payroll/coach money at a 50% penalty to go over 20m.     Most people playing the IFA market are either punting the draft, tanking or both. 

Or neither

BJB is a good example of where it is neither. Check out his El Paso team.

Seldom doesn't mean never.

He tanks medical.

Yep. And when his players break or get expensive, he trades them for prospects to owners who don't realize they'll never be as good again.

Posted by MikeT23 on 8/4/2015 8:41:00 AM (view original):

Seldom is that the right answer. 

Wrong.

Posted by bjschumacher on 8/9/2015 4:44:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 8/4/2015 8:41:00 AM (view original):

Seldom is that the right answer. 

Wrong.

Wrong.

Case in point(I took your first league listed.
Top IFA went to a 66 win team.
2nd highest IFA certainly appears to have punted the draft.

34	1	22	TAC	sweetsalve	Desmond Willis	SS	18	HS	MILB	$2,040K	0	0	TAC	RL
34	1	42	TAC	sweetsalve	Al Pineda	P	18	HS	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	1	58	TAC	sweetsalve	Donovan Shoulders	SS	18	HS	MILB	$600K	0	0	TAC	RL
34	2	85	TAC	sweetsalve	Ricardo Perez	P	18	HS	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	2	88	TAC	sweetsalve	Mike Summers	CF	18	HS	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	3	121	TAC	sweetsalve	Eric Stewart	P	18	HS	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	4	154	TAC	sweetsalve	Angel Neruda	SS	20	JC	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	5	186	TAC	sweetsalve	Kareem Carew	C	18	HS	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	6	218	TAC	sweetsalve	George Little	2B	18	HS	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	7	250	TAC	sweetsalve	Tino Wilkerson	P	18	HS	MILB	$90K	0	0	TAC	RL
34	8	282	TAC	sweetsalve	Kris Rothschild	P	22	COL	MILB	$80K	0	0	TAC	RL
34	9	314	TAC	sweetsalve	Doug Runyan	P	22	COL	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	10	346	TAC	sweetsalve	Stefen Uribe	P	18	HS	MILB	$55K	0	0	TAC	RL
34	11	378	TAC	sweetsalve	Graham Lord	P	18	HS	MILB	$40K	0	0	TAC	RL
34	12	410	TAC	sweetsalve	Leonel Sanabia	2B	19	JC	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	13	442	TAC	sweetsalve	Juan Carreras	C	19	JC	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	14	474	TAC	sweetsalve	Ivan McGowan	P	21	COL	MILB	$30K	0	0	TAC	RL
34	15	506	TAC	sweetsalve	Omar DeLeon	3B	19	JC	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	16	538	TAC	sweetsalve	Yorvit Pichardo	P	19	JC	MILB	$25K	0	0	TAC	RL
34	17	570	TAC	sweetsalve	Mike Rolen	P	21	COL	MILB	$23K	0	0	TAC	RL
34	18	602	TAC	sweetsalve	Dellin Aguilera	CF	18	HS	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	19	634	TAC	sweetsalve	Sammy Sojo	P	22	COL	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	20	666	TAC	sweetsalve	Rico Castro	C	21	COL	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	21	698	TAC	sweetsalve	Charlie Epps	3B	21	COL	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	22	730	TAC	sweetsalve	Steve Shackleford	2B	18	HS	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	23	762	TAC	sweetsalve	Dillon Lange	P	19	JC	MILB	$17K	0	0	TAC	RL
34	24	794	TAC	sweetsalve	Rip Butler	P	19	JC	---	---	---	---	-	---
34	25	826	TAC	sweetsalve	Steve Corporan	RF	19	JC	---	---	---	---	-	---

Call it what you will.

Posted by damag on 8/9/2015 1:27:00 PM (view original):
Yep. And when his players break or get expensive, he trades them for prospects to owners who don't realize they'll never be as good again.

Otherwise known as the "Aaron Gleeman" method.

Posted by MikeT23 on 8/9/2015 5:52:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bjschumacher on 8/9/2015 4:44:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 8/4/2015 8:41:00 AM (view original):

Seldom is that the right answer. 

Wrong.

Wrong.

Right, for people like you who can't see more than 3 seasons past their face. But for those of us who can't stand to have anybody over 30 years old on their team (not many of us), we can have a very low payroll, AND devote good money toward the draft and IFAs.

Wouldn't "not many of us" and "seldom" mean the two of you agree?

Sounds like we do.    And I picked the first world listed for him to prove my point.   Which he conveniently ignored.