In Baseball America's Daily Dish:

"School's back, at least in some parts of the country. Once 2005 draft picks attend their first college class, teams can no longer negotiate with them. South Carolina's recruiting class improved as Justin Smoak and Reese Havens both began their freshman year this morning. Smoak, a switch-hitting first baseman from Goose Creek, S.C., slipped out of the first three rounds but still turned down a signing bonus approaching $1 million from the Athletics, who picked him in round 16. Havens, a shortstop/third baseman from Charleston drafted by the Rockies in the 29th round, passed on a bonus in or more than $1 million."

Well, it was worth a 16th round pick, it's just a shame that they couldn't close the deal, especially when it seemed like they weren't very far apart on money.  Do people think Billy was serious about wanting him as a player, or do you think he was looking at him as a trading chip in the near future and didn't want to pay him too much?  I think the A's draft class is still strong even without Smoak, but this drops it from Great to Solid until we find out who among the HS fireballers is for real (lansford sure looks good so far, not really a fireballer, but you get the idea).  Thoughts on the draft?  Should the A's have coughed up another $100k for Mr. Smoak?