Jonathan Mayo reports that, under the new draft rules, the Pirates will have almost $9.3 million to spend on their first 10 rounds in 2012, which actually really isn't too bad at all, if true. That's less than the Pirates spent in 2010 or 2011, but they're also picking eighth in the draft rather than first or second.
I say "if true" up there because Mayo doesn't provide a breakdown of the value of each pick, and I'm not exactly sure how his numbers work. The Royals are listed as having only $7.2 million to spend, even though they pick three spots earlier than the Pirates do. It's true that the Pirates will be getting a comp pick for Ryan Doumit and possibly another one for Derrek Lee, but even so, the Royals are supposed to have $600,000 more than the Pirates to spend on their first-round pick, and it would be surprising to me if the Pirates were allowed to spend what would appear to be $2.6 million on two comp picks, if they even get two. So I don't really get it, although I'm sure more information should soon come out that might explain it.
UPDATE: I just wrote to Mayo about this, and he told me the numbers in his article are not supposed to be the draft pools for 2012. The $9.3 million figure represents what the Pirates would have been able to spend if the current draft system had been in place in 2010, when they were picking second overall. This year, they're picking eighth. So their draft pool should be considerably lower than $9.3 million.