I think we generally agree that the signing of international amateur free agents is a long-term project - do we not? Allentown, do you agree, or not?
If this is the case, then the prospects that the Phillies sign in 2016 are, by and large, the prospects with whom the Phillies built a foundation, did the fieldwork, something like two years ago. The 2016 signings by the various clubs are the fruit of commitments that were made a couple of years ago.
Two years ago, David Montgomery was the Phillies President; Ruben Amaro was the General Manager.
Complaining that this cycle's international signings don't reflect enough spending on the part of Middleton/MacPhail/Klentak? How does that make any sense at all? Who are they supposed to sign - given that the top prospects have been committed to other clubs for two years or so?
I read this, and what I take away is that some posters just don't think the Phillies have spent enough money this year, so they're attributing this cycle's international signings to that; but IMHO, that is simply not a logical or rational conclusion, given the realities of how the international signing process works. If you wanted them to bust slot this year, I can commiserate - but realistically, if they were going to bust slot this year, they needed to lay the groundwork for that two years ago - and our current management team was not here two years ago, so faulting them is simply mistaken.
Judge them on the things they might have some control over; the lack of two-year-old commitments to Latin prospects is not one of those things.