Everyone knew the new rules governing baseball's draft this week, but understanding their effect and how they fit with the annual ritual of posturing, negotiating and ultimately signing players is another story.

Count agent Scott Boras as one, though, who despises what he has seen from a system with significant limitations on clubs' spending.

"There was all forms of artificial behavior in the draft," Boras told USA TODAY Sports. "The purpose of the draft is that it's supposed to create parity in the game. You want teams with the greatest needs to get the best available talent.

"That has not been achieved in this draft. It's created a mockery."

As part of baseball's collective bargaining agreement, ratified in November, baseball placed a cap on total money paid through the first 10 rounds of the draft, a mechanism designed to prevent high-revenue teams from paying princely sums to lower-round picks who might have been seen as unsignable by lower-revenue clubs.

But the new system might have wreaked havoc on the very top of the draft.

Stanford pitcher Mark Appel, who is being advised by Boras, was forecast to be the No. 1 pick in the draft.

The Houston Astros instead picked Puerto Rican shortstop Carlos Correa, and owner Jim Crane said Wednesday that the club had reached an oral agreement with Correa, who is expected to receive a bonus in the $4 million to $4.5 million range, far less than the $7.2 million slot for the first pick.

Boras, who was not involved in any predraft calls regarding Appel, watched him slide to the eighth pick, chosen by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The plummet lowers Appel's slot to $2.9 million. It's unknown whether Appel will consider signing with the Pirates.

"I'm currently concentrating on winning a national championship and finishing my academic endeavors at Stanford," Appel said in a statement released Monday night, after a conference call with the Pirates was canceled.

"I will address the possibility of a professional career in due time."

Appel wasn't as clear a No. 1 choice as Boras clients Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper, top picks signed by the Washington Nationals to huge deals in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Still, Appel's slide startled many draft experts.

The Astros insist Correa's power potential — a rare commodity for a shortstop — tipped the scales more than financial considerations.

Correa has the talent to avoid being perceived as merely a signable choice, but that speculation picked up speed when the Astros took pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. in the compensation round (41st overall).

"We did it in a such a way that allowed us to pick up some other players that we really wanted," Crane said of his team's strategy.

McCullers, a high schooler from Tampa, is a Boras client who has the University of Florida as his leverage and a former big-league-playing father for perspective.

"It's going to have a huge impact to see what Houston is going to do," McCullers told the Houston Chronicle. "I'm sure … they will be in contact with me and negotiations will start to amp up a little bit."

High-profile Boras clients usually have little or no contact with the news media between the draft and signing.

But outfielder Albert Almora, the first Boras client taken this year (No.6 by the Chicago Cubs), said he was sure he was ready for the majors, but he also told the Chicago Tribune his main priority was his scholarship offer from the University of Miami (Fla.).

"That's all I'm looking forward to now," he said.

Translation: The $3.25 million figure for that draft slot probably won't be enough.

Oddly enough, the Almora negotiations will be conducted between an agent and a club president who both despise the new draft rules.

Theo Epstein has quietly chafed over a system that severely penalizes teams for spending in excess of their assigned bonus pools, a restriction that might delay his task of rebuilding the Cubs. Epstein often paid large bonuses for lower picks when he was general manager of the Boston Red Sox.

"There's no point complaining about it now," Epstein told USA TODAY Sports last week. "It's a level playing field for everybody. You can't take the same approach we took in previous years. We have to adjust to the rules."