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And use the extra million to draft another great prospect in the 3rd. But you'd have to be sure he'd sign for cheaper. There was the rumor that the Ms went "cheap" with Franklin and Baron to be able to afford Ackley's demands, but both guys signed for slot or over, so that didn't pan out if it was indeed the plan. Like you said, the only way to "trade down" may actually be to draft with the idea of trading later.
The "Draft Zunino" plan is basically what the Reds did with Grandal after they already had Devin Mesoraco in house.
Mesoraco was the 15th pick in the 2007 draft, Grandal the 12th in 2010. They stated that they loved Mesoraco but Grandal was the best talent available and they weren't passing him over for a lesser player. I wanted Grandal badly (he was my choice if we were gonna trade Fister last year) and after the Reds traded him to the Padres for Mat Latos, Yasmani has looked GREAT in AAA. Latos...not so much.
The difference in that draft scenario is that the Reds were simply accumulating pieces because they didn't know if Mesoraco would work out, and they could trade whomever they didn't want. We traded Pineda for Montero and we plan to have him in our MOTO for several years to come, so Montero's not going anywhere.
If you make it clear to Montero that his job's not at stake, okay, but that still seems like a lot of hassle. If you're drafting a #3 pick just to trade him, I guess I don't see that as a good strategy. Why aren't we talking about trading Ackley if that's how we want to operate? After all, Seager is hitting better and plays 2nd better too.
"The Plan" hasn't worked out yet for the Reds, though it's very early. If they'd just drafted Chris Sale (taken with the pick right after Grandal) then they wouldn't have had excess depth and a lack of pitching and could have fixed their problem with a guy who looks like a better pitcher than the one they traded for anyway.
Going through all the hassle and expense of drafting a player, rolling the dice that he'll work out, then having him work out only to trade him to someone ELSE (who hopefully matches you need-for-need) in the hopes that what you get back also works out...seems like a ton of work when you could just draft somebody different and go through half that hassle.
Two step plan:
A) draft Dahl/Correa/Buxton
B) PROFIT!
~G