2014 International Signing Thread

[TheCrew07]

Yes the conspiracy against the Brewers as an organization lives on...

[splitterpfj]

I heard he has a broken leg and a disease.

[SRB]

Yes the conspiracy against the Brewers as an organization lives on...

 

Setting aside the degree to which I was being facetious, ingrained bias need not be the result of a conspiracy. Different organizations have different reputations which color how people interpret moves they make. See, for example, all of the punditry making fun of the Dodgers for signing Yasiel Puig a couple years ago.

 

I'm willing to bet the fact that the Brewers are the acknowledged frontrunners for Lara has a certain impact. (But also I was just joking.)

[And That]

Keith Law thinks Lara is a terrible pitcher, and an unnecessary risk.

[igor67]

SRB is probably more right than not, the Braves got a lot of bounce of the years in their evaluations based on reputation. And it's not like they routinely churned out 'impact talent' they got Chipper to go with Smoltz and Glavine then signed Maddux and largely churned out solid players to keep shuffling around those guys over the years. Some of that is undoubtedly a what have you done for me lately bias, that should be a little bit less than it was in the offseason. There is also certainly a position effect. Players who are imperfect, but near the top of their system will get hammered more than a similar quality player, who is in a deeper system and therefore perceived as 'depth'.

[TooLiveBrew]

Keith Law thinks Lara is a terrible pitcher, and an unnecessary risk.

His secondary pitches will never develop, and 6'3"/205 is a horrible pitcher's build. Bullpen arm at best.

[TheCrew07]

Lara checks in at #5

 

Top 30 International Prospects List

June 30, 2014 by Ben Badler

 

Scouting and ranking international prospects is a different process from doing so on the pro or amateur side in the United States. In the draft, teams are primarily scouting 18-year-old high school seniors and 21-year-old college juniors, with every organization having access to the same basic information because every prospect plays in public games. Some teams may spend more time watching certain prospects and they might bring in a handful of players for pre-draft workouts, but whether a team is scouting Carlos Rodon at N.C. State or Brady Aiken at his high school games or with Team USA, every club makes decisions off the same publicly available looks.

 

Scouting Latin America is a different animal. Teams are watching kids who are 15 and 16, which already makes the projection more difficult to peg, before the reality that many of the players are using false ages, steroids or both. There are national and international tournaments, as well as trainer-organized games run by the Dominican Prospect League and the International Prospect League, but much of the scouting work is done by teams bringing players into their academies, where teams can work players however they best see fit. A player who looks great at one team’s academy for a week might go to another club’s academy and struggle, leaving those organizations with two very different perceptions of the player based on private information.

[TheCrew07]

Subscriber content. I'm not sure why anyone would let their child train with Enrique Soto as the story is pretty horrible, for those that haven't read previously I quoted below.

 

Top 30 International Prospects For July 2

June 30, 2014 by Ben Badler

 

5. Gilbert Lara, ss, Dominican Republic

Born: Oct. 30, 1997. Height: 6-3. Weight: 205. B-T: R-R.

 

Lara has spent several years in the program of Enrique Soto, the Dominican trainer who was convicted of sexually assaulting two boys he had previous trained. A third player who told a Dominican TV station that Soto had sexually assaulted him was killed before the report aired. Soto was also caught in 2012 for having his son, George Soto, sign with the Mariners for $700,000 in 2007 using a fake age to appear four years younger. Soto and Jaime Ramos are splitting the commission on Lara, who has played in both the International Prospect League and the Dominican Prospect League.

[TheCrew07]

Scouting Report: Reds Sign Cuban Pitcher Raisel Iglesias

 

Cuban righthander Raisel Iglesias has signed a seven-year major league contract with the Reds, the team announced Friday. The deal is for $27 million, according to MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon. Since Igelsias is 24 and has three seasons of experience in Cuba’s top league, Serie Nacional, his signing is exempt from the international bonus pools.

 

At 5-foot-11, 165 pounds, Iglesias was primarily used as a reliever while pitching for Isla De La Juventud and the Cuban national team. Several scouts project Iglesias as a bullpen arm, but the Reds plan to begin his development in the minors as a starter and believe he can reach the big leagues in that role.

[brewcrewdue80]

Scouting Report: Reds Sign Cuban Pitcher Raisel Iglesias

 

Cuban righthander Raisel Iglesias has signed a seven-year major league contract with the Reds, the team announced Friday. The deal is for $27 million, according to MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon. Since Igelsias is 24 and has three seasons of experience in Cuba’s top league, Serie Nacional, his signing is exempt from the international bonus pools.

 

At 5-foot-11, 165 pounds, Iglesias was primarily used as a reliever while pitching for Isla De La Juventud and the Cuban national team. Several scouts project Iglesias as a bullpen arm, but the Reds plan to begin his development in the minors as a starter and believe he can reach the big leagues in that role.

 

 

Wow. 7years/27mil? at age 24? No clue where he stands for what his pitches are. But at 5'11" and just 165? The Reds are paying him nearly 4mil per year, which as a Starter isn't all that bad if he pans out. But as a RP? It's one thing if he turns in to a quality 8th inning/Closer within a year but if he's a RP and doesn't make the team by this time next year and is just an Arm in the Bullpen. What an Overpay!! I don't think I've ever seen his name before, so this is just confusing. He has to have 93+MPH FB with something else that's just filthy to really condone this signing.

 

Any insight?

[brewcrewdue80]

Okay found the BA read:

Iglesias threw 88-92 mph at the World Baseball Classic in March 2013, but later that summer when Cuba played the U.S. college national team, he was sitting at 92-95 mph out of the bullpen. Iglesias throws a sweepy but effective 76-81 mph breaking ball that can be a swing-and-miss pitch at times, with erratic but improving control, and with the athleticism that bodes well for his ability to make adjustments.

 

He doesn’t repeat his mechanics, which affects his command, though part of that is by design, as Iglesias (like many other Cuban pitchers) intentionally moves around his arm slot and manipulates the shape and speed of his breaking ball. Since leaving the island, he also showed the Reds some feel for a changeup. Iglesias probably isn’t ready to go straight to the majors, but given his present talent level, Double-A would make sense once he’s in game condition.

 

“He’s a big arm,” said one scout who saw Iglesias recently. “He’s a bullpen guy for me. I don’t see how he’s going to start, but he’s a seventh, eighth-inning kind of guy. He’s up to 95 with a pretty good slider and he’s starting to throw the changeup now with fair feel for it, but I don’t see the command or ability to repeat (his delivery) to start. He has a great arm. I think he’s two years away (from the majors).

 

So they are going to focus him at SP where he's around 88-92FB which may take 2years to reach the Majors. Or they can sit on him at RP and maybe within a year's time join the club but now you're paying really 6years/27mil for ML service for what reads to be a 7th inning/maybe 8th inning guy? Yikes!! Wish there was a piece about what other teams were supposedly in on him.

Again, another International signing who's proven talent is elsewhere and he's paid a FA type contract with never playing 1 game in a MLB minor league system. At the age of 24 no less!! Meanwhile, guys who are drafted(let's go ahead and say Carlos Rodon) Are age 21 looking to sign roughly 6mil deal and then have to climb the Minors ladder before they can now begin earning a ML salary of approx. 500k/550k/750k their first 3 seasons. Let's fast track Rodon-6mil today. 2016 Opening day starter(age 23)-2018 pre-arb=1.8mil more by age 25 or 7.8mil total before he reaches Arb.

Iglesias gets close to the same signing bonus, and is earning a ML paycheck once he has a work visa. By the time he makes his first ML appearance/ he'll likely have made more than what Rodon will earn for his first 3 years playing for the White Sox. Then a Performance-based Arb sets in where Rodon can either make money less than what Iglesias is guaranteed already/ the same/ or some more...but again based on performance with each year.

 

I just have a problem with this setup. I truly hope this kid never makes it as a Starter and fizzles out as nothing more than a Manny Parra type RP that the Reds wasted 27mil on.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Give some love to Hyo-Joon Park just for the 80 grade bat flip.

 

[TheCrew07]

Subscriber.

 

Signing Predictions For The Top 30 International Prospects

July 1, 2014 by Ben Badler

 

5. Gilbert Lara, ss, Brewers

Some teams say they won’t do business with any player from Enrique Soto, who has been convicted of sexually assaulting former players and had one of his sons sign for $700,000 using a fake age. Soto and Jaime Ramos are both handling Lara, who has an unconventional style but some of the best raw power in the class and has shown his power in the games, though a move to first base or left field is likely. The Brewers are the favorites.

 

FORECAST: BREWERS

[TheCrew07]

Subscriber, nothing new.

 

Team-By-Team International Forecasts

July 1, 2014 by Ben Badler

[TheCrew07]

Okay found the BA read:

 

Found? I linked the article on top of the part I quoted like I always do...

 

The point is to click the link and give BA's website the hit if you are interested, I'm not archiving full articles here. We do that in the Link Reports, but that's a different scenario... Outside of the Link Reports on the minor league forum I'm not looking to "borrow" content, I want to drive traffic to the websites that are doing the work, and even in the LRs we push people to the popular blogs we utilize so they get as many hits as possible.

 

I believe that if people are serious about following the minor league side of baseball they should fork over some coin and pay for the information from BA, PG, BP, or whomever so I'll quote some teasers to hopefully spur interest to drive traffic and revenue for those sites.

 

The free information from various sites around MLB.com and MiLB.com are fantastic, but they are also biased and in many cases the extreme best case scenario, especially the stuff from Mayo and Pleskoff; it reads like what parents would say about their kids. MLB has a vested interest in pimping their prospects so that everyone believes there is hope, it keeps fan interest high even in the lean years. Personally I want the cold hard truth, just give me the facts without the fluff, but being a fan should be about finding what works for you. If a poster prefers MLB.com and Pleskoff to BA and JJ Cooper I have no issue with that, that's why I provide the links; bookmark and regularly visit the sites that work for you.

 

In case anyone is wondering I find PG and MLB to be similarly positive about every prospect they write about and for good reason. I think BA and certain prospect gurus like John Sickels are more in the middle, the rest of the information is going to vary based on the source. For example I find some stuff at fangraphs to be very insightful but many times you're just going to get the organization's take on their own prospects... I can get that from TH and the JSO after already having heard it in an audio interview from the LRs. Of course there are also people I generally avoid like Keith Law because he plays favorites; his guys can do no wrong and everyone else sucks type thing. Regardless I'll continue to provide the links (with the exception of ESPN), do with them what you will.

[TheCrew07]

Team-by-Team International Signings Tracker

[TheCrew07]

Where The Top 30 International Prospects Have Signed

[jvrocksaz]

Confirmation on Lara to Brewers.

 

 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/07/brewers-to-sign-gilbert-lara.html

 

https://twitter.com/MaxWildstein/status/484353078322544640

[WV Brew]

Now on official Brewers' page:

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mil/brewers-lock-up-star-international-prospect-gilbert-lara?ymd=20140628&content_id=82057432&vkey=news_mil

[SRB]

Lara sounds pretty great, but not a huge fan of the name. Why couldn't we sign Arquimedes Gamboa?

[reillymcshane]

Lara sounds pretty great, but not a huge fan of the name. Why couldn't we sign Arquimedes Gamboa?

We can always bring back Yuniesky Betancourt. Although I have to admit 'Arquimedes' is a pretty awesome name.

[reillymcshane]

The Yankees have dropped about $7.7 million on four guys so far.

 

Nice way to replenish the system.

[TheCrew07]

I'll get the stories up for the divisional signings later today or tomorrow.

[TheCrew07]

Cubs' current signings as reported by BA.

Linked to the feature article.

 

Yeiler Peguero, ss, Dominican Republic

Tony Rijo, 3B, Dominican Republic

Wander Cabreram, lhp, Dominican Republic

[TheCrew07]

Reds' current signings as reported by BA.

Linked to the feature article.