Brewers Latin Academy

[danzig6767]

FSN ran a piece about the Brewers academy in the Dominican Republic.

 

One thing i wondered about after watching it was do the Brewers have exclusive or at least first chance signing rights to the players 45 players they are training?

 

Watching the show, it looked like this can't be cheap given the academy is providing a place to live, three meals a day, teaching classes besides baseball, and the actual baseball instructors who need to be paid. So i'd assume the team should have a built in advantage over other teams in signing a kid who looks promising?

 

Also, if say a team signs a kid out of an academy they run, does that money count the same in the international bonus pool allotment each team has per year or is their some break for the money spent on the academy?

[TheCrew07]

One thing i wondered about after watching it was do the Brewers have exclusive or at least first chance signing rights to the players 45 players they are training?

I watched the episode but my understanding is that the Brewers can only work with the players they've actually signed. The "trainers" aren't affiliated with any particular organization.

 

Watching the show, it looked like this can't be cheap given the academy is providing a place to live, three meals a day, teaching classes besides baseball, and the actual baseball instructors who need to be paid. So i'd assume the team should have a built in advantage over other teams in signing a kid who looks promising?

There were a little late to the party... or rather they had an academy and then closed it like was mentioned as part of the broadcast. They tried to go with medium bonuses but move the players right to the states which didn't work out very well. What they are doing now isn't unique but I believe they are doing a much better job with the Latin players since the academy was re-opened with Torres. Many of the players from the academy are holding their own or playing well in the states, something we couldn't say before. I really like the arm and core strength exercises they were doing in the weight room, I'm happy to the see the Brewers adopting modern athletic development instead of just natural progression.

 

Also, if say a team signs a kid out of an academy they run, does that money count the same in the international bonus pool allotment each team has per year or is their some break for the money spent on the academy?

Unless I've complete misunderstood the process for years, the players at each academy are already signed by the team who owns the academy. The money spent on player development at the academy is independent of the signing bonus pool. Younger players will work with "trainers" to get signed, once they are signed they attend the signing team's academy.