2013-14 International Free Agency Thread

[CaliforniaRaisin]

The second annual MLB Prospect League international showcase starts tomorrow in the Dominican Republic.

 

Jesse Sanchez' story

 

----------------

 

Top Prospects:

 

Dominican Republic:

 

SS Obispo Aybar - being investigated by MLB due to age questions

3B Rafael Devers - connected to the Boston

RF Micker Zapata - linked to the Seattle, Minnesota and leveland

OF Eloy Jimenez - linked to Houston

RHP Mayky Perez

RHP Marcos Diplan

SS Franly Mallen

 

Taiwan:

 

RHP Tseng Jen-Ho - age 18

 

Venezuela:

 

SS Gleyber Torres - linked to the Cubs

SS Yeltsin Gudino - linked to Oakland and Seattle

 

Official Signings:

 

Cubs International Pool Breakdown:

                          Standard          5% Over
---------------------------------------------------
Initial bonus pool      $4,557,000       $4,784,850
From Astros            +$  784,000      +$  823,200
From Orioles           +$  388,000      +$  407,400
To Dodgers             -$  209,000      -$  219,450
===================================================
Cubs bonus pool         $5,520,000       $5,796,000
===================================================
Signings:
Gleyber Torres          $1,700,000       $1,700,000
Jen-Ho Tseng            $1,625,000       $1,625,000
Jefferson Mejia         $  850,000       $  850,000
Erling Moreno           $  650,000       $  650,000
Johan Matos             $  270,000       $  270,000
Eloy Jimenez            $2,800,000       $2,800,000
Remaining IFA Budget:  -$2,375,000      -$2,099,000

 

OF Eloy Jimenez, Dominican Republic - age 16 - $2.8 millino + $250,000 for college

SS Gleyber Torres, Venezuela - age 16 - $1.7 million bonus

RHP Jen-Ho Tseng, Taiwan - age 18 - $1.625 million bonus

RHP Jefferson Mejia, Dominican Republic - age 18 - $850,000 bonus

RHP Erling Moreno, Colombia - age 16 - $800,000 bonus

C Johan Matos, Dominican Republic - age 16 - $270,000 bonus

RHP Armando Rivero, Cuba, age 25 - $3.1 million - will not count towards 2012-13 international pool

 

Mariners: RHP Jose Santiago, Dominican Republic, age 19 - $205,000 bonus - counts towards 2012-13 international pool

Rangers: OF Todd McDonald, Australia, age 17 - $475,000 bonus - counts towards 2012-13 international pool

Reds: LHP Jacob Constante, Dominican Republic - age 19 - $730,000 bonus - counts towards 2012-13 international pool

[davell]

I just asked Parks and he said good class. Lots of bats, no Sano type talents. Some solid arms as well. With our budget, we've got to make a couple of serious splashes. Bats are probably a bit easier to project out, but I hope we get a couple of the best pitchers.

[Guest]

The top Taiwanese prospect this year will be pitching at the WBC, so we should get a nice preview:

 

Baseball America[/url]"]Tseng Jen-Ho, rhp, Taiwan: The 18-year-old high school star will make Taiwan a must-see destination for many decision makers, as they will get to watch a righthander who may demand near $2 million on the July 2 international signing date. Tseng throws a 91-93 mph fastball, a hard-breaking curveball as well as a potentially plus changeup and solid slider.

 

It will be interesting if this regime will make Asia as big a priority as the previous one did. If the Cubs truly are interested in signing older international prospects (a la Paniagua) since they deem them less risky, Asia is the place to go as Koreans and Taiwanese players don't sign till they graduate high school.

[davell]

This seems tailor-made for our situation, if he's worth the money. We've got a huge financial advantage over most in IFA money and a bigtime need for SP. At 2 mill, it'd still leave us in the middle of the pack for IFA money and we could still basically add a class financially as we did in 2012.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

This seems tailor-made for our situation, if he's worth the money. We've got a huge financial advantage over most in IFA money and a bigtime need for SP. At 2 mill, it'd still leave us in the middle of the pack for IFA money and we could still basically add a class financially as we did in 2012.

 

No interest in loading up on an 18-year-old pitcher.

[Guest]

This seems tailor-made for our situation, if he's worth the money. We've got a huge financial advantage over most in IFA money and a bigtime need for SP. At 2 mill, it'd still leave us in the middle of the pack for IFA money and we could still basically add a class financially as we did in 2012.

 

No interest in loading up on an 18-year-old pitcher.

Why not?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Why not?

 

Because he's an 18-year-old pitcher. I'd rather go for quantity over quality at that age.

[Guest]

Why not?

 

Because he's an 18-year-old pitcher. I'd rather go for quantity over quality at that age.

 

Well, of course. Despite signing quite a few 5-and 6-figure bonus pitchers, the current set up will often lead to big spending teams signing one expensive pitcher. In that case, I'd rather drop 7-figures on an 18-year old than a 16-year old (or a 22-year old in the case of Paniagua last year).

[Cubswin11]

Isn't the IFA market considered pretty shitty this year? Might be worth spending the money on him if there aren't a lot of guys that look to be quality prospects.

[Guest]

Isn't the IFA market considered pretty [expletive] this year? Might be worth spending the money on him if there aren't a lot of guys that look to be quality prospects.

Not that I know about such things, but a few posts up, davell mentions that Parks says this is a good IFA class.

[davell]

Well, after the reports from their showcase in January, that's changed somewhat. Some decent bats, not a lot of pitching.

[Guest]

In his review of Tampa's 2012 IFA haul (the Rays went over their pool and face harsh penalties in the 2013-14 IFA class), Ben Badler said the 2013-14 IFA class would be down:

 

Given that their 90-win season last year will give them one of the lower bonus pools for the 2013-14 signing period, which many scouts believe is shaping up to be a down year for international talent, perhaps it will be a worthwhile gambit.

[Cubswin11]

In his review of Tampa's 2012 IFA haul (the Rays went over their pool and face harsh penalties in the 2013-14 IFA class), Ben Badler said the 2013-14 IFA class would be down:

 

Given that their 90-win season last year will give them one of the lower bonus pools for the 2013-14 signing period, which many scouts believe is shaping up to be a down year for international talent, perhaps it will be a worthwhile gambit.

That's what I read/was thinking of when I made my post

[davell]

There's one bigtime pitcher, Maykky Perez, the best hitter seems to be an OFer named Micker Zapata. In Parks scouting report, he only mentioned a couple of guys he'd put a seven figure bonus grade on. It's a main reason why I'd be perfectly fine throwing 2 mill on Ho, assuming he's worth it. It'd still leave us with around 2.8 milk to spend elsewhere. Likely including at lwast one more seven figure guy, maybe even two. Plus, the expected allotment of projectable low six figure pitching prospects.

[davell]

My issue with what Tampa did, is they barely went over the limit. To me, if you're going to incur the max penalty, you may as well go all out with it.

[Guest]

There's one bigtime pitcher, Maykky Perez, the best hitter seems to be an OFer named Micker Zapata. In Parks scouting report, he only mentioned a couple of guys he'd put a seven figure bonus grade on. It's a main reason why I'd be perfectly fine throwing 2 mill on Ho, assuming he's worth it. It'd still leave us with around 2.8 milk to spend elsewhere. Likely including at lwast one more seven figure guy, maybe even two. Plus, the expected allotment of projectable low six figure pitching prospects.

 

Zapata does look like the best at this point.

 

OF Eloy Jimenez and SS Joan Mauricio are two other big names.

 

RHP Jefferson Mejia is a 17-year old who will turn 18 in August and had some age issues (banned from signing last year for a year) whose stuff probably warrants a 7-figure bonus if he's cleared.

[davell]

Can't remember first names, but there's a SS named Aybar that looked really good, but he's got age questions as well. The 2nd best pitcher is some dude named Diplan, but he's not all that projectable.

[Guest]

Can't remember first names, but there's a SS named Aybar that looked really good, but he's got age questions as well. The 2nd best pitcher is some dude named Diplan, but he's not all that projectable.

Yeah, Diplan is 5'11".

[WrigleyField 22]

Why not?

 

Because he's an 18-year-old pitcher. I'd rather go for quantity over quality at that age.

But with the Cubs budget allottment, can't they kind of do both?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Guest]

Why not?

 

Because he's an 18-year-old pitcher. I'd rather go for quantity over quality at that age.

But with the Cubs budget allottment, can't they kind of do both?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Yes.

 

And they did it last year with a smaller allotment (admittedly, Paniagua was 22, not 18).

[Hairyducked Idiot]

That's the big difference for me. If there's no older pitchers like that, I'd prefer any big purchases be a position player.

[davell]

That's the big difference for me. If there's no older pitchers like that, I'd prefer any big purchases be a position player.

We've got 4.7 or 4.8 mill to spend and evidently there aren't that many seven figure guys as it is. We can spend 2 on the pitcher, still get one or two low seven figure position players AND still get a nice group of projectable pitchers. If the Taiwanese kid grades out as a guy that'd be a top 50ish guy in the draft, it's completely fine with me.

[Guest]

That's the big difference for me. If there's no older pitchers like that, I'd prefer any big purchases be a position player.

We've got 4.7 or 4.8 mill to spend and evidently there aren't that many seven figure guys as it is. We can spend 2 on the pitcher, still get one or two low seven figure position players AND still get a nice group of projectable pitchers. If the Taiwanese kid grades out as a guy that'd be a top 50ish guy in the draft, it's completely fine with me.

 

Just because Ben Badler or Jason Parks wouldn't pay 7 figures for more than a few prospects doesn't mean those guys will be the only ones getting 7-figure bonuses.

 

Badler said he wouldn't pay 7 figures to a lot of guys all while correctly predicting those guys would sign for 7 figures last year.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

That's the big difference for me. If there's no older pitchers like that, I'd prefer any big purchases be a position player.

We've got 4.7 or 4.8 mill to spend and evidently there aren't that many seven figure guys as it is. We can spend 2 on the pitcher, still get one or two low seven figure position players AND still get a nice group of projectable pitchers. If the Taiwanese kid grades out as a guy that'd be a top 50ish guy in the draft, it's completely fine with me.

 

That all seems particularly unlikely to me. The last few years have taught me to not believe anything that comes from the international amateur punditry. There will almost necessarily be more than a few seven-figure guys out there.

[Guest]

That's the big difference for me. If there's no older pitchers like that, I'd prefer any big purchases be a position player.

If 18 is not in your definition of "older" international amateur pitchers, you've completely limited the sample of high profile arms. The only two I can think of in recent years who signed at 20 or older are Paniagua and Rafael DePaula (Yankees). I would never want to intentionally limit the talent pool.

 

Like you, I have no problem passing on high profile 16-year old Latin American pitchers.