Wonder if they still have a strong hold on the island of Aruba?
They burned their bridges on that island when Ponson punched out a judge.
Posted 15 January 2023 - 05:55 PM
Wonder if they still have a strong hold on the island of Aruba?
They burned their bridges on that island when Ponson punched out a judge.
Posted 15 January 2023 - 06:51 PM
Well, this puts my cynical theory to rest as to why he went to the DR. Sounds like it was strictly a business decision, and seems to have paid off.
A little more here from this article with Jesse Sanchez and Jake Rill.
"The O’s are confident that’s the case with Almeyda, who was born in Paterson, N.J., before his family moved to the Dominican Republic when he was 15 to take care of his grandmother who has Alzheimer's disease."
This was the kind of thing I was looking for, but hadn't really seen it until posted here (I certainly haven't looked that much)...now maybe that's just a justification or a smoke screen or whatever, but his mom is Dominican and his grandparents are there..
Posted 15 January 2023 - 06:58 PM
These kids are largely signed as 16-17 year olds and are raw as they don’t have the structure of a high school or college environment like they do in the States. So the first class from 2019 is mostly 19-20 years old still. And they’re still not completely caught up to the rest of the league but should be very soon with the new DR academy opening sometime this year.This isn’t meant critically, but I’m just looking forward to one of these kids actually contributing, hopefully soon. It’s been a long wait and it’s embarrassing how little actual major league production we’ve gotten from the international system. Glad they remain committed to fixing that. At the same time, I want results too. Know this type of thing takes a lot longer though.
Posted 15 January 2023 - 11:51 PM
A little more here from this article with Jesse Sanchez and Jake Rill.
"The O’s are confident that’s the case with Almeyda, who was born in Paterson, N.J., before his family moved to the Dominican Republic when he was 15 to take care of his grandmother who has Alzheimer's disease."
This was the kind of thing I was looking for, but hadn't really seen it until posted here (I certainly haven't looked that much)...now maybe that's just a justification or a smoke screen or whatever, but his mom is Dominican and his grandparents are there..
Dan Connolly has a quote from Almeyda to go with it.
“My grandma was really sick, and we went to the Dominican Republic to take care of her,” said Almeyda, who is called Ayden by friends and teammates. “And I took it as an advantage. I was looking at it like, ‘OK, we could go here for, you know, a little bit of time, train and then go back and be ready for high school ball.’ But it didn’t work like that.”
Sounds like it was purely a family decision. I would think if he really wanted to stay in the US he would have had someone to live with, but understandable that he wanted to go with his parents.
Posted 24 December 2023 - 10:55 PM
IFA signing period starts in a couple weeks and I certainly haven't looked that hard, but Jesse Sanchez and others usually roll out info on top50 and potential (likely) destinations....again, I didn't look a lot, but I didn't see much of anything out there, not just for the Orioles, but in general.
Do we know (Bob?, others?) where the Orioles are lined up on any of the top 50 guys?
Posted 25 December 2023 - 08:01 AM
Posted 15 January 2024 - 10:20 AM
Posted 15 January 2024 - 10:47 AM
Posted 15 January 2024 - 11:01 AM
$7.1M is the total pool for the O's this year. Tied with 5 other teams for the largest allocation.
Don't care how they spend it as long as they spend it all.
There is a stud Japanese pitcher who probably gets posted next off-season. Will be interesting to see if he signs at the end of this class or the beginning of the next one. Should be more money available to him in Jan of '24. In either case, he's young enough he is subject to the IFA rules, so he can't get a huge deal like Yamamoto, he'll be limited to the bonus pool amount any team has to offer him. Saving money in this year's pool or acquiring additional money for next year's pool to make a run at Sasaki would be a risky but interesting approach.
Good stuff. I'd only note, you don't have to spend it to get THE player, you can share it with someone else to get THE player and you work it into something else you want.
...so that's potential value for someone like the Mariners or Dodgers or Padres per other trade discussions.
Posted 15 January 2024 - 11:29 AM
Posted 15 January 2024 - 11:39 AM
$1.3M for Sanchez, $950,000 for Martinez.
They’ll spend it all. For last years money they saved some and used $450,000 on a Cuban OF a month or two ago and then spent the rest on some arms.
Good news. The Orioles have done a good job becoming players in the International market. Facilities and player bonuses.
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