543 replies to this topic

[BSLMikeLowe]

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.

[dude]

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..

[BSLBobPhelan]

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.

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.

Except when you find a phenom, these kids are taking 6-8 years to make the majors if they develop. Even the phenoms take 3-5 years.

They have signed some talented players with potential. Basallo will be in full season ball at 18 this year. Bencosme reached high A at 19. Almeyda will skip the DSL and start in the FCL this year. Just takes time, that’s why it is such a sin that they weren’t involved earlier.

[BSLMikeLowe]

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.