that's pre-Soler thinking

kruker wrote:In general, I'm not a fan of an international draft. As a Phillies fan, bring it on. We couldn't be any worse in a world with an international draft than what we've been without one.

Bastardo and Ruiz were good finds.

CalvinBall wrote:

kruker wrote:In general, I'm not a fan of an international draft. As a Phillies fan, bring it on. We couldn't be any worse in a world with an international draft than what we've been without one.

Bastardo and Ruiz were good finds.

Nothing to brag about. For as long as I can remember, we've never so much as produced a foreign born prospect the quality of a Julio Teheran and, comparing against the teams we're bunched with at the top (Red Sox, Yankees), have never come close to hitting on what they have at the major league level. My intuition is that from '94 on, we may be one of only a few teams that hasn't produced a foreign born all-star.Haven't had one since Sammy in '87. That doesn't seem like a very successful international scouting program.

Maybe they just choose to spend their money scouting in America. They have been pretty darn good at that.

Not a comprehensive list, but:

NL East:
Mets-Reyes, Alfonzo
Braves-Javy Lopez,Martin Prado,Andruw Jones,Furcal,Odalis Perez
Marlins-Luis Castillo,Miguel Cabrera,Alex Gonzalez,Livan, Renteria
Expos/Nationals-Vlad,Big Cat,Urbina

AL East:
Red Sox: Hanley
Yankees: Cano, Soriano, Mariano,Bernie Williams,Cristian Guzman
Orioles:Armando Benitez,
Rays: not going to give them credit for any of their guys. All mandatory picks.
Blue Jays:Carlos Delgado,Tony Fernandez,Cesar Izturis

NL Central:
Pirates: Aramis Ramirez, Loaiza
Cardinals: Nothing
Astros: Carlos Guillen, Johan---can't believe Hidalgo didn't make the ASG in his 44 hr season
Cubs:Big Z
Reds:Nothing
Brewers:Nothing

AL Central:
Detroit:Francisco Cordero
Cleveland:Carmona, V-Mart,Bartolo
Chicago:Magglio, Carlos Lee
Twins: Nothing
KC:Nothing

NL West:
Giants-Liriano, Sandoval
Dodgers-Pedro,Soria,Beltre,Offerman, Mondesi
Padres-Robby Alomar, quite a few more that I saw on other teams and now can't remember
D'Backs-Miguel Montero

AL West:
Seattle-Big Papi, Felix--believe I saw one or two more on other teams
Oakland-Miggy, Ramon Hernandez
Angels-Ervin Santana, K-Rod
Rangers-Sosa, Juan Gon',Pudge


7 teams (including the Phillies) with 0.

CalvinBall wrote:Maybe they just choose to spend their money scouting in America. They have been pretty darn good at that.

Which is why I said:

kruker wrote:In general, I'm not a fan of an international draft. As a Phillies fan, bring it on. We couldn't be any worse in a world with an international draft than what we've been without one.

I'm arguing that the Phillies would benefit from an international draft.

lethal wrote:

FTN wrote:

phatj wrote:Can they prevent it? Are young amateurs beholden to NPB somehow?

there is an agreement between MLB and NPB that MLB teams will not sign japanese amateurs unless all NPB teams pass on them in the draft, I believe. same goes for the league in south korea, which just came up because the orioles tried to poach a 17 year old from that league. mlb voided the deal because korea flipped out

So MLB will ban the teams from drafting Japanese and Korean amateurs based on those agreements. I don't see this being an impediment to a worldwide draft.

What I do envision being an issue is what happened to Puerto Rico. Talent there just dried up once it was included in the draft.

Thanks FTN and lethal.

-- Tim Wakefield will announce his retirement this afternoon

-- Hideki Okajima failed his physical with the Yanks and had his minor league deal voided

BigEd76 wrote:-- Tim Wakefield will announce his retirement this afternoon

Dickey is the only knuckleballer left then right?

Could the Japanese or Korean leagues do anything if the MLB does unilaterally apply a draft to amateur players? I guess I'm not seeing how much harm they could do in return. Keep MLB from scouting and bidding for their players? The need for that would be nonexistent if we were drafting their premiere talent anyway.

Soren wrote:Dickey is the only knuckleballer left then right?

Might be. I can't think of any others

AND SPEAKING OF KNUCKLEBALLERS.....I just saw a list of the lefty knuckleballers in MLB history and there have been three in the last 30 years...and I don't remember any of them

Rich Sauveur, Kirt Ojala and Dan Boone

Moar knuckleballer trivia: Phil Niekro in '73 was the last to throw a no-hitter

The Nightman Cometh wrote:Could the Japanese or Korean leagues do anything if the MLB does unilaterally apply a draft to amateur players? I guess I'm not seeing how much harm they could do in return. Keep MLB from scouting and bidding for their players? The need for that would be nonexistent if we were drafting their premiere talent anyway.

If they ban scouting, how will MLB clubs see the players they would draft? They could also ban Americans from their leagues. There would be some fallout re: the WBC. In general, I doubt that MLB wants to mess around with that for not that much gain. Its one thing to regulate 3rd world nations with poor economies, its another to get involved with 1st world nations with strong governments.

lethal wrote:

The Nightman Cometh wrote:Could the Japanese or Korean leagues do anything if the MLB does unilaterally apply a draft to amateur players? I guess I'm not seeing how much harm they could do in return. Keep MLB from scouting and bidding for their players? The need for that would be nonexistent if we were drafting their premiere talent anyway.

If they ban scouting, how will MLB clubs see the players they would draft? They could also ban Americans from their leagues. There would be some fallout re: the WBC. In general, I doubt that MLB wants to mess around with that for not that much gain. Its one thing to regulate 3rd world nations with poor economies, its another to get involved with 1st world nations with strong governments.

Can they ban from scouting high schoolers?

The new Rays mascot.....DJ Kitty

FFS

That's hilarious!

that's fucking amazing

I would expect that from Seattle which has had "I can has cheezburger" days. But the rays? It just seems so sad. Rename the team to the Tampa Bay "Please Come To Our Baseball Games".

Also in the video the one guy they talk to looks a little like Jesse Jackson but sounds a little like he am Karl Malone. I can get behind that.

The Nightman Cometh wrote:

lethal wrote:

The Nightman Cometh wrote:Could the Japanese or Korean leagues do anything if the MLB does unilaterally apply a draft to amateur players? I guess I'm not seeing how much harm they could do in return. Keep MLB from scouting and bidding for their players? The need for that would be nonexistent if we were drafting their premiere talent anyway.

If they ban scouting, how will MLB clubs see the players they would draft? They could also ban Americans from their leagues. There would be some fallout re: the WBC. In general, I doubt that MLB wants to mess around with that for not that much gain. Its one thing to regulate 3rd world nations with poor economies, its another to get involved with 1st world nations with strong governments.

Can they ban from scouting high schoolers?

Korea banned Orioles scouts recently. Not sure how they did it in practice, but I'm sure something's possible. What if in retaliation, they started drafting American high schoolers and offering them a lot of money, more than MLB clubs could offer under the CBA. If just a couple 1st round picks signed with Japanese clubs instead of MLB clubs, just imagine the impact.

Its not going to happen. MLB has a decent enough working relationship with the Asian leagues and don't want to risk that relationship that they wouldn't ever draft amateur players from those countries.