Two part Melewski interview with AM about international operations.

[carolinaoriole]

I am happy that Macphail did this interview.Now no one can say he is covering up his opinions on the international scouting.

For the record I think he is handling International scouting exactly as I would. I would not pay someone 4 or 5 million without seeing them play.

Talk about a small sample size my god. Would we pay players in high school here this kind of money without seeing them play?

Here in the U.S. players are payed less if the competition is deemed to be lackluster. Is it a good idea to to pay out this money just because everyone else does.

[JTrea81]

What frustrates me the most isn't that MacPhail isn't spending top dollar for international players, it's that he hasn't replaced that void with anything else to give the O's an advantage.

This is a good point as well. MacPhail relies on the Rule 4 Draft for all his talent and yet he's limited in how many picks he can get because the O's never seem to sign the talent that would net them picks.

He's at more of a disadvantage in free agency and the draft really than internationally because only money limits him internationally, and most clubs don't spend a ton there anyway like they would in free agency, not even the Yankees or Red Sox.

The Orioles should be able to spend as much if not more than the Red Sox and Yankees for international talent. If the Pirates can do it, so can we.

[KurtCDavidson]

This stuff irritates me. Instead of taking a defensive stance on international scouting and development, why didn't MacPhail focus on what we are doing better than other teams to acquire and develop players? Oh yeah, because in this regard WE DO NOT DO ANYTHING BETTER THAN OTHER TEAMS.

His defense is that we were 17 out of 30 in amateur spending. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO MAKE US FEEL GOOD? Like we are all going to say, "Great. Now I understand why we don't develop international players. It is so we can be just slightly below average in spending to acquire players.

Look, there are only 4 ways to acquire players.

1. Trades: Give up current value for future value. This has been a mixed bag, but we have held onto guys for too long with the pathetic excuse of maintaining "respectability."

2. International signings: Either you are signing players that other teams don't know about or you are outbidding other teams. This has been a spectacular failure.

3. Amateur draft: Just look at the Blue Jays running circles around us to accumulate draft picks. This was probably the last chance to sign overslot. We should have gone hog wild.

4. Free agent signings: it is a huge monetary risk to sign a free agent with the worst value and return on investment. Basically, we should never do it until we are within 1 year of contending for a championship. Instead we blow $8 million on Vlad, give guaranteed contracts to middle relievers, stunt Reimold, and refuse to spend >$3M on hispanic kids. It just makes no sense.

To get ahead, you have to do something better than all other teams in terms of acquisition and development. Instead, we do everything worse. But it's OK, because our spending on amateur talent is only slightly below average.

[Gurgi]

Hearing him makes me think of him as Swift all over again. Just with better trading skills. Otherwise he is too old. Time has passed him by.

[TGO]

MacPhail's argument about not spending 4M is a straw man. No one is asking him to necessarily spend 4M on one player. But hello, the first time we ever spent six figures was last year, for a $300k bonus! That is our franchise record: $300,000. And we've only done it once.

You don't want to spend $4M on one guy, fine. Sign 18 guys for $200k a piece this year and one for $400k and I won't have a negative thing to say.

[TGO]

The more times I read these quotes and more I think about it the more irate I get. This is just a heaping shovelful of the same old BS.

[SrMeowMeow]

I'm pretty excited for MacPhail to leave this offseason now. As far as I'm concerned, this interview confirms that he should not be a major-league GM.

[allstar1579]

I am not so sure you are right here. It is obvious that the international market has changed a lot just in the last few years. It is by no means clear that the teams who have bid up the cost of a handful of high-priced prospects are going to be happy with those investments five years from now.

I want to make my position on this crystal clear -- I am not saying that MacPhail is correct. But the fact that he isn't choosing to do what some other teams are doing certainly doesn't make him wrong. Only time will tell.

And, it is too simplistic to say, "the Orioles have poor record in bringing in Latin American talent, therefore MacPhail must be doing it wrong." MacPhail hasn't been here that long, and the main results of his Latin strategy won't be known for several more years.

Again, I'm not defending the strategy, just saying that we don't really know yet if it is right or wrong.

Well, 11 of the 43 American League all-stars were signed as international free agents. I know we'd need a much bigger investigation to have a real good feel of it, but that is 1/4 of the AL Roster and we are completely unwilling to spend in that area...pretty dumb to cut yourself off to ANY resources I think.

[Enjoy Terror]

If I get some time this week I'm going to run some numbers on IFAs and decide for myself if there's any merit to putting a couple million into a 16 year old kid. There must be some; Francisco Liriano, Starlin Castro, Jose Reyes, Miguel Cabrera, Gerardo Parra, Michael Pineda, Elvis Andrus and Neftali Feliz are all examples of players that worked out well for their respective teams.

That's not to say the Orioles have completely ignored international free agency; the O's are actually fielding a pretty successful Dominican team this year (mostly from a pitching standpoint).

Now, it's early, but Hector Veloz for $300K last year was one of the first major forays into the international market and he's been struggling. If MacPhail wants to pin that one up as a self fulfilling prophecy, fine; but the signing was widely considered foolhardy because of Veloz's positive steroid test. MacPhail should be more concerned about finding scouts that can identify those can't-fail prospects and spend the money rather than ignore the market completely and chalk it up to a conservative approach to a risky endeavor.

It just bothers me how many teams who consistently have highly ranked farm systems and always finish on the tops of their divisions find no problem with int'l free agency, and spend well in it. I understand that the Yankees and Red Sox have tons of money for this sort of thing, but am I to believe that the O's have a tighter budget than the Twins, Mariners and A's?

For what it's worth, the Dominican has really cleaned up it's baseball operations with the creation of the DPL, which allows all the best prospects to play and get scouted in one easy to find location. It's really not any more risky to spend $3M on a top five DPL player than it is to pay a first round talent out of the Rule IV.

[JTrea81]

If I get some time this week I'm going to run some numbers on IFAs and decide for myself if there's any merit to putting a couple million into a 16 year old kid. There must be some; Francisco Liriano, Starlin Castro, Jose Reyes, Miguel Cabrera, Gerardo Parra, Michael Pineda, Elvis Andrus and Neftali Feliz are all examples of players that worked out well for their respective teams.

That's not to say the Orioles have completely ignored international free agency; the O's are actually fielding a pretty successful Dominican team this year (mostly from a pitching standpoint).

Now, it's early, but Hector Veloz for $300K last year was one of the first major forays into the international market and he's been struggling. If MacPhail wants to pin that one up as a self fulfilling prophecy, fine; but the signing was widely considered foolhardy because of Veloz's positive steroid test. MacPhail should be more concerned about finding scouts that can identify those can't-fail prospects and spend the money rather than ignore the market completely and chalk it up to a conservative approach to a risky endeavor.

It just bothers me how many teams who consistently have highly ranked farm systems and always finish on the tops of their divisions find no problem with int'l free agency, and spend well in it. I understand that the Yankees and Red Sox have tons of money for this sort of thing, but am I to believe that the O's have a tighter budget than the Twins, Mariners and A's?

For what it's worth, the Dominican has really cleaned up it's baseball operations with the creation of the DPL, which allows all the best prospects to play and get scouted in one easy to find location. It's really not any more risky to spend $3M on a top five DPL player than it is to pay a first round talent out of the Rule IV.

Don't forget to add Robinson Cano to that list.

[Frobby]

Well, 11 of the 43 American League all-stars were signed as international free agents. I know we'd need a much bigger investigation to have a real good feel of it, but that is 1/4 of the AL Roster and we are completely unwilling to spend in that area...pretty dumb to cut yourself off to ANY resources I think.

How many of those were signed to big bonuses? MacPhail has made clear that he is not ignoring Latin America, he is ignoring the pool of players who are getting mutiple million dollar signing bonuses and don't play in games. That's a very tiny fraction of the players who are signed internationally each year. I forget which thread it was in, but one of our posters recently tracked down a list of the top 25 international signing bonuses of all time, and only one all-star caliber player, Miguel Cabrera, was on the list.

[El Gordo]

I agree. Very good job.

The one question I wished he had asked was the one about being careful spending 4-5M on international players but wasting twice as much on risky aging FA.

[JTrea81]

How many of those were signed to big bonuses? MacPhail has made clear that he is not ignoring Latin America, he is ignoring the pool of players who are getting mutiple million dollar signing bonuses and don't play in games. That's a very tiny fraction of the players who are signed internationally each year. I forget which thread it was in, but one of our posters recently tracked down a list of the top 25 international signing bonuses of all time, and only one all-star caliber player, Miguel Cabrera, was on the list.

He's avoiding all Latin American talent that get a bonus north of $300K as far as I can see.

As somebody said, go ahead and ignore the multi-millionares, but where are the six figure signings?

If we can throw away $700K on Justin Duchscherer or Adam Eaton, why not do it for a 16-17 year old?

[LookitsPuck]

Francisco Liriano

Giants in 2000 - $900,000

Jose Reyes

Mets in 1999 - $22,000

Robinson Cano (amateur free-agent)

Yankees in 2001 (was a six figure bonus, not sure what it is..)

Starlin Castro

Cubs in 2004 - $45,000

Miguel Cabrera

Marlins in 1999 - $1,800,000

...looking up others. So far none of them exceeded $2 million, let alone $4 million...

[Stotle]

Francisco Liriano

Giants in 2000 - $900,000

Jose Reyes

Mets in 1999 - $22,000

Robinson Cano (amateur free-agent)

Yankees in 2001 (was a six figure bonus, not sure what it is..)

Starlin Castro

Cubs in 2004 - $45,000

Miguel Cabrera

Marlins in 1999 - $1,800,000

...looking up others. So far none of them exceeded $2 million, let alone $4 million...

Only very recently have latin american bonuses gone north of $4 million, which is why using that as some sort of statement figure for "big bonuses" is a little disingenuous.