Orioles sign Cuban outfielder Henry Urrutia

[Greg]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-orioles-sign-cuban-outfielder-henry-urrutia-20120711,0,6517441.story?track=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[CA-ORIOLE]

Alright Dan.

[LookitsPuck]

Just turned 25. The 25-year-old Urrutia received a signing bonus of $778,500.

That's a healthy chunk of change. Not Cespedes or Soler level, but still nice.

.397/.461/.597 with 12 homers in 305 at-bats

[Snutchy]

Nothing to be ashamed of here. I like it AND he's Cuban. Can we PLEASE throw that out the window finally?

[sevastras]

Nothing to be ashamed of here. I like it AND he's Cuban. Can we PLEASE throw that out the window finally?

DD didn't get that part of the employee handbook.

[sevastras]

Beat you by one minute on the MILB board...just saying.:smile11:

[crowmst3k!]

Nice...now we can finally trade Jones for Jurrjens.

[eb45]

Love it. This is what building a strong international presence entails.

[Malike]

25? WTF He's ancient!

[Frobby]

"Urrutia, 24, is the son of Ermidelio Urrutia, a former Cuban national team outfielder who played in the 1992 Olympics and several other international competitions. From 2006-2010, Ermidelio was a manager in Serie Nacional for Las Tunas, the team Henry played for from his debut season in 2005-06 until his final season in 2009-10. Henry Urrutia batted .397/.461/.597 in 305 at-bats with 12 home runs and more walks (32) than strikeouts (23) his last year in Cuba, tying for ninth in the league in OBP.

A 6-foot-3, 180-pound switch-hitter, Urrutia is a corner outfielder with a solid, level stroke that produces line drives, with a better swing plane from the left side. He has solid bat-to-ball ability and average power. While there's not much projection remaining, Urrutia's body does have some room to fill out, so he could add more pop, but he doesn't have prototypical power for a corner outfielder. He's a good athlete for a corner outfielder and just around an average runner. He could begin his career in Double-A."

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/2012/07/orioles-sign-cuban-outfielder-henry-urrutia/

Note the article says his last year in Cuba was 2009-10. What's he been doing the last two years? Also, the article is quoting a prior scouting report they did, which is why it says he is 24 years old, though he is now 25.

[Can_of_corn]

Beat you by one minute on the MILB board...just saying.:smile11:

Birdland 528

Sevastras 537

Klaw doesn't think he is anything special which is high praise for an O's move.

[jabba72]

Bring em' up. Cant be any worse than Chavez can he? This is uncharted waters for the

O's by the way, unless they have signed another Caribbean player for this kind of money I hadnt read about.

[Rene88]

We signed a Cuban?!?! Petey is gonna be mad! DD is grounded for 2 weeks and no video games.

[86this]

25? WTF He's ancient!

But is he really 25?? :scratchchinhmm:

[MatthewW]

MLBTradeRumors is reporting that this deal doesn't count against the international cap... If it is indeed true, why so?