Strong Dominican presence in O's Camp

[wildcard]

I don't remember this many Dominican players being in the O's Camp before.  Its a hot bed of baseball.

Ubaldo Jimenez, Welington Castillo, Jayson Aquino, Jesus Liranzo, Gabriel Ynao, Aneury Tavarez, Richard Rodriguez,Yermin Mercedes, Audry Perez, Francisco Pena and of course Manny Machado's parents are Dominican and he is playing on the Dominican National Team.

Other Nationality  on the roster

Hyun Soo Kim - Korea

Vidal Nuno - Born in California but of Mexico heritage

Jonathan Schoop - Curacao

Daniel Alvarez, Robert Andino (born in Florida) - Cuba

Anthony Santander - Venezuela

Jason Garcia was both born in New York.  Does anyone know his heritage?

 

 

 

 

[Frobby]

What you don't see much of on that list are guys who were signed by the O's as young amateurs outside of the draft.   

[terps19]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

What you don't see much of on that list are guys who were signed by the O's as young amateurs outside of the draft.   

That is simply not a market the FO has really decided to try and tap.  Sure they dabble but... 

[sportsfan8703]

It's really the next step our farm system/organization needs to take. It seems like we've been drafting really well since DD got here. DD is great at finding depth guys, but we still need to invest more in the Latin American market. 

Right now only Reyes, Peralta, Liranzo, and Ortega are in our top 30 prospects. 

Thats why a guy like Santander has been getting so much hype on here. Finding a way to keep him would be huge. Not to get sidetracked, but if we can hide him for a year, he would essentially be where we all hoped DJ Stewart would be. 

[wildcard]

Dan is always trying to find undervalued assets.   He certainly hit on the relievers as an area that was undervalued.  Maybe he thinks certain Dominicans are undervalued also.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Dan is always trying to find undervalued assets.   He certainly hit on the relievers as an area that was undervalued.  Maybe he thinks certain Dominicans are undervalued also.

I think that country of origin is not a factor when dealing with players with established MLB or MiLB records.

[Frobby]

34 minutes ago, wildcard said:

Dan is always trying to find undervalued assets.   He certainly hit on the relievers as an area that was undervalued.  Maybe he thinks certain Dominicans are undervalued also.

 

29 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I think that country of origin is not a factor when dealing with players with established MLB or MiLB records.

Yeah, this seems kind of nonsensical.   More than 10% of all major leaguers are Dominican, and I'm sure the number is higher in the minors.    They're not exactly a secret.   

[wildcard]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

I think that country of origin is not a factor when dealing with players with established MLB or MiLB records.

You may be right but I am not sure.

Castillo hits well for a catcher but the D'Backs non tender him.

Aquino is sold for cash.

Ynoa is one of the Mets up an coming players but then is sold for cash.

Tavarez  puts up a 335/379/506/886 at AA at age 24 and is not protect in the Rule 5 draft.

Liranzo is signed by the Braves and released.

Richard  Rodriguez is signed by the Astros and sold to the O's for cash.

Maybe teams value America born players over Dominican players when there is a roster crunch. And maybe Dan has noticed that.

 

[wildcard]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

 

Yeah, this seems kind of nonsensical.   More than 10% of all major leaguers are Dominican, and I'm sure the number is higher in the minors.    They're not exactly a secret.   

No not a secret.  But maybe Dan thinks they are undervalued when compared to American players.

[ArtVanDelay]

Dan sure is a genius for grabbing all these Dominican players before the rest of the league found out.  Now that the secret is out, where to next?  I wonder if they know about baseball in Cuba. 

[Can_of_corn]

24 minutes ago, wildcard said:

You may be right but I am not sure.

Castillo hits well for a catcher but the D'Backs non tender him.

Aquino is sold for cash.

Ynoa is one of the Mets up an coming players but then is sold for cash.

Tavarez  puts up a 335/379/506/886 at AA at age 24 and is not protect in the Rule 5 draft.

Liranzo is signed by the Braves and released.

Richard  Rodriguez is signed by the Astros and sold to the O's for cash.

Maybe teams value America born players over Dominican player when there is a roster crunch. And maybe Dan has noticed that.

 

Would be interesting if this was provable.

[Frobby]

48 minutes ago, wildcard said:

You may be right but I am not sure.

Castillo hits well for a catcher but the D'Backs non tender him.

Aquino is sold for cash.

Ynoa is one of the Mets up an coming players but then is sold for cash.

Tavarez  puts up a 335/379/506/886 at AA at age 24 and is not protect in the Rule 5 draft.

Liranzo is signed by the Braves and released.

Richard  Rodriguez is signed by the Astros and sold to the O's for cash.

Maybe teams value America born players over Dominican players when there is a roster crunch. And maybe Dan has noticed that.

 

Well, it will be interesting to see what production we get out of these guys.   I do recall that a few years ago (pre-Dan) there was a thread about how few Latinos we had on our 40-man roster.    Certainly nobody would say that now.  

[Frobby]

For what it's worth, here's the number of foreign players on each AL East 40-man roster (Dominicans in parentheses);

BAL: 10 (6)

BOS: 10 (3)

TOR: 12 (3)

NYY: 16 (8)

TBR: 9 (2)

[FlipTheBird]

1 hour ago, wildcard said:

You may be right but I am not sure.

Castillo hits well for a catcher but the D'Backs non tender him.

Aquino is sold for cash.

Ynoa is one of the Mets up an coming players but then is sold for cash.

Tavarez  puts up a 335/379/506/886 at AA at age 24 and is not protect in the Rule 5 draft.

Liranzo is signed by the Braves and released.

Richard  Rodriguez is signed by the Astros and sold to the O's for cash.

Maybe teams value America born players over Dominican players when there is a roster crunch. And maybe Dan has noticed that.

 

None of these players has proven to be anything other than league average, and only one of them is that (Castillo). This is not some strategy, Dan's just rostering guys that he can afford and that he thinks might help. That's all.

And, in some cases, like Tavarez, you're cherry-picking. He finally had one above average minor league year in 2016. After five years of average to below-average ones. And the Sox still have a stocked minor league system. Simply put, he wasn't good enough to protect.

[bpilktree]

I wonder if the steroid part of that has some thing to do with Dan not going after the younger guys playing in the Caribbean.  I know for a time  that their was an issue with the younger guys and high prevalence of steroid usage.  Also what is the percentage of those caught with steroids coming from other countries compared to the American born players.