7 new international signings

[LookinUp]

4 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Lebron could step in and start on the US national team at center back in a matter of months. 

I don't believe this, but the idea that one of the world's greatest athletes EVER could not be a great professional soccer player is silly to me. It wouldn't happen in a few months. He would have needed to cultivate those skills from childhood, just like he has done with basketball. Even then, he would likely be a problem if he played forward. If nothing else, he'd likely be a beast goalie. 

[Camden_yardbird]

On 1/25/2020 at 7:13 AM, sportsfan8703 said:

This is my thinking. I’m happy we spent all but 1.5 million of our budget. 

We just can’t ignore 1/2 the talent grab anymore. This is how to rebuild. 

To be fair we are ignoring the free agent market, so we still are not accessing every means of player or prospect acquisition.

[weams]

 

[weams]

9 minutes ago, Camden_yardbird said:

To be fair we are ignoring the free agent market, so we still are not accessing every means of player or prospect acquisition.

Our shortstop was a FA unless you just meant real high prices long term ones. 

[jarman86]

This thread was entertaining.  So Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson tried soccer and failed horribly.  It is far from an easy sport.  Soccer is popular over in Europe because they have soccer pitches/basketball courts in every neighborhood.  All kids need is a ball.  Baseball you need equipment and a field, and the rain in northern Europe minimizes the season(same reason why prospects here generally come from warmer drier climates).  Further challenge is, there aren't free sports programs, so most kids have to pick one sport and stick to it.  Since soccer is a heavy influence in European culture it takes precedence.  Its on in every bar, 7 days a week, almost 24/7.  

To suggest Lebron could dominate soccer in a matter of months shows complete and utter ignorance.  If he quits Basketball and focused on soccer for a couple years, maybe he could be on a tier 2 US soccer team.  Height is more a goalie/defender role.  

As to baseball in Europe, the money and interest aren't there as other countries.  Netherlands and Italy are the two biggest baseball countries, with the Netherlands having the most talent.  Having been to multiple games there, the talent gap is there.  In part because the weather (rain and climate).  The players on the National team make $2,000 a month and the rest of the players on the team generally have to pay for free or $250.  So it is a hobby sport more than anything.  MLB has been somewhat proactive in Europe, but I think they are not willing to deal with the challenges.  Other players like Dovydas Neverauskas had opportunities through his family in Lithuania and acknowledged when I spoke to him the difficulties of finding teams in Europe.  

Edited January 28, 2020 by jarman86

[Camden_yardbird]

4 minutes ago, weams said:

Our shortstop was a FA unless you just meant real high prices long term ones. 

That's a fair point.  I dont mean long term free agents, I just mean I think they have neglected that as a means of improving the talent in the organization.  That said I would not be surprised to see 1-2 additions in the next two weeks.

[DrungoHazewood]

12 hours ago, atomic said:

Have you ever been to Iceland? Vikings settled Iceland.Big, strong athletic population.  
 

 

Yes, and I think it's presumptuous and flawed to assume that Icelandic people are so genetically superior that they naturally produce soccer players at a rate 1000s of times that of the US, or even other European countries for that matter.  

[Greg Pappas]

Somewhat related...

 

[DrungoHazewood]

5 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Lebron could step in and start on the US national team at center back in a matter of months. 

That's an untestable assertion, but it's also comically ridiculous.  You're saying that the value of the innate feel for the strategies and techniques and flow of soccer that you spend decades grasping in practice and games is zero.  Or near zero.  

When's the last time Lebron played soccer?  Has he ever since middle school?  There have to be thousands of U12 players with a better first touch on the ball than he has.

[DrungoHazewood]

31 minutes ago, jarman86 said:

To suggest Lebron could dominate soccer in a matter of months shows complete and utter ignorance.  If he quits Basketball and focused on soccer for a couple years, maybe he could be on a tier 2 US soccer team.  Height is more a goalie/defender role. 

Usain Bolt, who's certainly on the same level as Lebron as an athlete, tried to become a soccer player a little over a year ago.  He had a trial spell with an Australian A League team.  He did have two goals in a friendly (i.e. exhibition) against a lower-level side, but then called it quits.  So elite-level Olympic athlete trains at soccer for a year and looked like he might have been passable in what's probably the 30th or 40th-best soccer league in the world.

[Frobby]

20 minutes ago, Greg Pappas said:

Somewhat related...

 

Well, that really isn’t too terrible, having two guys right in the middle of the top 100 list.    Obviously, that’s still below average, but we expected that.  But I wouldn’t have been surprised if none of our players were on the list at all, or if they’d been well below 46 and 51.    Did we have anyone on the 2018 list?

Also, I’d heard about Ortiz, but don’t think I heard anything about Rangel.    (Edit: well, there was this:)

 

[LookinUp]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Well, that really isn’t too terrible, having two guys right in the middle of the top 100 list.    Obviously, that’s still below average, but we expected that.  But I wouldn’t have been surprised if none of our players were on the list at all, or if they’d been well below 46 and 51.    Did we have anyone on the 2018 list?

Also, I’d heard about Ortiz, but don’t think I heard anything about Rangel.    

To add on, I appreciate the effort, but have to question just how good Badler's information about guys who didn't play much this year can really be. It's a great thing that he does and I think it's awesome for fans, it just comes with limitations because you pretty much have to be in a ML scouting office or REALLY embedded down there to have a comprehensive grasp of what's going on. I don't mean to sound too critical because he's providing great information that nobody else (almost?) really provides. Just noting the limitation.

[jarman86]

22 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Usain Bolt, who's certainly on the same level as Lebron as an athlete, tried to become a soccer player a little over a year ago.  He had a trial spell with an Australian A League team.  He did have two goals in a friendly (i.e. exhibition) against a lower-level side, but then called it quits.  So elite-level Olympic athlete trains at soccer for a year and looked like he might have been passable in what's probably the 30th or 40th-best soccer league in the world.

Usain Bolt played soccer growing up.  Usain Bolt trained more than a year to play Aussie soccer.  This was his dream to be a professional soccer, it wasn't as if he picked up a soccer ball for the first time.  Considering the league, it was more a publicity stunt than anything.  Giannis Ante...that guy has played soccer all his life from Greece but I highly doubt he could play in a professional, respectable league.  In fact, he concentrated on basketball because he was told that.  The Australian League is probably lower than 30th or 40th actually, soccer is far from the predominant sport there.  Most the talent plays Rugby, Aussie Football, and Cricket, plus baseball.  And he played for the Orioles of that league in exhibition games.  Billy Crystal played for the Yankees in an exhibition game, but I don't consider him a baseball player.  Michael Jordan played professional baseball, but by all accounts he was horrible.  

 

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, jarman86 said:

Usain Bolt played soccer growing up.  Usain Bolt trained more than a year to play Aussie soccer.  This was his dream to be a professional soccer, it wasn't as if he picked up a soccer ball for the first time.  Considering the league, it was more a publicity stunt than anything.  Giannis Ante...that guy has played soccer all his life from Greece but I highly doubt he could play in a professional, respectable league.  In fact, he concentrated on basketball because he was told that.  The Australian League is probably lower than 30th or 40th actually, soccer is far from the predominant sport there.  Most the talent plays Rugby, Aussie Football, and Cricket, plus baseball.  And he played for the Orioles of that league in exhibition games.  Billy Crystal played for the Yankees in an exhibition game, but I don't consider him a baseball player.  Michael Jordan played professional baseball, but by all accounts he was horrible.  

 

Don't disagree with any of this.  My point was simply that an elite athlete tried to become a soccer player after a career in another sport, and the result was kind of inconclusive. At best Bolt looked like he could have been a halfway decent player in a low-level league.  Which strongly contradicts the idea that Lebron would be the best center back in the US after two months of practice.

[MurphDogg]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

Well, that really isn’t too terrible, having two guys right in the middle of the top 100 list.    Obviously, that’s still below average, but we expected that.  But I wouldn’t have been surprised if none of our players were on the list at all, or if they’d been well below 46 and 51.    Did we have anyone on the 2018 list?

Also, I’d heard about Ortiz, but don’t think I heard anything about Rangel.    (Edit: well, there was this:)

 

Another tidbit on Rangel (from 11 months ago, before he signed)

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Right-handed pitcher Raul Rangel (2019) of Venezuela featured a fastball that topped out at 89.7 mph with a 2,292 rpm spin rate

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the MLB average [is] 2,263 rpm for fastballs