International Signing Period starts Sunday Jan 15th - O's to make biggest signing in their history

[emmett16]

On 1/16/2023 at 9:37 AM, Just Regular said:

Not that its any of our business, but curious what the Almeyda family will do with Ayden now, or how thoroughly 24/7/365 the Orioles engage him.     Today is he already resident in the first operational wing of the DR academy (just speculating there, but if you are building dorms for say 100 kids, some rooms will be finished sooner than others), or does Club control of his housing wait for later?    If so, can he come back to Jersey and his old school if he wants?

Class, this is Ayden, you may remember him from 8th grade.    We hear he's very good at baseball, but he isn't going to get to go out for the team.     

GED or high school diploma a priority at all next couple years, or just focus on your trade because you can always do that later?     It sounds like he might already be a US Citizen, unlike say Samuel Basallo.

A lot of other elite athletes in “alternative” sports do online schooling.  It’s come a long way in the last 10+ years and there are some good academies out there.  My kids are both surfers and the good kids on their team are all sponsored by various brands and travel the world competing, creating content, and training.  Gymnist, bicyclist, snowboarder/skiers, etc. Heck, any pro football(soccer) player in Europe likely went to a club academy starting at age 9 or so.  I think the traditional education model is a little different for elite level athletes.  If you want to hang some paper from an expensive school, you can do that when your done monetizing your athletic abilities.  The traditional school schedule doesn’t jive well with an athletes training schedule.  “I played for the Baltimore Orioles” will open a few more doors than a diploma.  

[sportsfan8703]

On 1/15/2023 at 2:13 PM, RZNJ said:

Maybe, or they see value in loading up on the 100K types.  It could be a strategy.   They have not done well in the 400K area previously with Ortiz and Gonzale in 2019, Feiciano in 2020, and Sosa last year.   Last year we had Amparo and Arias over 600K but you could argue that we had a bunch of comparable guys under 200k with Estrada, Bevavides, and Velazquez. It's hard to say how much is strategy and how much is getting shut out on mid range bonus players.

I was thinking this could be a positive as well. Maybe before we were able to sign the 500k plus kids because we simply offered the most money. Now Perez has built up relationships and we’re able to get the 200k types. 

[sportsfan8703]

That $2.3 million figure is right in line for what the last pick in the first rd signed for last year. I feel like we stole one in Almeyda, and that he’s less of an unknown than our previous big signings of Makiel, Arias, etc…