Homegrown draft talent

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, deward said:

From an O's perspective, Koji was a trade acquisition. 

Koji was signed as a free agent.

[deward]

Just now, Can_of_corn said:

Koji was signed as a free agent.

You're right, I was misremembering, we traded him TO the Rangers.

[Moose Milligan]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

About 30% of major leaguers were international signings. 

This is wrong and I know it, but I don't differentiate much between the amateur draft and signing a guy like Basallo.  There are two different mechanisms at work (and yes, I know that an international signing can be everything from a 16 year old kid in the Dominican all the way up to Ohtani...but I am more focused on the lower level amatuer international signings here) but they're both ways to get young talent into the system.

Let's suspend reality for a second and assume that Basallo and Almeyda were on the Orioles right now (I know, I know, just hold on).  We'd still have 9 guys on the roster that were technically "drafted" but, IMO, Basallo and Almeyda would still be an example of homegrown talent on the roster.  Who cares if they were part of the official MLB draft or not?  

[interloper]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

This is wrong and I know it, but I don't differentiate much between the amateur draft and signing a guy like Basallo.  There are two different mechanisms at work (and yes, I know that an international signing can be everything from a 16 year old kid in the Dominican all the way up to Ohtani...but I am more focused on the lower level amatuer international signings here) but they're both ways to get young talent into the system.

Let's suspend reality for a second and assume that Basallo and Almeyda were on the Orioles right now (I know, I know, just hold on).  We'd still have 9 guys on the roster that were technically "drafted" but, IMO, Basallo and Almeyda would still be an example of homegrown talent on the roster.  Who cares if they were part of the official MLB draft or not?  

I agree. If Basallo becomes a good MLer, I will absolutely be saying he is a homegrown player that we developed. Someone like Prieto who was 22 when we signed him, I could see not putting him in that bucket. But these guys that we're signing who are high-school aged... that's our homegrown development win, damnit. 

[Moose Milligan]

Just now, interloper said:

I agree. If Basallo becomes a good MLer, I will absolutely be saying he is a homegrown player that we developed. Someone like Prieto who was 22 when we signed him, I could see not putting him in that bucket. But these guys that we're signing who are high-school aged... that's our homegrown development win, damnit. 

Yeah, that about sums it up.  

I don't care if they were actually "drafted" or not.  

[Alasdaire]

I hope it's a priority for the organization to extend these guys.

It's one thing is not having the cash to bring in established talent from outside of the organization. That's annoying and hurts our chances to compete, but it's a product of baseball's broken system not having a salary cap.

But losing some of the guys we're producing now would hurt on a different level. There's something special about guys who you watch come up through the ranks and stay with the team for life. Even knowing in retrospect that 2018-2021 were lost years, I imagine most of us still wish Manny had been locked up during those years.

Take the Ravens. You could make a case that the Ravens would be more competitive over the long-run if they had traded Lamar instead of re-signing him. But Eric DeCosta said a few times that he felt it was important to the city that they retain Lamar. Homegrown players are worth taking a chance on.

The O's have the ability to pay any of these guys long as they identify which are worthy early enough. You can't expect a hometown discount, but they are presumably all within the O's budget so long as it is done early. As far as Boras clients go, take a book from DeCosta's page and keep at it with negotiations no matter how fruitless they appear.

[emmett16]

3 hours ago, deward said:

You're right, I was misremembering, we traded him TO the Rangers.

And technically we are still paying for it...

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, emmett16 said:

And technically we are still paying for it...

How so?

Davis was signed as a free agent.

[emmett16]

1 minute ago, Can_of_corn said:

How so?

Davis was signed as a free agent.

True.  Bad joke.  But we likely don't overpay for him had he not been playing for us.  And even with his couple good seasons, I think I'd rather have had Koji.  

[seak05]

6 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Yeah, that about sums it up.  

I don't care if they were actually "drafted" or not.  

This, I get the thrust of the wapo article and it makes sense to care about some. But the bigger point to me is how many guys on a roster did the team develop vs how many did they bring in via major league free agency.