O's Getting Serious About Sano?

[liquid0623]

I just hope this doesn't turn into another Edward Salcedo situation. Salcedo was drawing comparisions to a young A-Rod but his age came into question and as a result he dropped off the radar. I don't think he ever signed with a club.

Arangure Jr. seems to think that it will be hard to prove that Sano took his younger brother's ID because parents actually have to apply for paperwork to register their children to get a birth certificate. If there is no birth certificate which is pretty likely considering his brother died at childbirth, the parents wouldn't have likely applied for that paperwork so Miguel Sano couldn't take an ID that didn't exist.

I just want to put the record straight. This baby died in the 5th to 6th month of pregnancy and there is documentation. Also, it was actually the oldest baby that died and the first baby that she gave birth to. It was still born and there is documention. This would have actually made Sano older, not younger.

Carlos Bernhardt (the orioles head scout in the Dominican) has known this kid since he wass 8 years old. I'm sick of all the hearsay and false innuendos.

[Arthur_Bryant]

That is why I gave Jorge a "no comment" after he said last week that the Orioles had no interest which is also not true. This Sano thing is becoming a circus. Remember we are just talking about a 16 year old kid. Carlos Bernhardt (the orioles head scout in the Dominican) has known this kid since he wass 8 years old. I'm sick of all the hearsay and false innuendos.

To heck with the bone scans. That (bolded) would be good enough for me.

Just a peripheral observation: At this level of the game, relationships are extremely important. When MacPhail talks about establishing a presence in the Caribbean or elsewhere, it translates into having people on the ground who know thousands of kids and coaches and parents on a first-name basis. A lot of the really good scouts in the US operate that way as well, and their most effective tool is not so much a JUGS gun as a good handshake and an ability to recall names and project a sincere personality.

I know that Carlos Bernhardt has been representing the O's for years in the DR, but I get the sense that he has been more or less a one-man show. The O's need more like him. The payoff can be years down the road, but it is very real.

[liquid0623]

To heck with the bone scans. That (bolded) would be good enough for me.

Just a peripheral observation: At this level of the game, relationships are extremely important. When MacPhail talks about establishing a presence in the Caribbean or elsewhere, it translates into having people on the ground who know thousands of kids and coaches and parents on a first-name basis. A lot of the really good scouts in the US operate that way as well, and their most effective tool is not so much a JUGS gun as a good handshake and an ability to recall names and project a sincere personality.

I know that Carlos Bernhardt has been representing the O's for years in the DR, but I get the sense that he has been more or less a one-man show. The O's need more like him. The payoff can be years down the road, but it is very real.

Jorge's column on ESPN will be running a correction by the end of the night on it being his older brother who died still born and not a younger brother.

[Arthur_Bryant]

Jorge's column on ESPN will be running a correction by the end of the night on it being his older brother who died still born and not a younger brother. Errors like this really amaze me.

Yes because it should be easy to verify. Make a few phone calls.

And if you can't verify it, you don't run with it.

Reporting 101

[lovetoaster]

Yes because it should be easy to verify. Make a few phone calls.

And if you can't verify it, you don't run with it.

Reporting 101

That's the problem with journalism these days though. People are a lot more concerned with being first than they are with being right. Too much unfounded speculation and not enough fact.

[BlackWillow]

I just want to put the record straight...

Since I've been reading your posts on Sano for a while, I want to put in my two cents. IMHO you do not have to put anything straight. All arse kissing aside, I am thrilled you dropped by and look forward to your posts. We can talk all day, but very few of us have experience in baseball operations, and it is cool to hear your perspective. Stick around bro!

[liquid0623]

Since I've been reading your posts on Sano for a while, I want to put in my two cents. IMHO you do not have to put anything straight. All arse kissing aside, I am thrilled you dropped by and look forward to your posts. We can talk all day, but very few of us have experience in baseball operations, and it is cool to hear your perspective. Stick around bro!

Thanks... I will come by from time to time.

[Lt Melmo]

Can someone explain to me why this happens so often? Why are there always so many 16 year-old phenoms in the DR? I'm not doubting that he's the real deal, but why is it that seemingly every single year, there's a 16 year-old from the DR that every team wants? Besides Bryce Harper, it doesn't seem to happen in the US that often, and there are a lot more ballplayers here. What makes these DR kids so much easier to project into HoFers than American high school kids?

[crawdad]

Can someone explain to me why this happens so often? Why are there always so many 16 year-old phenoms in the DR? I'm not doubting that he's the real deal, but why is it that seemingly every single year, there's a 16 year-old from the DR that every team wants? Besides Bryce Harper, it doesn't seem to happen in the US that often, and there are a lot more ballplayers here. What makes these DR kids so much easier to project into HoFers than American high school kids?

Because 16 year olds are so far away from the bigs that they have the potential, but many problems can form by the time they are MLB ready and the highest bidder can sign them. You would see similar things here if the draft was not in place. Also . . . baseball is a socioeconomic climber in the DR . . . it is not here.

[Arthur_Bryant]

Can someone explain to me why this happens so often? Why are there always so many 16 year-old phenoms in the DR? I'm not doubting that he's the real deal, but why is it that seemingly every single year, there's a 16 year-old from the DR that every team wants? Besides Bryce Harper, it doesn't seem to happen in the US that often, and there are a lot more ballplayers here. What makes these DR kids so much easier to project into HoFers than American high school kids?

You can't overestimate the value of playing ball... lots and lots of ball. My sense is that from an early age these kids are playing lots and lots of ball, all the time, far more than their age-equivalent counterparts almost anywhere else.

Even in warm-weather states in the US, baseball is an organized activity. You play ball with your team; you have your team practices and games and individual coaching sessions. But outside that formal activbity, you're not playing ball.

I don't know about where you live, but I'm in a small midwestern city, and to see kids out playing baseball informally is very rare. "Sandlot ball" virtually doesn't exist as far as I can tell. For a "pickup game" you play basketball, not baseball.

In the DR, baseball is everywhere. There is always a game. It is what basketball is to kids in the US.

Also, just a WAG but I think that at any given age the quality of instruction is generally better in the Caribbean than in the US. More people know more about the game of baseball.

We have the big money pro teams, but they have become the keepers of the flame in terms of baseball culture.

[liquid0623]

Jorge Arangure updated his story.

Sano has had 5 different tests to verify his age, birth parents and no steroids.

1. Bone graft

2. DNA test to verify his parents

3. Blood tests for banned substances

4. 2 other tests that a National League team ran.

I don't know what more a team can do.

His older brother was still born 6 months into pregnancy was older than he was and would have been his mother's first child. His mother just turned 35 and had a still born child and he has an older sister.

[Leitch]

Can someone explain to me why this happens so often? Why are there always so many 16 year-old phenoms in the DR? I'm not doubting that he's the real deal, but why is it that seemingly every single year, there's a 16 year-old from the DR that every team wants? Besides Bryce Harper, it doesn't seem to happen in the US that often, and there are a lot more ballplayers here. What makes these DR kids so much easier to project into HoFers than American high school kids?

My guess is the draft, basically

[RShack]

Jorge Arangure updated his story.

Sano has had 5 different tests to verify his age, birth parents and no steroids.

1. Bone graft

2. DNA test to verify his parents

3. Blood tests for banned substances

4. 2 other tests that a National League team ran.

I don't know what more a team can do.

His older brother was still born 6 months into pregnancy was older than he was and would have been his mother's first child. His mother just turned 35 and had a still born child and he has an older sister.

This whole thing about the kid is starting to sound very CIA-like, which is a shame...

[JCK]

Can someone explain to me why this happens so often? Why are there always so many 16 year-old phenoms in the DR? I'm not doubting that he's the real deal, but why is it that seemingly every single year, there's a 16 year-old from the DR that every team wants? Besides Bryce Harper, it doesn't seem to happen in the US that often, and there are a lot more ballplayers here. What makes these DR kids so much easier to project into HoFers than American high school kids?

16 year old Americans aren't eligible to be drafted. There are 16 year old phenoms in the states, but you only start hearing about them when they are 17-18, when teams start talking about drafting them. Bryce Harper only started to gain mainstream fame when it was reported he might skip the last 2 years of HS.

You start hearing about kids when their pro-turning day draws near, regardless of where they are.

[BringBackMagic]

16 year old Americans aren't eligible to be drafted. There are 16 year old phenoms in the states, but you only start hearing about them when they are 17-18, when teams start talking about drafting them. Bryce Harper only started to gain mainstream fame when it was reported he might skip the last 2 years of HS.

You start hearing about kids when their pro-turning day draws near, regardless of where they are.

Exactly. If it was possible for a player to be signed at 16 years old as a FA, they would be getting huge signing bonuses and we'd be talking about them just as much. And much like those from DR and other Latin American countries, the vast majority of them would flop after receiving huge checks.

It's just a result of the open market for international players.