International Signings This Week...

[Lucky Jim]

My kid is 16 (still a good 16 years and five months away) and wants to buy a motorcycle.

Congrats, btw.

[DrungoHazewood]

Incorrect analysis, in my opinion. First, different "decision makers" in each venue. Not the guy pulling the trigger, but the people doing the analysis and presenting the arguments. San Francisco has drafted very well the last three years and made plenty of questionable ML moves. Why? Amateur scouting is better than analysis being used by whoever controls ML roster/budget.

Then I think there's bad processes. Bad systems engineering, if you will. There should be one budget, and one organizational philosophy.

There shouldn't be $10M for amateur signings, and a separate $75M for MLB payroll. There should be $X, and a thorough analysis of what is the best way to break that down and spend that on the organization.

I really think that good teams probably do a lot more process improvement and work envisioning the whole process (i.e. systems engineering) than bad organizations that seem to be run like a Mom and Pop shop who have found themselves with a $100M budget.

[mweb]

Then I think there's bad processes. Bad systems engineering, if you will. There should be one budget, and one organizational philosophy.

There shouldn't be $10M for amateur signings, and a separate $75M for MLB payroll. There should be $X, and a thorough analysis of what is the best way to break that down and spend that on the organization.

I really think that good teams probably do a lot more process improvement and work envisioning the whole process (i.e. systems engineering) than bad organizations that seem to be run like a Mom and Pop shop who have found themselves with a $100M budget.

I agree with this. It doesn't make sense to me to have separate budgets. If you save on MLB payroll one year, you should then have that extra money for the draft and the international market. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the way they operate.

[Stotle]

Then I think there's bad processes. Bad systems engineering, if you will. There should be one budget, and one organizational philosophy.

There shouldn't be $10M for amateur signings, and a separate $75M for MLB payroll. There should be $X, and a thorough analysis of what is the best way to break that down and spend that on the organization.

I really think that good teams probably do a lot more process improvement and work envisioning the whole process (i.e. systems engineering) than bad organizations that seem to be run like a Mom and Pop shop who have found themselves with a $100M budget.

Agreed. But it isn't a rarity to have someone up top veto personnel moves for one reason or another. The best-run teams certainly let the baseball people manage the breakdowns and shuffle money around to departments as needed, depending on the year and assets available.

[BrunoCherrytown]

And now the Astros have signed some top prospects this week. I think our scouts down there must be just sitting on the beach drinking Mojitos.

Maybe we'll hear next week how we upgraded our Dominican facilities to include a tiki bar so that the scouts don't have to go so far to get drunk.

To say that every other team is wrong and somehow we have some critical insight into why signing any even mid-ranked Dominican prospects is too risky is grasping at straws. We haven't been right about much in 13 years.

And the knee jerk thought is hey one of the guys tested positive for a banned substance, but he seems to be throwing just as hard without it now. And these guys weren't exactly budget-busters.

Houston has signed two of the top arms from the Dominican Republic, 16-year-old righthander Michael Feliz and 17-year-old righthander Jose Montero, reports Ben Badler of Baseball America. Feliz's deal is worth $400K while Montero will reportedly earn $350K.

Feliz reached agreement with the A's on a deal worth $800K in the offseason, but Oakland voided the deal upon the pitcher testing positive for an anabolic steroid and receiving a 50-game suspension. Scouts who have kept tabs on the hurler this year say that he was regularly hitting 92-93 mph on the radar gun before the positive drug test but has been topping out at 91 mph in recent months.

Montero can pitch at 89-92 mph and has hit 93 mph on the radar gun for some scouts. Latin American sources have said that the Yankees and Padres were also interested in his services. While he throws a slider and an occasional changeup, his secondary stuff and overall feel for pitching isn't as advanced as Feliz's.

The Astros now appear poised to have three first-year fireballers on their Dominican Summer League staff, with lefty Edgar Ferreira also expected to be on board. Ferreira, 17, signed with Houston in December of last year