NY Times: Scrutiny Dims Baseball’s Dominican Prospects

[Arthur_Bryant]

Excellent article in the current NY Times about how steroid testing and closer attention to age issues has dampened the bonuses paid to Dominican players.

Among the highlights:

• Of the top 40 prospects identified by Major League Baseball this year, only five have signed since July 2.
  
• Attention has shifted to Venezuela, where players are suddenly more in demand.
  
• All five top players trained by one Dominican trainer have tested positive for steroids, and only one has signed a contract.
  
• Quoting an unnamed MLB GM: “Buscóns just kept asking for more and more over the past few years, and it has finally caught up. Every year, there are a couple of guys, like two to three, that are worth several millions of dollars, and now there are like 25 guys asking for $2.5 to $5 million.”
  

Mods, please feel free to move this to the MLB forum if it fits better there.

[mikezpen]

Can you imagine the talent that would be available if Cuba suddenly becomes free and players can leave there for America. Talk about a baseball hotbed...

[Boy Howdy]

Fascinating read.

Following the 2008 season, I wrote an article noting that Venezuela broke the stranglehold the Dominican had on being MLB's top talent producer for a quarter-century. Eighteen Venezuelans debuted that year, versus 15 Dominicans.

The DR has regained the top spot the last two years though:

2009: 21 Dominicans debuted vs. 14 Venezuelans

2010: 22 Dominicans debuted vs. 10 Venezuelans

Of course, staying in the majors is ultimately more important than getting there in the first place. Only time will tell.

As an aside, it's interesting to me that the Mets apparently targeted Sandy Alderson to become their new GM, replacing MLB's first Dominican to hold that position (Omar Minaya).

[Boy Howdy]

Can you imagine the talent that would be available if Cuba suddenly becomes free and players can leave there for America. Talk about a baseball hotbed...

I can't wait for that to happen. And it will.

World Bank population estimates from 2008:

27,935,000 - Venezuela

11,204,735 - Cuba

9,952,711 - Dominican Republic

I'd be interested to see how many major leaguers Cuba would produced per capita. These numbers really underscore how amazing the Dominican baseball story really is. Based on these numbers, the Domincan population is roughly the size of Michigan's, Cuba's about like Ohio's & Venezuela even bigger than Texas (trailing only California among US states)

[LookinUp]

As an aside, it's interesting to me that the Mets apparently targeted Sandy Alderson to become their new GM, replacing MLB's first Dominican to hold that position (Omar Minaya).

I'm curious...why is this interesting? Minaya isn't exactly highly thought of as a GM these days.

[Boy Howdy]

I'm curious...why is this interesting? Minaya isn't exactly highly thought of as a GM these days.

Minaya was MLB's first Dominican GM, and the peanut gallery of NY talk radio, etc. entertained the idea that he was consciously stocking the Mets roster with a disproportionate number of Latinos. It got to the point where some people were mockingly calling them "Los Mets".

In Alderson, you're talking about a guy whose just a little less evil than Beelzebub to some involved with player development in the DR. The issues there are far from black & white, however, and there's plenty of room for strong, reasonable opinions at both extremes and most everywhere in between.

[LookinUp]

Minaya was MLB's first Dominican GM, and the peanut gallery of NY talk radio, etc. entertained the idea that he was consciously stocking the Mets roster with a disproportionate number of Latinos. It got to the point where some people were mockingly calling them "Los Mets".

In Alderson, you're talking about a guy whose just a little less evil than Beelzebub to some involved with player development in the DR. The issues there are far from black & white, however, and there's plenty of room for strong, reasonable opinions at both extremes and most everywhere in between.

Interesting. It sounds like they're at two ends of the extreme. Does Alderson have any other particular claim to fame, if you will? I know nothing about the man.

[Boy Howdy]

Interesting. It sounds like they're at two ends of the extreme. Does Alderson have any other particular claim to fame, if you will? I know nothing about the man.

Alderson is a former Marine who was the Oakland Athletics GM for a long time, including three straight AL pennants from 1988-1990. He's often credited with mentoring his successor, Billy Beane.

After that he worked for MLB and the Padres before Bud Selig tagged him to tackle corruption in the Dominican.

[Frobby]

Minaya was MLB's first Dominican GM, and the peanut gallery of NY talk radio, etc. entertained the idea that he was consciously stocking the Mets roster with a disproportionate number of Latinos.

As I recall, Minaya actually said something, early in his tenure, about wanting to make the Mets a "go to" franchise for Latin players. So, I don't think this was pure media speculation.

I think Minaya's problem was that, after years of working for the Expos, he was too much like a kid in a candy store when he got to NY. It will be interesting to see if Alderson has that same issue, considering who he worked for in the past.