International Signings: A Ten Year Retrospective

[nsacpi]

Some basic data is needed to discern any trends in terms of the productivity of our international operations. Here are the Braves international signings who have made the majors in the past ten years:

Brayan Pena ML debut 2005/signed 2002
Tony Pena 2006/1999
Martin Prado 2006/2001
Jose Ascanio 2007/2001
Gregor Blanco 2008/2000
Elvis Andrus 2009/2005
Neftali Feliz 2009/2005
Barbaro Canizares 2009/2006
JC Boscan 2010/1996
Randall Delgado 2011/2006
Julio Teheran 2011/2007
Luis Avilan 2012/2005
Christian Bethancourt 2013/2008

Some current minor leaguers of note and the year they signed: Peraza (2010), Elmer Reyes (2009), Salcedo (2010), Williams Perez (2009), Daniel Castro (2010), Mauricio Cabrera (2010), Victor Reyes (2011), Ozhaino Albies (2013), Dilmer Mejia (2013)

During this period, our international system has produced slightly over 1 major leaguer per year. Some are scrubs. Some have been All-Stars.

We did have a slump in 2003-2004 where we did not sign any international players who made the majors. The next four years (2005-2008) were quite productive with seven future major leaguers signed. What is in the pipeline suggests we will continue to produce about 1 major leaguer a year, maybe a little more.

[cajunrevenge]

That's a pretty impressive list for a team that doesn't spend big money.

[50PoundHead]

Some basic data is needed to discern any trends in terms of the productivity of our international operations. Here are the Braves international signings who have made the majors in the past ten years:

Brayan Pena ML debut 2005/signed 2002
Tony Pena 2006/1999
Martin Prado 2006/2001
Jose Ascanio 2007/2001
Gregor Blanco 2008/2000
Elvis Andrus 2009/2005
Neftali Feliz 2009/2005
Barbaro Canizares 2009/2006
JC Boscan 2010/1996
Randall Delgado 2011/2006
Julio Teheran 2011/2007
Luis Avilan 2012/2005
Christian Bethancourt 2013/2008

Some current minor leaguers of note and the year they signed: Peraza (2010), Elmer Reyes (2009), Salcedo (2010), Williams Perez (2009), Daniel Castro (2010), Mauricio Cabrera (2010), Victor Reyes (2011), Ozhaino Albies (2013), Dilmer Mejia (2013)

During this period, our international system has produced slightly over 1 major leaguer per year. Some are scrubs. Some have been All-Stars.

We did have a slump in 2003-2004 where we did not sign any international players who made the majors. The next four years (2005-2008) were quite productive with seven future major leaguers signed. What is in the pipeline suggests we will continue to produce about 1 major leaguer a year, maybe a little more.

I remember the old Scout board went crazy with a number of posters thinking the Braves were nuts to ship Ascanio to the Cubs for Infante and Ohman.

Luis Merejo is another interesting signing, but like so many of the promising LHPs we've signed out of Latin America in the past decade (Otero, Pinto, Geronimo, Gil) or so, they seem to suffer arm problems early. Hope Mejia can avoid that.