International News, Rumor and Signing Thread

Deester11 said:
Yeah, I understand that. Penalties notwithstanding, why wouldn't others have a bidding war for what's being described as a generational talent? Handshake agreement aside.....if/when/should he sign, he'll be my new Teheran rookie league to majors follow.
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It's like K Law has said in some of his chats: these handshake agreements are very rarely broken. If a trainer breaks one to get more money, the team he screwed over probably won't deal with him again, and it would make other teams wary as well.
 
praeceps93 said:
It's like K Law has said in some of his chats: these handshake agreements are very rarely broken. If a trainer breaks one to get more money, the team he screwed over probably won't deal with him again, and it would make other teams wary as well.
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Plus, teams dons want other teams poaching the guys they have handshake agreements with. If you steal someone else's player, it's open season on your guys.
 
David O'Brien Verified account  ‏@DOBrienAJC · now1 hour ago
Person familiar with "Lazarito" situation told me he thinks 16-yo Cuban free agent will cut a deal w/ a team but wait till July 2 to sign.

Got to be good news right??
 
ball4life32 said:
David O'Brien Verified account  ‏@DOBrienAJC · now1 hour ago
Person familiar with "Lazarito" situation told me he thinks 16-yo Cuban free agent will cut a deal w/ a team but wait till July 2 to sign.

Got to be good news right??
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Certainly isn't bad news!
 
Deester11 said:
On another note, has anyone heard about the Cardinals interest in Maitan? Evidently they are "all over" him and have been since he was 13. They also sign a few players from the academy he trains at. I think he's a Brave come July 2nd, but this Lazarito thing should quickly die if it means losing Maitan.
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No one is as 'all over' Maitan as we are. We won't lose him if it has anything to do with us. We're not going to sign Armenteros if it means missing out on Maitan.
 
smootness said:
No one is as 'all over' Maitan as we are. We won't lose him if it has anything to do with us. We're not going to sign Armenteros if it means missing out on Maitan.
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That's all well and good smoot...I just think that there will more competition than we originally thought. Handshake? I would like to think there are ethics...but first of all a handshake agreement is supposedly illegal....(Not really concerned with that), but over the last 5 years or more we haven't exactly won any bidding wars.

I'm a believer in this FO...moreso than a lot of people. Just want to keep some perspective. BTW, I'll bring this board all kinds of scoring reports if we land Maitan and Guieterrez....believe that!!!!
 
Deester11 said:
That's all well and good smoot...I just think that there will more competition than we originally thought. Handshake? I would like to think there are ethics...but first of all a handshake agreement is supposedly illegal....(Not really concerned with that), but over the last 5 years or more we haven't exactly won any bidding wars.

I'm a believer in this FO...moreso than a lot of people. Just want to keep some perspective. BTW, I'll bring this board all kinds of scoring reports if we land Maitan and Guieterrez....believe that!!!!
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There was probably always a lot of competition for Maitan, but the handshake agreement does mean something. While illegal, that's the basis for any kind of respect in the international free agent market. You're only as good as your word, and a trainer won't risk that.
 
Deester11 said:
That's all well and good smoot...I just think that there will more competition than we originally thought. Handshake? I would like to think there are ethics...but first of all a handshake agreement is supposedly illegal....(Not really concerned with that), but over the last 5 years or more we haven't exactly won any bidding wars.

I'm a believer in this FO...moreso than a lot of people. Just want to keep some perspective. BTW, I'll bring this board all kinds of scoring reports if we land Maitan and Guieterrez....believe that!!!!
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Barring something extremely unforeseen, we will get Maitan. It's essentially a done deal.
 
My hope is that the revenue projections are such that we're really going to be willing to break the bank. If the rumblings that Adrian Morejon is waiting until July to sign are true (and we could somehow add him too), there's little doubt that our system would be ranked number one - and it really wouldn't be close...

Swanson, Newcomb, Maitan, Albies, Blair, Lazarito, Morejon, Allard, Toussaint, Gutierrez would be an insane Top 10.
 
Two more Cubans defect: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/02/yulieski-gurriel-lourdes-gurriel-defect-cuba.html

The guy of interest is the older brother who plays 3B:

"Yulieski, 31, was ranked by Baseball America’s Ben Badler as the No. 1 player remaining in Cuba. The third baseman is a career .333/.414/.577 hitter as a professional and has enjoyed success in both Cuba and, recently, Japan. The elder of the two brothers that defected (the oldest Gurriel brother, Yunieski Gurriel, apparently did not join his younger siblings) was recently allowed to play in Nippon Professional Baseball, where he batted .305/.349/.536 with 11 homers in 62 games for the Yokohama Bay Stars. Thus far in the 2015-16 Cuban season, Yulieski was batting a ludicrous .535/.604/1.012 with 10 homers in 106 plate appearances across 23 games.

Badler has previously praised Yulieski for his plus bat speed and plus raw power to all fields, drawing comparisons to David Wright and Hanley Ramirez from Badler last spring (prior to Ramirez’s poor debut season in Boston). He’s said to be an above-average defender at third base, where he’s best suited, but also capable of handling second base adequately."

Could it be possible the Braves caught wind of this happening, and that's what caused them to move Olivera to LF so quickly? Probably not, but fun to think about at least.
 
Enscheff said:
Two more Cubans defect: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/02/yulieski-gurriel-lourdes-gurriel-defect-cuba.html

The guy of interest is the older brother who plays 3B:

"Yulieski, 31, was ranked by Baseball America’s Ben Badler as the No. 1 player remaining in Cuba. The third baseman is a career .333/.414/.577 hitter as a professional and has enjoyed success in both Cuba and, recently, Japan. The elder of the two brothers that defected (the oldest Gurriel brother, Yunieski Gurriel, apparently did not join his younger siblings) was recently allowed to play in Nippon Professional Baseball, where he batted .305/.349/.536 with 11 homers in 62 games for the Yokohama Bay Stars. Thus far in the 2015-16 Cuban season, Yulieski was batting a ludicrous .535/.604/1.012 with 10 homers in 106 plate appearances across 23 games.

Badler has previously praised Yulieski for his plus bat speed and plus raw power to all fields, drawing comparisons to David Wright and Hanley Ramirez from Badler last spring (prior to Ramirez’s poor debut season in Boston). He’s said to be an above-average defender at third base, where he’s best suited, but also capable of handling second base adequately."

Could it be possible the Braves caught wind of this happening, and that's what caused them to move Olivera to LF so quickly? Probably not, but fun to think about at least.
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Can't see it, but love the thought. Would be the perfect bridge to Riley/Maitan if we could get him for something like 4 years/$40 million.
 
Enscheff said:
Two more Cubans defect: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/02/yulieski-gurriel-lourdes-gurriel-defect-cuba.html

Could it be possible the Braves caught wind of this happening, and that's what caused them to move Olivera to LF so quickly? Probably not, but fun to think about at least.
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Probably not is really underselling this. No team is going to move a player to a different position on the chance that a player will defect from Cuba and somehow sign with them. Especially when you consider the price tag that is going to come with Gurriel. I don't see how a team that isn't the Dodgers, Red Sox, or Yankees sign him unless another big market team falls in love. He's going to make BANK.
 
clvclv said:
Can't see it, but love the thought. Would be the perfect bridge to Riley/Maitan if we could get him for something like 4 years/$40 million.
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He is a little more than a year older than Olivera who signed for 6/62, almost half of which was a signing bonus paid up front. I would guess something like 4/40 or 5/50 with 20-25 of it coming up front will be what he gets.
 
I guess we will see. I don't want to get my hopes up and think we go more than HAM, but I do think we get Maitan and one of the remaining top international guys. Our farm is already loaded, a couple more high-ceiling caliber guys would be incredible.
 
I think they should have just made Cuba an expansion team and give them the right to all amateur Cubans not already signed for the next 10 years Having those home grown players will attract more local interest from fans
 
smootness said:
Considering what we're going to spend come July, I can't see us adding much to payroll at this point.
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These players have to establish international residency and only then will MLB begin a countdown to their signing window. Not likely to be fast-tracked with so many others in the pipeline.
 
rico43 said:
These players have to establish international residency and only then will MLB begin a countdown to their signing window. Not likely to be fast-tracked with so many others in the pipeline.
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Well, if we're talking about a year or more, then I don't want a guy who's already 32.
 
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