I”ll be talking to Ben Badler regarding Wagner Mateo and the July 2nd international signing period.

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Daniel Descalso has been promoted to Memphis. May his stay there be shorter than J-Ho’s was.

With International Signing Day coming to a close (which really means nothing) it is fair to point out that MLB is the only major sport that allows the rich teams to continue to ‘buy’ young talent by not forcing these kids into the overall draft. Maybe it is a case of wanting to keep it ‘America’s Pastime’ by allotting the entire draft for players of American colleges, JuCos and high schools or maybe it is just another part of a sport that doesn’t have a salary cap. I’m not coming down on it one way or the other but it is interesting to think: Would these players be getting as much money as they do now if they were forced into the draft? If not, would smaller market teams take a bigger risk on acquiring some of them without fear of it eating up their entire budget for the area?

On to the DFR where the Roman Candles weren’t the only fireworks at the ballparks!
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So it’s officially official in all of it’s official-ness. Wagner Mateo is a St. Louis Cardinal. Big surprise. It’s like opening your Christmas presents early. The bonus amount is believed to be $3.1M, which in this economy is really something. The bonus breaks several records.

• It is the largest bonus given to a Dominican position player. The biggest bonus to a Dominican player was given to RHP Michel Inoa last year by the A’s, at $4.25M
• It’s a record bonus by the Cardinals given to a Latin American signee. The previous record was set last year when the Cardinals signed 3B Roberto de la Cruz.
• It’s the biggest bonus given to an amateur by the Cardinals. J.D. Drew received a $3M bonus when he was drafted.

Some front office reaction:

“Wagner is the top player available in Latin America this year and we have scouted him heavily over the past two years,” stated Cardinals’ Director of International Operations Moises Rodriguez. “His bat is special and we look forward to his continued development as a professional.”

So what about Wagner Mateo as a ballplayer? Some of you may have heard him compared to five-tool talents like Carlos Beltran or Grady Sizemore. Reading after Ben Badler and Jorge Arangure, all that seems like more hype than substance. Don’t get me wrong, Mateo is an elite talent. But he’s not a five-tool talent. He has the all important tool, and that is the ability to hit the baseball. Merely based on what I’ve read, Mateo’s OFP (overall future potential) sounds like it would be graded as such on the 20-80 scouting scale:

Hit: 60, maybe better.
Power: 55, 60 potential. More of a line-drive swing now, but definite power is shown in batting practice.
Run: 40. He’s got a mature body already at 6-1, 190.
Throwing: Not sure, but most scouts think he’s destined for left-field rather than right, so I’d imagine average at best.
Fielding: Again, not sure but you have to think at best average given his speed, although we know there is more to outfield defense than speed.

Putting it all together, you have an left-fielder that could hit around .300 and could have double-digit home-run totals, with some 20-25 homer potential on the high end. Of course, we’re talking about a 16-year old, so that would be one of the best possible outcomes. It’s hard to say for sure what the Cardinals will get, and we’re talking about someone who is a long ways away from making an impact.

Here again are the videos, for your perusal so you can judge for yourself:

This is a red-letter day for Cardinal fans. We won’t really hear much more on Mateo until next year, when the next GCL season starts.

I’ll be talking tomorrow to Ben Badler regarding Mateo and the July 2 signing on BlogTalkRadio. The show will be at 2pm Central, be sure to tune in for more.

From Baseball Prospectus’ Kiley McDaniel:

The Cardinals will be announcing their signings in a press conference at the Hilton in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic at 10:30 AM, with a press release coming on the team site soon thereafter.

That will include some guy you have probably heard of…Wagner Mateo.

Check the Baseball Prospectus link for updates on all the signings.

As always check out the twitter updates from: Kiley McDaniel, Jorge Arangure, and Ben Badler.

Update, by erik: I’m sure most of you have seen by now, but the deal has been officially announced.

Well, it’s July. Despite Former Future Redbird Colby Rasmus starting the month off with a bang, the rest of the farm system either had the day off or took some tough losses.

Jess Todd, as you know, has been named a PCL All-Star.  This time last year, The Destroyer of Worlds was preparing to appear in Yankee Stadium for the Futures Game.  This time this year, err..something, Jess finds himself the RH closer at AAA in an organization that believes they’ve cornered the market on RH relievers.  What they don’t have, despite Wainwright’s magnificent performance last night, is pitchers 3 thru 5 of their 5 man rotation.  Lohse’s injury has shown how thin they are in this department.  Since he went to the DL, Wellemeyer, Boggs and Walters have all seemed to find themselves in a tailspin.  Todd very well may have found himself in the same type of overmatched situation but I can’t help but wonder how he’d look taking the mound tomorrow instead of Wellemeyer.

It is with both joy and sadness that this DFR will carry on without J-Ho to appear in some form.  I will do my best to carry on without him.

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So, tomorrow is July 1st and that means the next day is July 2nd, the international signing day. So, with rumors flying like hotcakes, here’s the next player connected to the Cards as of late.

His name is Jacob Beltre and according to Jorge Arangure of ESPN Deportes’ Twitter page:

Source: C Jacob Beltre won’t likely sign until after July 2. He was 2nd option for several teams, and his market is just now developing.

Jacob Beltre wants to play C, not 1B, and the teams that have shown most interest in him as C are #Cardinals, #Cubs, #Brewers, and #Giants

The guy is massive. Don’t think he’ll ever be a great or even good C,but teams might just sign him as C and let him play out of it

And the response from Kiley McDaniel of Baseball Prospectus and ex of Saber Scouting (on twitter natch):

no club i talked to thinks beltre is a catcher & he apparently is now 6′4-6′5

beltre is polarizing talent-wise (see BP report) but seems like 400-700k range. ogando in the same range too

So, that’s kind of how it goes with these 16 year old Latin American prospects, but the Cards are certainly interested.

There will be plenty more of that coverage on July 2nd, as for the DFR. Let’s Rock!

UPDATE: “Old Man Muscles” Jarrett Hoffpauir is up to STL today and Mortensen is back to AAA.  WE shall destroy the opposition with middle infielders!

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Life’s a little crazy again so my afternoon posts have taken the hit this week.  That said, I’m recording some Jess Todd outings.  The cut fastball plays really well of his slider and it’s easy to see why it gives hitters fits.

I hope to have some writing time over the course of the 4th of July weekend.

I’m also curious to hear if anyone is planning on going to the Futures Game.  If so, drop a note.

Lots of games to cover today even as Memphis was rained out. Let’s rock.

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Quad Cities decides they hate me with a double header today. Batavia shows some love with a postponed game. (It could all be weather related too but the planets rotating around me beg to differ.)

The system goes 3-for-6 and bids a fond farewell to Chris Perez as it waits for the second shoe to fall.

[Update AZ: cardsfan1 chiming in that Mortensen got called up last night.  Likely related to the Khalil DL.  I'm very excited about this actually.  I want to see how his stuff plays in front of the big boys.  Also, this is one pitcher that I WANT to spend time with Dave Duncan. Crazy, I know.]

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Thanks to BlogTalkRadio, any yahoo with a phone and a computer can have their own podcast/internet radio show. I’m a yahoo, I have said computer and said phone. So I’m gonna give this thing a shot. If I don’t make a complete idiot out of myself, we’ll do it again. It starts at 10 CST, guests will be Matt Baker of the Springfield News-Leader and Aaron Schafer of the Riverfront Times and VEB.

Link.

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