Archive for the “July 2 intn’l signing period” Category

There has been something which has been bouncing around my mind for a few weeks and I wanted to see if I could put the proverbial pen to paper and post it for the site as it involves the player development pipeline for the Cardinals.  International free agency is a market which has already shaped the face of Major League Baseball and will shape the face even more of baeball for the next century or so and it is something that the Cardinals should be making plans about to get ahead of their peers.

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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch via dgoold has the 5 international free agents the Cardinals signed today:

Dewin Perez, LHP, 6-0, 175 lbs.; Born: Sept 29, 1994 (Cartagena, Colombia)

Eliezer Alvarez, SS, S/R, 5-11, 165; Born: Oct 15, 1994 (Santiago, Dominican Republic)

Jose Godoy, C, L/R, 5-11, 180; Born: Oct 13, 1994 (Maracaibo, Venezuela)

Alirio Negrette, LHP, 5-11, 176; Born: March 29, 1995 (Maracaibo, Venezuela)

Luis Arias, RHP, 6-3, 180; Born: July 6, 1993 (Bonao, Dominican Republic)

Perez is undersized at 5-foot-11 but scouts have seen the hurler sit in the high 80s with a good delivery and show a feel for his offspeed stuff, according to Badler (subscription req’d).  The youngster is a solid athlete and a former switch-hitting outfielder.

“When it came to looking at the investment we could make (in this market), we could have gone all-in on one guy or spread it around on a few. We decided to go on the latter.”

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I’ve made my views pretty clear on the international market. As difficult as it can be for fans to get good information on stateside prospects, it’s orders of magnitude more difficult to sort through the specious International prospects.  I’m also a strong advocate of the wait and see approach with these types of prospects and thus far none of our international signings have made me reconsider that (despite the Carlos Matias watch).

Ben Badler at Baseball America is the premier source for international prospects though and he’s ranked the top 33 this year with video (free) and full scouting reports (subscription — but seriously you should subscribe to BA).  I do not expect the Cardinals to sign anymore big name players and certainly not hand out any additional 7 figure bonuses to international prospects but it’s fun to speculate.

The International prospect market, just when I thought I was free – you pull me back in!  The Cardinals are going to sign pitcher Carlos Matias to a $1.5 million contract.  Matias is already on the Cardinals DSL roster and has even already made an appearance!

Matias was suspended for a year last March after getting his much smaller deal with the Red Sox nullified.  Matias is 18, which is why the Cardinals do not have to wait until July 2nd to sign him.

All the information about Matias is from Ben Badler of Baseball America. First from Twitter:

If the Matias deal with the Cardinals goes through, he might be the best pitcher any team signs this year on the international market.

Now from Badler’s Baseball America Prospects blog:

At 6 feet, 165 pounds, Matias has a loose delivery and an electric fastball that can sit in the mid-90s and routinely hits 97-99 mph, according to several scouts from other organizations. Between the velocity and cutting action on his fastball, it is a true 80 pitch on the 20-80 scouting scale, already one of the best fastballs at any level of baseball.

“He has outstanding control,” said Moises Rodriguez, the Cardinals director of international operations. “People tend to get excited when you see velo in the high-90s, but he’s throwing upper-90s with excellent control.”

Matias’ secondary pitches have received mixed reviews, but he throws an average mid-80s changeup with good arm speed and sink as well as a 78-80 mph curveball that flashes late break.

Hit Ben Badler’s link for more information.

These scouting reports are always taken with a grain of salt, but Ben Badler always does his homework.  ”One of the best fastballs at any level of baseball” is something that gets my attention as that is not a line that is heard much in International scouting reports.

UPDATE: Let’s throw an ice cold blanket on the whole proceedings because there obviously is a large chance Matias will not be certified again by MLB.

This is one of those Latin America signings that are darn near impossible for us to evaluate from the outside.  BA has the report on the 17-year-old right fielder who has a “plus-plus arm”.

Baseball America

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.

Per Ben Badler of Baseball America:

In December, the Cardinals landed one of the toolsiest players available since the end of the 2008 international signing period, inking Dominican center fielder Jose Pena to a $350,000 bonus. Pena, who turns 17 on May 26, has a solid physique at around 6-foot-2, 190 pounds, showing a little more room to fill out an already well-developed frame. Pena is an above-average runner with an average arm and has a line-drive swing with gap power from the right side.

I don’t know abut you, but I like hearing this sort of news.

Ben Badler of Baseball America (subscription only) is doing a division by division approach in looking at what teams did during the international signing period. As it turns out, the Cardinals spent a total of $2,685,000 in international players, the sixth highest figure among major league clubs. The Reds outspent all the teams, putting an astounding $5,705,000 towards signing Latin American players.

It seems crazy to see the Cards outspending teams like the Mets and Red Sox on international players, but that is what they did. Looking around the division, the Pirates spent $1.2M, the Astros spent a little over a million, the Cubs spent just $250K, and the Brewers spent nothing, oddly enough.

It’s definitely an encouraging sign to see the Cardinals investing in top shelf talent.

For more on the signings, Jeff Luhnow was nice enough to provide scouting reports on the players signed back in July. You can find them here.

One of the names missing from the article is OF Gerwuins Velazco, who also signed for a six-figure bonus. Can’t say I know anything about him…

Last Saturday night I mentioned a rumor about the Giants signing Dominican RF Rafael Rodriguez for a $2.55 M signing bonus. It turns out that was true, which makes me feel a little better about what I had been hearing.  A little later after that, over at Saberscouting there was a poster by the name of Carlos Sanchez who said a Rodriguez had agreed to sign with the Cardinals for $3.3 M. Assuming he was referring to Rafael Rodriguez, I mentioned it in that post in the name fun and rumors. Here’s where things get a little interesting. It turns out that he was referring to the one month younger Rodriguez, the highly coveted Yorman.

Now I’ll say this: If Carlos Sanchez is the same poster who was previously going by Carlos, I would tend to lean towards believing this guy is pretty connected and knows his stuff based on his prior comments. He, amongst others, nailed the connection of the Cardinals and Roberto Pina.

Yorman can’t officially sign with any team until he turns 16 next month. Most teams expect him to break the signing bonus record of any Venezuelan player. The record holder is Miguel Cabrera, who signed for $1.9 M. It’s been long believed that Rodriguez had already agreed to sign with Cincinnati.

Last week Derrick Goold blogged that Jeff Luhnow was still chasing after Yorman, and that Luhnow believed the Cards still had a chance, and they were willing to go over the record under the right circumstances. Our homeslice Picklefork had mentioned our rumors and the rumors floating around at Saberscouting at Bernie’s Pressbox, and Bernie said:

Luhnow has been working that signing hard for a long time… he made great inroads with the family, the coaches, etc.

Baseball America has stated that Yorman’s power and speed tool both grade out as 70′s on the 20-80 scale according to most scouts, and he’s been compared to everyone from Miggy Cabrera, for his bloodlines and power, to Eric Davis and Carlos Beltran, for his power/speed combo. That’s on the wildly optimistic side, others have stated concerns that he’s really more of a 5′o clock hitter and think his hit tool is pretty questionable. But if the Cardinals are willing to commit that much $ to him, I’m sure they’ve done their homework thoroughly.

If the Cardinals do sign him for the aforementioned $3.3M, that would not only be the biggest signing bonus given to a Venezuelan player ever, that would be the biggest signing bonus the Cardinals have given any player – ever. The 2nd highest would then be JD Drew at $3 M. Wow. And that would be on top of the Cardinals already commiting $1.1 (or $1.2, I can’t remember) to Roberto Pina and over $500 K each on Franco and Valera. Wow again. To top it off, this would be Luhnow signing away a player that the Walt Jocketty-led Reds have been believed to have in the bag.  Triple wow and “zing!” for Luhnow.

Time will tell if these rumors prove true or not, but it’s pretty intriguing to me. I know Yorman’s birthday is in August, but does anyone know the exact date? We may need to start a countdown here at the blog.

UPDATE: I’m being told now that someone with the Cardinals flat out denied this alleged deal in place and stated the Cards are not interested in that spending that kind of money. Bummer.