SB Nation User Blog: FishHead

Stop gaps vs playing the young guys

FishHead — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:16:53 -0000

After thinking about what KC has done with trading for stop gap mediocre veterans, I came up with a question: Is it better to have stop gaps and play .500 ball or let young and/or inexpensive guys play the positions and sink or swim and play .400 ball? Let me explain.

Look at what the Devil Rays did by having all those top draft picks and by making a few trades, they go from worst to the world series. By a team of mine showing me they can play .500 ball at best does not satisfy me. I would rather have the full on rebuilding mode, play poor ball, and get high draft picks. KC is not contending with these trades. I understand teams want a winning environment, but I would just rather rebuild from scrap with cheaper guys. Take the money you would have spent on crisp and jacobs and put it in the draft or International Free Agency. What is everyone elses thoughts?

Dayan Viciedo

FishHead — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:25:26 -0000

Agent: Viciedo Declared Free Agent

Posted Nov. 8, 2008 2:18 pm by John Manuel
Filed under: International

Dayan Viciedo, the Cuban teenager who left the island in May seeking to become a free agent, has gotten what he wanted. His agent, Jaime Torres, said Saturday that Major League Baseball has declared Viciedo a free agent, and that major league clubs already are in hot pursuit.

The White Sox, who signed Torres’ client Alexei Ramirez last offseason, already have made an offer, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Torres said he’d received one other offer by Saturday morning and has scheduled two workouts in the Dominican Republic to further showcase his 19-year-old client this week.

When Viciedo first arrived in Miami in late May, Torres kept his arrival under wraps briefly, then announced in June that Viciedo had been in the U.S. and passed through the draft without being selected, making him a free agent. MLB wasn’t buying that argument, but even though Viciedo had been in the U.S., Torres was able to establish his residency in a third country, the D.R. Now he’s also gone through the unblocking process and is free to sign.

Torres said two other talented Cubans he represents, junior team defectors Noel Arguellez, a lefthander, and Jose Iglesias, a shortstop, are still going through "paperwork" to establish third-country residency and go through the "unblocking" process, a procedure aimed at preventing Cubans from funneling money back to Raoul Castro’s government.

Here’s our original scouting report on Viciedo:

Born in March 1989, Viciedo is listed at 6-foot-1, 210 pounds, but reports are that he was bigger than that last year at the World Junior Championship in Mexico. Viciedo has excellent power and hitting ability, however, with one scout comparing him to Giants prospect Angel Villalona. He slugged over .500 two of the last three seasons in Cuba’s Serie Nacional, its top-level league, hitting 14 homers in 2005-2006—as a 16-year-old—in his best season.

"His body could go the same route as Livan Hernandez, and when I saw him in Mexico, he wasn’t very good at third base anymore," one international scouting director said. "But he can really hit; in fact, I think he’s probably a better hitter than Villalona."

Villalona received a $2.1 million bonus from the Giants in 2006.

Another scout who had seen Viciedo was less enthused about him as a player, pegging him as a first baseman-only hitter with a bad body. "You know everybody liked Kendry Morales," the scout said, referring to the Angels’ Cuban DH/first baseman, "and he had some other tools. But his body’s gone south and he’s pretty much just a DH. So I think it’s premature to get too excited about this guy."

Viciedo burst on the scene as a 15-year-old, when he was MVP of the World Junior Championships. In Serie Nacional in 2005-2006, he made the all-star team while playing for Villa Clara. His Villa Clara manager, former national team star Victor Mesa, told Cuba’s Granma news in 2006 that Viciedo has “a good arm and tremendous power. He’s got excellent technique, but at the same time is surprisingly calm for his young age and very secure in defense.”

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=1789

What are some thoughts on this kid? The kid is lazy but can hit the crap out of the ball. Sounds a lot like a potential miguel cabrera.

Update on international signings?

FishHead — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:23:48 -0000

I was wondering if anyone had an update on any international signings? I saw an subscriber article on ba and was wondering if anyone could let us know of the names of the signed people. Please dont post the article, just an update on who signed. thanks filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler

Aflac All American Game

FishHead — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:10:07 -0000

I was wondering if anyone else watched the game and what their thoughts were. I didnt get to watch the entire game but I came away with these thoughts from what I did see:

The 09 draft class is loaded with pitchers.

6'7" LHP Tyler Matzek appears to be the head of the high school class hitting 93 consistently.

LHP Matt Purke looked equally impressive throwing in the low 90's and topping out at 95.

RHP Jacob Turner was throwing in the low 90's and recorded 5 strikeouts in 2 innings.

6'8" RHP Chad Thompson impressed me more than most. I imagine this guy will be a top 10 pick with as much projectability as he has already throwing in the low 90's and hitting 94. Hes really skinny right now so as he fills out and fixes his mechanics he should be throwing in the upper 90's.

RHP Mychal Givens really impressed me as well. I havent heard to many people raving about his pitching and i always here people talk about him as a SS. But he was hitting 95-96 consistently and topped out at 97. I even read somewhere they said he topped out at 98 but I did not see it. I dont think anyone in their right mind drafts him as a SS. HS kids throwing 96 are rare. I was very impressed with him and see him as a top 10 pick as well.

OF Donovan Tate was impressive as well and displayed some power. I saw him hit a bad pitch to the warning track.

Overall Im impressed with this crop and I personally believe this will be an excellent draft class more pitching dominant. Probably similar to the 07 draft.

Logan Morrison: 8 straight hits

FishHead — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:11:44 -0000

Logan Morrison has reeled off a few hitting streaks this season, but none as condensed as his effort this weekend.

Morrison collected a hit in his eighth consecutive at-bat as part of a 4-for-5 five-RBI effort Sunday, powering the Jupiter Hammerheads top the Palm Beach Cardinals, 12-8, at Roger Dean Stadium.

Coming off a 4-for-4 game on Saturday, the 20-year-old first baseman extended his "hits" streak to eight at-bats before taking a called third strike in the eighth inning. He drilled two-run homers in the first and third, lined an RBI double in the fourth and singled and scored in the sixth.

"I'm happy, but there's always room for improvement," Morrison said. "You can't be too happy or else you'll think you know everything."

For eight plate appearances, Morrison did appear all-knowing, though he downplayed the streak.

"It's nice, but at the same time, I wasn't worried about it," he said. "You're just trying to get a hit and dealing with the present."

The former 22nd-round Draft pick is 24-for-44 (.546) with four homers and 11 RBIs during an 11-game hitting streak. Both of Sunday's roundtrippers came off Cardinals starter Brad Furnish.

"In the the first AB, he was working me in and he threw me a changeup and over the plate," Morrison recalled. "I just recognized it and hit over the fence in right-center."

He came to the plate in the third, looking for a heater.

"He went away first and then the next pitch, it was a fastball in," Morrison said. "I was waiting for him to come back in."

It was the fourth four-hit performance of the season for the Kansas City native, who has 16 hits in his last six games. Sunday's effort was the third time he has driven in at least four runs.

"I've just been loose and relaxed, getting my pitches to hit," he said. "I'm not swinging at balls and I'm being patient."

Morrison strung together a 15-game hitting streak from June 5-24 after recording an 11-game run from April 20-May 12.

"I'm staying on balls, I'm not being afraid to be jammed," said Morrison, who leads the Florida State League with a .355 batting average, nearly 100 points higher than his 2007 mark. "I'm not pulling off and trying to hit home runs."

Still, the long balls are coming. He ranked third in the Marlins' Minor League system with 24 homers last season and participated in Home Run Derby at this year's FSL All-Star Game.

"I wanted to not worry about the home runs this year," he said. "If they come, they come. And they've come lately."

Morrison surpassed a 3-for-4, four-RBI effort against Daytona on April 27 but said he tries not to dwell on past performances.

"It's not what you did in the past, it's what you're doing in the present," he said. "I don't really think about the streaks unless someone tells me. My cousin will text me and say, 'Hey you've hit in whatever games,' and I'm like, 'OK, thanks.' I don't really know about them otherwise."

Morrison split his rookie season between the Gulf Coast League and short-season Jamestown in 2006. He hit .267 with 24 homers and 86 RBIs as a South Atlantic League All-Star last season at Greensboro before earning a promotion to Jupiter this spring.

All-Star Jeff Allison (7-7) recorded the win, despite giving up five runs on seven hits over five innings.

Furnish (7-8), a former second-round pick, was charged with six runs on seven hits over four frames.

Matthew Arburr and Charles Kingrey each drove in three runs for Palm Beach (20-21).

Logan Morrison has got to be climbing up prospect ladders. He seems to be advanced in maturity as a hitter just as porcello is as a pitcher. Already realizing he doesnt have to go for homeruns everytime up and accepting that they will come. This is what makes elite hitters like pujols for example. I am more impressed with a guy who will hit 25-30 homeruns and bat .330 vs a guy who hits 40 homeruns and hits .260. Where does morrison rank in your eyes? Top 75 prospects? how bout among firstbaseman?

International Signings Update

FishHead — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:32:16 -0000

From BA:

International signing period updates

Posted Jul. 24, 2008 3:27 pm by Ben Badler
Filed under: Daily Dish, International

Nearly every team has signed players from the international signing period, which began on July 2 and ends next month. Baseball America has learned of a few key signings, though these updates are not comprehensive.

The Braves signed Dominican lefty Carlos Perez for a bonus believed to be $600,000. Perez was frequently showcased with righthander Michel Inoa, who signed with the A’s for a record $4.25 million. Perez, who is 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, showed an 88-91 mph fastball, a changeup and some feel for a curveball.

Atlanta also signed a pair of players from Taiwan: catcher Meng-Hsiu Tsai and righthander Wei-Cheng Huang. Both bonuses are believed to be low six-figure deals.

The Mets signed a few international players this year, the most notable of whom is Dominican third baseman Aderlin Rodriguez, who signed for $600,000.

The Pirates signed Colombian shortstop Yhonathan Barrios, who has a projectable bat but will likely move to third base. The Pirates also landed outfielder Exidardo Cayones for what scouts say was a $400,000 bonus. Cayones is athletic, has good mobility and a 45 arm on the 20-80 scouting scale.

If you know of any other updates please post them. Nice to see the Pirates dipping into the Latin America a little more

Bryan Peterson - Marlins OF Prospect

FishHead — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:58:08 -0000

Bryan Peterson, 22, of the marlins was recently promoted to AA Carolina. He was drafted by the marlins in the 2007 draft. He was hitting .301 with 19 hr, 58 rbi, and 15 sb in high A to go along with a .922 ops. At AA he is off to a hot start hitting .471 with 6 rbi in 13 ab.

What are everyones thoughts on this guy as I have not heard of him until today. Is he a legit prospect or just a mirage? What was said about him before the draft?

International Signing Thread

FishHead — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:26:58 -0000

I was hoping we could use this thread to keep updates of all the international signings going on. Everyone can post any updates or any sources they find on theyre teams website or something. I have this so far:

http://www.saberscouting.com/2008/07/02/july2update/

July 2nd Morning Update

July 2nd, 2008 · 29 Comments

By Kiley McDaniel

There has been intrigue, rumors, and large amounts of money flying around with the opening of the signing period for nearly all of the top 16 year olds in Latin America beginning this morning.

Some scouts and agents started posting in the comments of the scouting reports article and 100 comments later, it turned into a liveblog of sorts of international rumors and facts. It’s still a comments section, so take it with a grain of salt, but there’s some good stuff in there.

ESPN Deportes broke the story that both the Rangers and Reds offered $5 million to Michel Inoa, but he stuck with the A’s offer of $4.25 million because of his comfort with their organization and confidence in their pitcher development system.

The Reds offered a $5 million big league deal and the Rangers went to $5.2 million in a standard minor league deal.

I had heard a few other teams involved on the high end of the Inoa sweepstakes, but the Reds and Rangers had the most buzz all along and now it’s clear why. This is proof that these teams are serious about Latin America, and also underlines a common July 2nd occurrence that I’ll touch on after the jump.

Read on for much more on these developments, and an early list of July 2nd signings after the jump…

EDIT: I’ve added some updated signings and bonus information.

(Michel Inoa photo credit: Victor Perez/ESPNDeportes.com)

Some notes on done deals, or at least the ones that have leaked out so far, beyond Inoa’s $4.25 million to Oakland:

ESPN Deportes tags a few signings on the end of the Inoa story:

- LHP Carlos Perez to Atlanta for $600,000
- SS Anderson Felix to the Yankees for $500,000
- RHP Pedro Martinez to San Diego for $150,000
- SS Jimmy De Los Santos to Atlanta for $100,000

Mentioned in the comments and later confirmed:

- 3B Gustavo Pierre to Toronto
- SS Jose Osoria to Cleveland for $575,000

Padres.com has a press release on the elite talent San Diego has locked up:

- RHP Adis Portillo, $2.2 million
- SS Alvaro Aristy
- RF Luis Domoromo, $1.2 million
- RHP Elvin Tavarez
- UT Corey Adamson

The Padres aren’t messing around, with a spanking new $8.5 million academy in the Dominican and getting some top talent on the first day of the open period. You can check the release for info on the players, like Adamson, who is from Australia and I have little information on.

Aristy, Domoromo, and Portillo were long rumored to be headed to the Padres and are covered in the international scouting reports article. Tavarez, and many of these other players, have bios in Enrique Rojas’ international preview for ESPN Deportes.

Hat tip to commenter Paul, who led me to the link and mentioned some numbers that have been rumored for the last few weeks, and I was able to confirm Portillo’s and Domoromo’s bonuses, while Aristy is strongly rumored to have signed for $1 million and Adamson is said to have been paid in the $500,000 range, but I wasn’t able to get a solid number for Tavarez.

Padres exec Paul DePodesta has his own thoughts on the Padres July 2nd signees at his blog.

The Yankees have also made their signees official:

- INF Giancarlo Arias
- C/3B Jackson Valera
- OF Ramon Flores
- SS Anderson Felix
- RF Yeico Calderon

As mentioned above, Felix was for $500,000, and all of these players were fringe seven figure talents that the Yankees locked up early in the process. While the bonuses aren’t clear yet for all of these players, it appears all five were for below-market, value-type deals between $500,000 and $900,000.

Calderon, Flores, and Arias have reports in the scouting reports article, but, in short, all are excellent hitters with corner player type skills, though Arias may stick at second base. Felix is a hitability shortstop with gap-to-gap power likely moving to second base, and Valera keeps with the theme as a very good bat with plus power but no clear position.

The Yankees focused on guys with high-probability bats that they were able to get at below-market prices, all in an exploding market. This is a dynamic I’ll touch in the next article as the teams that were ahead of the curve and spending a lot of money in Latin America for many years are now trying to find ways to get solid values in a crowded market.

The big market, established teams are the ones with the infrastructure in place to pull off something like the Yankees did; the experienced scouts, relationships, reputation, know-how, etc. Notice how none of the traditional Latin powers are on these big, seven-figure talents, that it’s all relatively new teams trying to make a name for themselves. I’m sure the Mariners, Braves, Red Sox, and Mets list of signees will look pretty similar to that Yankees list.

The Rangers would be considered by some to be a traditional power (others would say it’s the group listed aboce), but it’s not uncommon for players to take less money on July 2nd from a scout/team they are comfortable with, that have a track record with the player, reputation, and tradition. Every year, a team wanting to make a splash makes a late play for top players and gets rebuffed, it just doesn’t always make the papers. While sometimes the player/agent take the money, taking less money is more common than many fans may assume. This open market doesn’t necessarily work like the MLB free agent market, and that’s part of the intrigue.

In the same vein, some good players never get seen by these other teams and some big market teams will get a player for $100,000 that they would’ve paid up to $500,000 for. Obviously, that becomes less and less common by the day. The days seem to be over where teams get a discount because a player grew up wanting to play for them; the scout that knew them when they were 12 is the new best way to get a player for a good value, hence the rush by many teams in the last few years to get the infrastructure of the big market teams in place.

The Braves made two signings in Taiwan, hat tip to reader George L.:

- RHP Wei-Chen Huang for $125,000.
- C Meng-Hsiu Tsai for $100,000

Reported by the Taiwan Baseball Blog, Huang is an 18 year old righty at 6′0, 185 lbs with a fastball that tops out at 90, with a curve and change. Here are some pictures on his agent’s web site of his press conference

Also from the Taiwan Baseball Blog, Tsai is a 5′11, 190 pound that shows an above-average arm and reportedly had interest from the Red Sox, Twins, and Mariners, as well.

While I finish up the next article about the Latin market and bonuses, along with gathering more confirmed signings, take a look at the notes article I wrote to introduce the July 2nd signing period with some numbers and a general feel for the process.

We also have a number of Latin sources posting confirmed numbers in the comments for this article and the ones before it. I can’t confirm all of these, but the commenters haven’t been proven wrong yet, so if you’re looking for news on your team, take a look.

Logan Morrison vs. Justin Smoak

FishHead — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:23:28 -0000

I have been running a shadow system for the florida marlins for the past 3 years. this year I drafted justin smoak even though I have Logan Morrison. My question is who is the better prospect? I know most people will say hands down justin smoak but Logan Morrison is thought to have 30-40 hr power, I would give the edge to smoak on defense although I dont know anything about morrison's defense. Who is the better prospect? and also can logan morrison play the outfield?

Rays option for the draft

FishHead — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:16:27 -0000

I was thinking about the rays and their option for the draft this year. I know this will not happen but hear me out and let me know what you think.

With there being no number 1 guy this year why not draft someone like alvarez and low ball him. Hope he doesnt sign and then next year get the first pick and take stephen strasburg? Now I know a lot can go wrong and you shouldnt gamble on next year but I think this would be a gutsy move and the right move. If alvarez signs then you get him for cheap.

You can also go overslot on round 2 and round 3 picks. Maybe get gerrit cole in round 2 or another top prospect who falls because of signability.

My concern is by doing this would the Rays get pick 1A or pick 1B next year?