International Signing Day Info...

[Lipman 1]

Sox figure to be involved on Saturday:

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-interna...eline-coverage

[rdivaldi]

Sox figure to be involved on Saturday:

https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-interna...eline-coverage

Nice to see that the Sox are listed as the favorites to sign Erick Hernandez. Not because of him as a player, but because of where he's from, "San Cristobal, Dominican Republic". It's great that the Sox are in the mix for most of the Cuban talent, but they stop playing second (or even third) fiddle in the Dominican. The Wilder scandal was almost 15 years ago, it's not an excuse any more.

[DeployEloy]

https://twitter.com/jamesfox917/stat...289799173?s=21

According to James Fox, along with Colas and Hernandez, the Sox are set to sign Dominican teen Angel Cruz

[Frater Perdurabo]

Given how the Sox have struggled mightily to field good left-handed hitters, I am glad that they appear to be placing some emphasis on drafting and signing left-handed hitters, like Montgomery, Kath, Colás, and Hernandez. (Yes, I realize only Colás is old enough to have a realistic chance to play with many of the current position players.)

[HomeFish]

Haven't seen any confirmation of this Angel Cruz kid. Searching for his name on Twitter just results in a bunch of mundane, everyday Tweets from non-baseball players named Angel Cruz.

[ChiTownTrojan]

Good news from Fegan that Colas is expected to play in the US this year. Some speculated that he would spend the entire season in the DSL for tax purposes, which would mean he wouldn’t be in the US until his age 25 season.

https://twitter.com/jrfegan/status/1...763221507?s=21

[DeployEloy]

Haven't seen any confirmation of this Angel Cruz kid. Searching for his name on Twitter just results in a bunch of mundane, everyday Tweets from non-baseball players named Angel Cruz.

Ben Badler via Baseball America’s international draft tracker has him posted, but yea not much on twitter available.

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stor...-2022/?amphtml

[Domeshot17]

Colas is exciting but the Ohtani hype is stupid. I’m more hoping he is better than Vicideo. Excited by him but there’s a reason he was not the top international guy available. I wish we would do what lost teams do and spread the wealth and sign tons and tons of mid tier guys. Tatis barely scratched anyones top 30 when we signed him.

[DeployEloy]

The likely reason he wasn't the top guy probably has more to do with his missed time over the past year (not injury related). Putting into context his 5th rating, when the 28th international prospect we also signed is being compared to a young Juan Soto at the same age, it shows the quality of players within the ranking. There is plenty reason to be excited about his bat and OF arm.

[ChiTownTrojan]

The likely reason he wasn't the top guy probably has more to do with his missed time over the past year (not injury related). Putting into context his 5th rating, when the 28th international prospect we also signed is being compared to a young Juan Soto at the same age, it shows the quality of players within the ranking. There is plenty reason to be excited about his bat and OF arm.

It's not just the one year, he hasn't played much baseball since 2019.

That's part of it, but the bigger reason he wasn't rated as highly is because he's much older than the typical international prospect. He's already 23, and he's still a ways away from a major league roster (due in part to all that missed time). The top-rated prospects are the 16-17 year olds that MLB teams get in their system and develop from a young age, so that by the time they're 22-23 they are major league ready.

[DeployEloy]

It's not just the one year, he hasn't played much baseball since 2019.

That's part of it, but the bigger reason he wasn't rated as highly is because he's much older than the typical international prospect. He's already 23, and he's still a ways away from a major league roster (due in part to all that missed time). The top-rated prospects are the 16-17 year olds that MLB teams get in their system and develop from a young age, so that by the time they're 22-23 they are major league ready.

Age didn't necessarily stop Cespedes top rating nod last year, though. If all things are equal, he should have taken a greater hit in the prospect rating then for that reason, but didn't. The story is the lack of playing time for a prospect ranking that high. Still, when Colas was playing, he was playing in a more talented league than he would have in Cuba.

[rdivaldi]

Colas is exciting but the Ohtani hype is stupid. I’m more hoping he is better than Vicideo. Excited by him but there’s a reason he was not the top international guy available. I wish we would do what lost teams do and spread the wealth and sign tons and tons of mid tier guys. Tatis barely scratched anyones top 30 when we signed him.

Ohtani hype? I haven't seen any publications call him the next Ohtani, not sure where you read that. Lost teams? A sure way to not build up your organizational depth is not sign the best talent and sign tons of lottery ticket type players. While guys like Altuve are nice stories, they are few and far in between.

[voodoochile]

Ohtani hype? I haven't seen any publications call him the next Ohtani, not sure where you read that. Lost teams? A sure way to not build up your organizational depth is not sign the best talent and sign tons of lottery ticket type players. While guys like Altuve are nice stories, they are few and far in between.

And Sox have a boatload of under the radar, young Latin American players in the low minors like Jose Rodriguez ,who isn't low minors anymore.

[Lipman 1]

Ohtani hype? I haven't seen any publications call him the next Ohtani, not sure where you read that. Lost teams? A sure way to not build up your organizational depth is not sign the best talent and sign tons of lottery ticket type players. While guys like Altuve are nice stories, they are few and far in between.

The reports I've seen have mentioned that because he also pitched in Cuba but apparently he has given up that side of the sport.

[murnau5]

The reports I've seen have mentioned that because he also pitched in Cuba but apparently he has given up that side of the sport.

Correct- Colas topped out at 95 w/ middling command a few yrs ago. He had no upside as a pitcher and no longer pitches.