January 15, 2022 International Signing Period

fish 2021-12-07 03:52:07 UTC #22

The board includes 2022 and 2023 guys (and he's identified for 2023).

andyb 2021-12-07 05:10:16 UTC #23

I think they use the same birthdate availability as the July periods. So it used to include all players who turned 16 by September. Birthday after that would take somebody into the July 2022 class which now becomes the January 2023 class, which is likely the case for Caba. So he is technically the January 15, 2023 period and it is far too early for a thread on that....

julio 2021-12-07 05:19:27 UTC #24

We could create it, but it would get lost and forgotten.

andyb 2021-12-07 13:31:37 UTC #25

I think there is another January 2022 thread out there that had the previous Bergolla discussions. Maybe it is simpler to just do annual threads with all international talk in them.

[Mod's note: Yep, there was... and I've merged them. My bad, for not checking before pulling posts out of the 2021 thread. - J]

Squire 2021-12-07 13:39:43 UTC #26

I know these rankings can fluctuate. But right now it would seem that Caba would be likely a Top 5 ranking in his class.

Squire 2021-12-10 12:57:17 UTC #27

Coming up on a month out of signing day and really the only player we've been connected to in this class is Bergolla to my recollection

fish 2021-12-10 16:35:08 UTC #28

Only 2 pitchers listed on MLBs Top 50, so there must be lots of mid level bonus guys out there that aren't making their way onto lists.

andyb 2021-12-10 17:25:06 UTC #29

I do think the industry has trended away from large guarantees to 16-year-old pitchers. Top pitchers are more in the $300K-$500K category because of the risk. It is really a huge advantage to high school pitchers to get that 2 extra years of development done before the draft to cement their status, and even then HS pitchers in the draft are not too plentiful. The Phillies the last 2 years are actually embarking on a risky strategy with Abel and Painter. The talent is there. But most other organizations are scared by the risk.

Squire 2022-01-05 13:19:26 UTC #30

Just bumping this up to note that we are 10 days away. As far as I know the only player connected to us in this signing period is SS William Bergolla from Venezuela

andyb 2022-01-05 16:42:38 UTC #31

MLB Pipeline goes 50 deep now and Bergolla (4th) is the only one mentioned as tied to the Phillies. Assume this means his bonus is on the high side ($2 million+?). Bright side is this is the first year without a $500K penalty.

There is a shocking lack of info out there for being 10 days away from the period. Baseball America did their big preview last time in December but nothing much new for this period yet. Can't even find an article with the pool amounts easily.

This is probably a period with COVID and all the interrupted development that I hope we sign 10 more $300K players as opposed to 4 $800K players after Bergolla.

fish 2022-01-06 16:04:43 UTC #32

Video of 2023 Starlyn Caba. Based on the video he looks like a more gifted shortstop than Bergolla (in fact, he looks pretty similar to Luis Garcia at the same age), but Bergolla looks like a better hitter.

andyb 2022-01-10 23:22:51 UTC #33

Juan Soto's little brother to sign with the Nats in 2023 unless there is an international draft. Does not seem a significant prospect (looks like the Nats offered a little more than the $50K the Mets had offered). Of course it is pretty appalling to have open discussion of bonuses for 15-year-olds. An international draft with fixed slots for the top rounds (or a pool) makes even more sense these days.

andyb 2022-01-10 23:41:06 UTC #34

Also, the latest Baseball America does have Bergolla ranked 8th in a ranking driven by projected bonus size. It does not mention the projected bonus, but the 8th highest was $2.5 million in 2021.

I don't have access to the BA web site, so not sure if their big board there goes deeper. Signing period begins Saturday.

MLB Pipeline article below. Not much new. The Phillies' exact pool is $5,179,700. 16 teams are at that level. 8 at almost $6.3 million and 6 more at $5.7 million based on market size/revenue rules.

Squire 2022-01-12 13:44:31 UTC #35

Just to clarify. Both MLB.com and BA's boards go to 50. Neither has the Phillies connected to anyone except Bergolla.

andyb 2022-01-12 14:05:49 UTC #36

It looks like one cannot trade pool allocations again this year. Curious about whether all teams spent their pool last year. The lack of reporting (or transparency on the MLB side) is pretty widespread. I am guessing a few teams saved a few million dollars. There really is no reason these things can't be traded like in the past other than to depress bonuses and the pool levels already are flat I believe.

Squire 2022-01-13 17:18:42 UTC #37

Salisbury story from NBCSN which adds just about nothing except for maybe that his bonus will be around 2 million.

andyb 2022-01-13 22:14:14 UTC #38

Looks like we are in the mix for a Taiwanese pitcher:

According to UDN, 3 MLB teams and 2 NPB teams are targeting 潘文輝 (Pan Wen-Hui).

As for 林振瑋 (Lin Chen-Wei), he attracted scouts from Dodgers, Phillies, Cubs, A's, Diamondbacks organisation. #MLBTW

Apple Daily reported both are looking at $700K signing bonus. UDN says $500K. https://t.co/U8YuNFjy5d pic.twitter.com/PtpKV6B3FA
— CPBL STATS ️ #95 ( @GOCPBL ) January 12, 2022

fish 2022-01-14 04:18:59 UTC #39

Great find!
Lin Chen-Wei is a tall, super skinny 19 yr old RHP. He's got good life on the ball mostly 92-94 with a delivery that doesn't look max effort. Except for the limited upperbody projectabilty, he looks a lot like the high school version of Mick Abel in his delivery. While he's slight in the shoulders, it looks to me like his legs are strong with some more room to get stronger (as opposed to being a hopeless Tristan McKenzie beanpole-type).

Doesn't say which teams were scouting Pan Wen-Hui, but he's got a much strong looking body and crisper stuff. Maybe not the same spin rates though.

Squire 2022-01-14 16:49:15 UTC #40

The fact that I'm going to get up tomorrow and actively track the Phillies International Signings on twitter and BA, either says something about baseball or my own lack of an actual experience driven life.

fish 2022-01-14 20:55:05 UTC #41

I just want to know why in the world they are doing it on a Saturday when it's a perfect work-day distraction.

Speaking of work day distraction, in the past i've found myself wondering why the Phillies didn't have a scout team, only to find out that they do have one- at least one that played last year associated with Perfect Game, and with really good players too. Max Clark is a highly ranked 2023 eligible player. CC Sabathia's kid is on the team, and as big as you'd imagine.

Here's what I know (or think I know about scout teams) and I'd appreciate anyone who can add more. Scout teams are put together based on invitations by area scouts, though there also seems to be unaffiliated scout teams run by independent development programs. Scout teams are scattered across the country and group by regions, with occasional travel? It appears that, when the scout team is associated with an mlb affiliate, the mlb team foots the bill for uni's and the facility, which for the Phillies I gather is in Kissimmee, and the area scout is the coach of the team. There seems to be wide open access to players for college and pro scouts, but the benefit to the sponsoring team is the first-hand relationship, exposure and data collection.

Do I have that right? Am I missing anything?