January 15, 2023 International Signing Period

[Squire]

According to BA we signed 2 pitchers names Luis Gonzales, both from the DR, one who is righthanded and one who is left handed

[julio]

According to BA we signed 2 pitchers names Luis Gonzales, both from the DR, one who is righthanded and one who is left handed

Interesting. They don't yet have either of them listed in their "tracker" list.

Update: did you mean Luis Martinez? They have two of them listed - whether there are two or whether somebody made a mistake...who knows?

[Squire]

Yes. My mistake. Luis Martinez.

[julio]

Well, the LHP Luis Martinez is listed on the Phils' transactions page as signed today (they've posted seven of them - it's pretty much unprecedented for mlb.com to post international signings the day they happen... and on a Sunday night?).

[julio]

I have 16 names now; several missing nationalities, and only two with DOB.

Player	Position	Signed	Nationality	Birth	Age at Signing	Bonus
Caba, Jesus Starlyn	SS	1/15/23	Dominican	12/6/05	17	3,000,000
Calderon, Jaeden	OF	1/15/23	Dominican		#VALUE!	150,000
De La Cruz, Alexis	RHP	1/15/23			#VALUE!
De Los Santos, Alexander	RHP	1/15/23			#VALUE!
Diaz, Joseph	RHP/OF	1/15/23	Dominican		#VALUE!
Dominguez, Luis	RHP	1/15/23			#VALUE!
Fernandez, Eduardo	LHP	1/15/23	Venezuela		#VALUE!
Ferrebus, Alirio	C	1/15/23	Venezuela		#VALUE!
Liranzo, Angel	LHP	1/15/23			#VALUE!
Marchan, Jose	OF	1/15/23	Venezuela		#VALUE!
Martinez, Luis	LHP	1/15/23	Dominican		#VALUE!	150,000
Pan Wen-Hui	RHP	1/15/23	Taiwan		#VALUE!	350,000
Peralta, Pedro	RHP	1/15/23	Dominican	7/27/06	16	140,000
Ramirez, Isaac	OF	1/15/23	Dominican		#VALUE!	50,000
Rodriguez, Esterling	OF	1/15/23			#VALUE!
Tait, Eduardo	C/3B	1/15/23	Panama		#VALUE!
Bonuses Over $10,000, Total:						3,840,000
Pool:						4,644,000
Remaining:						804,000

Notes: BA lists Joseph Diaz as RHP; MLB's transactions page lists him as OF.

[andyb]

Here is Matt Winkelman's spreadsheet with a few more names and birth dates. Up to 20 total now.

Additional names are
Renair Manrique SS
Victor Cardoza OF
Jorge Julio OF
Yhoan Escolana C

International Signings

And you have Luis Martinez LHP while Matt has Luis Martinez RHP. And both could be correct....

[julio]

Here's an updated table:

Player	Position	Signed	Nationality	Birth	Age at Signing	Bonus
Caba, Jesus Starlyn	SS	1/15/23	Dominican	12/6/05	17	3,000,000
Calderon, Jaeden	OF	1/15/23	Dominican		#VALUE!	150,000
Cardoza, Victor	OF	1/15/23			#VALUE!
De La Cruz, Alexis	RHP	1/15/23	Dominican	9/20/04	18
De Los Santos, Alexander	RHP	1/15/23	Dominican	8/23/06	16
Diaz, Joseph	RHP/OF	1/15/23	Dominican	12/8/05	17
Dominguez, Luis	RHP	1/15/23	Dominican	12/17/01	21
Escolana, Yhoan	C	1/15/23			#VALUE!
Fernandez, Eduardo	LHP	1/15/23	Venezuela	9/4/04	18
Ferrebus, Alirio	C	1/15/23	Venezuela	9/12/05	17
Julio, Jorge	OF	1/15/23			#VALUE!
Liranzo, Angel	LHP	1/15/23	Dominican	8/5/06	16
Manrique, Renair	SS	1/15/23			#VALUE!
Marchan, Jose	OF	1/15/23	Venezuela		#VALUE!
Martinez, Luis	LHP	1/15/23	Dominican	12/5/05	17	150,000
Pan Wen-Hui	RHP	1/16/23	Taiwan	9/19/02	20	350,000
Peralta, Pedro	RHP	1/15/23	Dominican	7/27/06	16	140,000
Ramirez, Isaac	OF	1/15/23	Dominican	10/7/05	17	50,000
Rodriguez, Esterling	OF	1/15/23	Dominican	9/8/05	17
Tait, Eduardo	C/3B	1/15/23	Panama	8/27/06	16
Bonuses Over $10,000, Total:						3,840,000
Pool:						4,644,000
Remaining:						804,000

I've done no investigative work on the four latest signings that Matt lists - just copied them into my table. I'll see what I can find...

Luis Martinez (born 12/5/05) is listed on the milb.com transactions page as LHP; that reference links to this milb.com page:

Luis Martinez Stats, Fantasy & News

[As an aside, I routinely link the players I list on the monthly transactions to player pages on mlb.com. Just now I discovered that these kids have player pages on mlb.com, and separate player pages on milb.com - same player reference numbers, exactly the same urls, except one is at mlb.com, and one is at milb.com... and as of now, the ones at milb.com have more information than the ones at mlb.com. These people sometimes don't seem to understand how a back-end database for a web site should work!]

[andyb]

Two trends that are interesting. First is the return of mid-bonus pitching that has been mentioned. Second, and perhaps more important, is that we seem to be back in the Dominican to a much larger extent than in the past. This continues a trend seen last year.

2021 period: 15 Venezuelan, 7 Dominican
2022 period: 11 Venezuelan, 13 Dominican
2023 period: 3 Venezuelan, 8 Dominican identified so far.

While one could posit that the Phillies were concentrating on territory where they had a small advantage in Venezuela, one could also say they were getting beat in the Dominican (where many more prospects have signed especially as the Venezuelan infrastructure has deteriorated in recent years).

[Matt_Winkelman]

Martinez was on my sheets incorrectly, he is indeed a LHP and not a RHP who throws left handed. The other 4 signings come from Steve Potter's update from this morning.

The roster and transaction updates are incredibly dumb that the system does not work.

I do wonder if the pandemic plus turmoil in Venezuela has essentially killed the low money signing from Venezuela, as those players are not the ones leaving the country. Also minor league contraction has greatly reduced the number of players the Phillies have signed and looking back historically it looks like Venezuelans have typically comprised a lot of signing day players with Dominicans that they are likely able to do tryouts and other things related to the academy have made most of the middle of cycle signings.

[julio]

The other 4 signings come from Steve Potter's update from this morning.

Steve tends to get things right.

The roster and transaction updates are incredibly dumb that the system does not work.

Yeah. I mean, they'll fill in the details over time - although we may not see DOB on some of these guys until they appear on a minor league roster. And bonuses? After the first flurry of reports on or around signing day, the remaining signing bonuses often don't get reported - occasionally you can find one in a "home town" media report (in Spanish).

[andyb]

We did get just about all the bonus data from last cycle eventually, so reporting on that is improved. I assume this all gets into public MLB databases somewhere as they are trying to increase transparency a bit (even if they are slow and uneven in implementation). All the MLB.com prospect reports note international bonuses these days even if they are small (i.e. $10K).

[julio]

It's really uneven. For the Rule 4 draft, mlb maintains a complete database online; you can search by team, by round, by position, etc. The January 15th signing date involves a similar number of players, and they do... little or nothing. Somebody writes an article about the "top 50" kids... but what about the other 500-600 players who sign? Yes, they evidently have that data, and eventually dribble out information (bonus data, etc.); but they simply do not treat it at all equivalently to the Rule 4 draft.

[andyb]

I am suggesting that they have such a database elsewhere. For the clubs primarily, but the info is not proprietary so it gets out. The MLB.com pipeline people clearly have access to that info.

They could be more accommodating to fans of course, but that is not their main goal. They do have an interest in club to club transparency though so they can help police each other.

[fish]

It used to be that they didn't want to broadcast bonus data to keep from making the kids a target (at least particularly for the VZ kids), though no one seems to abide by that anymore...hopefully because conditions have improved enough to do so.

[julio]

A couple of additional guys have been listed on the official transactions page - they now show 13 14 signees as of yesterday. I updated the most recent table I posted (above).

[andyb]

4 guys on our list are among the youngest in their class. Last birthdate eligible is 8//31/06 and we have 4 guys within 5 weeks of that.

Maybe a strategy to identify late developing kids with tools? If we were looking at HS draftees we would definitely prioritize the 17-year-olds over the 18 and 19 year olds as having more future projection.

[julio]

Now have DOB and nationality data on 19 all 20 of the reported 20 signees:

Player	Position	Signed	Nationality	Birth	Age at Signing	Bonus
Caba, Jesus Starlyn	SS	1/15/23	Dominican	12/6/05	17	3,000,000
Calderon, Jaeden	OF	1/15/23	Dominican	9/17/05	17	150,000
Cardoza, Victor	OF	1/15/23	Venezuela	1/19/06	17
De La Cruz, Alexis	RHP	1/15/23	Dominican	9/20/04	18
De Los Santos, Alexander	RHP	1/15/23	Dominican	8/23/06	16
Diaz, Joseph	RHP/OF	1/15/23	Dominican	12/8/05	17
Dominguez, Luis	RHP	1/15/23	Dominican	12/17/01	21
Escolana, Yhoan	C	1/15/23	Venezuela	11/4/05	17
Fernandez, Eduardo	LHP	1/15/23	Venezuela	9/4/04	18
Ferrebus, Alirio	C	1/15/23	Venezuela	9/12/05	17
Julio, Jorge	OF	1/15/23	Venezuela	8/4/06	16
Liranzo, Angel	LHP	1/15/23	Dominican	8/5/06	16
Manrique, Renair	SS	1/15/23	Venezuela	2/8/06	16
Marchan, Jose	OF	1/15/23	Venezuela	12/20/05	17
Martinez, Luis	LHP	1/15/23	Dominican	12/5/05	17	150,000
Pan Wen-Hui	RHP	1/15/23	Taiwan	9/19/02	20	350,000
Peralta, Pedro	RHP	1/15/23	Dominican	7/27/06	16	140,000
Ramirez, Isaac	OF	1/15/23	Dominican	10/7/05	17	50,000
Rodriguez, Esterling	OF	1/15/23	Dominican	9/8/05	17
Tait, Eduardo	C/3B	1/15/23	Panama	8/27/06	16
Bonuses Over $10,000, Total:						3,840,000
Pool:						4,644,000
Remaining:						804,000

[Squire]

Thank you for putting that together

[Squire]

Here are some shots of all 11 prospects signed at the Dominican Academy:

https://twitter.com/PhilsPlayerDev/status/1615122650308956160

[julio]

Last piece of missing DOB data has been added to the table (three posts back).