July 2, 2017 International Signing Period

andyb 2018-06-02 19:57:32 UTC #885

We signed 61 kids in 2016. The number went from 35-40 to near 60 when we started adding the 2nd DSL team and now the GCL team. The volume is higher. No evidence the quality is any higher though. Best way to measure that for now is money. 10 years later we can evaluate the performance.

In 2015 we signed 32 kids. That lower number was partially because of Ortiz taking up most of our bonus pool. 2014 was 39 kids but spread around a bit more.

The 60 signings is new from last year when they were clearly planning the GCL expansion (which you probably do a year after you start signing increased volumes of kids).

All the signing numbers are from the BA reviews. They go by calendar year and not the J2 class, but it is a close proxy. We probably have a few more late signings this time because of the late trade for allocations. Personally I wish we had that money earlier when there were better talents available. No idea if any of these late signings are any good.

julio 2018-06-02 20:08:15 UTC #886

Money's the best measure we have up front.. as long as we remember its a "blunt instrument," and often proven wrong.

Indeed. That said, though, the whole premise of adding low-level farm clubs is to use quantity to help offset the uncertainty inherent in trying to cherry-pick 16-year-olds. The goal is to do as well or better, in terms of eventual ML yield, than the alternate strategy. That doesn't mean that twice as many clubs/signings yields twice as many major-leaguers... only that it yields more than the alternative strategy.

Austinfan 2018-06-02 21:47:48 UTC #887

Money only matters at the top, as we've seen, the Phillies have found numerous players with $10K bonuses, Altuve was a $10K bonus - but fielding an extra GCL team probably costs more than the players signed to the team (staff, facilities, etc).

I think they may have skipped signing players they thought had potential in the past because they had limited slots and couldn't give them enough PT to develop them over 2-3 years (sign at 16, play at 17, stateside at 18-19, a year or two in the GCL - and it makes more sense to keep LA players in Florida until they're culturally assimilated than send them to Williamsport).

Sure, most of these guys will be gone by the time they would reach A ball, but land an additional Franco, Hernandez, Sixto once a year and the extra team, small bonuses and scouts are paid for. It's one of the ways a rich team can "buy" a competitive advantage.

bigegypt0417 2018-06-05 23:02:11 UTC #888

6'8 pitcher from france...

andyb 2018-06-06 13:22:25 UTC #889

Not exactly dominating French competition, but he sure is tall:

Squire 2018-06-07 14:42:23 UTC #890

Woah. We just signed a 19 year old pitcher from Taiwan for 250K

bigegypt0417 2018-06-07 14:45:43 UTC #891

sounds like he's got some velocity to work with...

Squire 2018-06-07 14:49:06 UTC #892

I loved his video.

andyb 2018-06-07 15:07:32 UTC #893

Good for them. Sounds like the rate late signing where having some extra dollars available made the difference. We certainly are expanding the geographic reach of our signings this year. Hopefully it will pay off in some results. We had been mostly missing in Australia and Mexico, for instance, the past few seasons. Asia too of course. France may be more of a novelty, but becoming established players in countries like Australia, Mexico, and Colombia can only be a good thing.

fish 2018-06-07 17:28:15 UTC #894

rhp Mitchell Edwards signed for $100k from Canberra, Au.
International scouts are earning their pay this year!

julio 2018-06-09 02:12:23 UTC #895

Edwards is listed on last summer's Sydney Blue Sox roster as a catcher, not a pitcher.

andyb 2018-06-17 14:33:59 UTC #896

And since we have now passed June 15th, this period is officially over.

Dead period for a couple of weeks until we start the July 2, 2018 period.