A disaster? Since when were international signings a major source of talent (other than the Cuban defector gold rush)?
You get a lot of depth players out of LA, but the top starters are almost randomly distributed outside of a few can't miss types. Maybe Morales is worth the money, one of those skinny IFs adds some muscle and pop, or our whole LA haul the last few seasons turns out to be putrid.
Asian value comes not from amateur signings but from veterans deciding to come to America, and it's more like the free agent market between the contract and buyout cost.
Australia? How many ML starters from there so far? Europe?
And you really don't know what you have from LA until they're 20-21, so many LA players are physically underdeveloped (and this is going to be worse for Venezuelan players the next few years due to widespread malnutrition) that you don't know until they fill out - Garcia could put on 20 lbs of muscle and weak line drives become shots to the alley. Look at all the LA pitchers who go from 87-89 to 94-95 over a 5 year period.
It's far less about spending money now that the bidding wars are over (and that was primarily older Cubans) than having scouts who can identify 15 year olds with upside and a network of contacts that allow you to nail down the players you want to sign. And you only know if you're good at that 5 years later (when that 15 year old turns 20).
What does worry me is that all the guys they've signed the last few years seem to have fallen short so far, Gamboa, Medina, Gutierrez, Marchan, Brito, Muzziotti, Ortiz, Morales, Aparicio, Guzman, Garcia, Rojas, Santos, Silva, Tortolero, Matos, Vargas, Betancourt, Segovia, Rodriquez, Castillo, Nava, L Rojas, Valerio.
We've signed a bunch of guys from $50K to $4M, what I'm waiting for is a few to have "breakout" seasons where they start shooting up the ladder a couple rungs a year. Usually, a "star" LA player like Altuve announces himself around 20-21 years old with that kind of season.
