The Pirates in the Dominican

by jonoz13 on Nov 30, 2008 2:40 AM EST Comment 7 comments

Dejan is back and he wrote a great article about a Pirates tryout in the Dominican Republic. It is a nice feel good story. I like the article for two reasons; (1) it gives insight into what the Bucs are doing on the island, and internationally; (2) I have taken several classes on Latin American history and geography, and the article gives a nice snapshot about life and baseball in the D.R.

The Bucs have a long way to go before they will be a competitive major league franchise, and I think the 2009 season is going to be a long one for us, but this story and the recent international signings are giving more me hope that Pirates are on the right track. Lastly I just wanted to say how glad I am that Dejan is back, he is a tremendous writer.

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This is a great article.

You don’t even need to like baseball very much to find this fascinating. And of course most of us do. Kudos to Dejan and Jonoz13.

Viva Clemente!

by Roberto on Nov 30, 2008 8:06 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

I also enjoyed the article, but it makes me laugh that signing a major league pitcher in the Caribbean is really not that different than picking a little league team in any small town. Replace buscones with annoying father. I can’t wait until we get our baseball academy.

by Ketcham Bruce on Nov 30, 2008 9:17 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

This is a fantastic article.

by Charlie on Nov 30, 2008 1:20 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Surprisingly unstructured

What struck me most about the story was that it shows how unstructured, impulsive, and potentially circumstantial the signing process can be in the Dominican (and I’m assuming most other places in Latin America). Gayo didn’t have a tryout set when he arrived, but word of his presence on the island spurred buscones to quickly throw together a group of athletes for Gayo to see. That’s a far cry from the organized team baseball setting that scouts experience in the U.S. and shows that seeing the best talent is often a combination of connections and luck. Also, the fact that Gayo signed Frias so quickly after the tryout — while Frias was wearing a Dodgers hat and shirt — shows that it might often be first-come, first-served. If the Dodgers had made the first offer, would Frias be a Pirate? Final thought: It’s interesting to see how much autonomy Gayo has with his budget. He didn’t have to run the Frias signing by Huntington or any other member of the Pirate front office. That shows great trust by Huntington and the realities of having to nail down Latin American talent when the opportunities arise.

I also have to say that it’s great to have Dejan back. Given the wealth of great information he passes along via daily write-ups, notebooks, feature stories, blog posts and chats, he has to be considered one of the premier MLB beat writers in the country.

by Alleghenys on Nov 30, 2008 3:35 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

The unstructured nature of it shows why the idea of an international draft has had so much trouble getting off the ground. The need to impose some order on the process has so far been outweighed by the daunting logistics.

by WTM on Nov 30, 2008 6:26 PM EST reply actions 0 recs