Pirates to Spend $4 to $5 Million on New Dominican Academy
by Charlie Wilmoth on Jan 11, 2008 12:28 AM EST
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PrintThe cost of the Pirates' new Dominican academy will be $4 to $5 million, Dejan Kovacevic reports. I saw that figure and immediately wondered whether $4 to $5 million could make a good Dominican academy, and apparently it can. Here's another article by Kovacevic from back in September:
The Rays are paying only $3 to $4 million for their new academy.
That's all Google could turn up. Anyway, this may not be the Rolls Royce of Dominican academies, but it's not a Yugo either, and if the Bucs spend their money well, it should get them from Point A to Point B as long as they're willing to shell out for bonuses. That's a big "if," but still, this new academy could be a huge step in the right direction.
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"the Pirates' summer affiliates in the Dominican and Venezuela each ranked among those leagues' elite in 2007. The Dominican team included 17 first-year players."
of course it could be 4-5 years before any of that pays off (if at all) but how often in the past did we even hear the dominican and venezuelan teams mentioned?
my question is this - are these 16-17 year olds playing at a high level or are they like many of our minor league teams, stocked with 20something nonprospects to raise the won/loss totals? anyone have any info on who actually did this ranking? are they reputable or is this just the opinion of bob nutting and the pirates pr department?
on a side note, everybody's favorite can't miss prospect chad hermanson signed a minor league deal with the angels.
DSL team
http://minors.baseball-reference.com/teams.cgi?yid=2007&lid=DSL&tid=DPI
You'll see that all the key players were at least 19, except for a couple relievers and a couple hitters who didn't do much. The best pitcher was 23, the closer was 24. The real prospects in that league will usually be 16-17, maybe 18.
The team was a little younger than some of their past teams, but it was still well over the league average in age. You can see that here (scroll down to the miscellaneous stats):
http://minors.baseball-reference.com/leagues.cgi?yid=2007&lid=DSL
My sense is that they've put a lot of effort into signing slightly older, pretty good players who probably don't have high ceilings.
Dominican Academy cost about average...
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/122006/12182006/244676
The Padres' initial investment into the academy is more than $5 million, and the club expects to invest more as needed.
http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070124&content_id=1785762&vkey=news_sd &fext=.jsp&c_id=sd
In an attempt to improve an international scouting system widely considered among the worst in Major League Baseball, the Orioles have agreed to an extended lease on a new baseball academy in the Dominican Republic, just east of the island's capital city of Santo Domingo.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-sp.orioles28nov28,0,2560794.story
the Boston Red Sox paid more than $3 million to get their Dominican academy going in 2003, and St. Louis' Dominican venture, set to open in two months, will probably cost more --
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/218001_tabminors31.html
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