Wednesday was a big day across Major League Baseball. Teams were allowed to sign international free agents and there was a frenzy. In all, the Angels added 18 youngsters to the organization in hopes of a brighter future.
Gabriel Davilillo was the Halos top target and is the highest rated prospect the team signed. Please take rankings of 16 year olds in far off lands with a huge grain of salt. Davilillo comes with good baseball bloodlines and a connection to the Angels.
Notice the high ratio of signings from Venezuela. The Angels are rumored to be invested pretty heavily there and it is a baseball hotbed. Every team is poring over the DR, so perhaps the Angels have found a way to give themselves a little bit of an edge.
At this point in time teams are looking at frames and hoping to develop players. I love the look of this kid. Long, whipping arms, smooth delivery, will obviously gain strength with age. This is the type of lottery ticket teams pick up in the international draft.
Taking a look at where these kids come from is humbling. We have it pretty great here in the States although you wouldn’t know it from the non stop bitching on TV. Imagine prepping for an MLB scout on this field (although I love the view).
So more lottery tickets added this week and the Angels still have about $800,000 in resources to sign more last I checked. Of course, that money can also be used to trade for players or prospects and it just so happens our neighbors to both the north and south would like to do just that.
Why? Because Roki Sasaki has yet to determine his landing spot and they are trying to woo him by adding every penny they can to their offer.
Roki, however, is not the only Japanese player in the eligible pool. Sacramento signed 18 year old two way player player Shotaro Morii for a cool $1.5 million fresh out of high school. (Yes, they are Sacramento to me now).
Who is this kid? A shortstop with power. A large framed teenager. And a guy who already hits 94 MPH on the mound.
I’m wishing Perry was all over that. Unless, of course, Japanese players justifiably want no part of this organization after watching Ohtani’s career arc.
The international signing period is one way to add great talent. The Angels also pick second overall in the domestic draft. Welcome a new series that will track the top 3-5 likely draft picks throughout the season. each week Nolan will update us on how the top of the board performed and if there are changes at the top of the rankings. Please feel free to play armchair GM in the comments and plug players you think would be great a 2 or 46.
That is, of course, assuming the Angels pick 46th. Pete Alonso is now expected to sign somewhere other than New York and we all know how much Arte loves aging sluggers. Would a short term contract make sense? For a lot of teams, yes. For this one, no.
One guy not considering a short term deal is Alex Bregman. Rendon 2.0 reportedly turned down 6 years and $156 million from Houston so let’s see what happens. If his market craters, it couldn’t happen to a better guy.
On the other hand, Corbin Burnes took less money to pitch close to home and be a family man. Hard to call a guy a hero for settling for $210 million but it shows he has his priorities straight. You only get your kids for so long and it goes quickly.
Burnes moved to Arizona when he was a Brewer and liked it enough to stay. I’m planning on hitting a Brewers game this March myself. If you want tips planning your Spring Training trip, here they are.
Somehow we are already a quarter of the way through this century, something the Y2K crowd would’ve never though possible. The Angels released an All 2000s team. Do you agree with the selections?
I’ll wrap this up with the greatest Hall of Fame speech I’ve ever heard. It could only be delivered by one man. A man who made the world laugh and smile and made countless days better merely with his presence and voice. We lost Bob Uecker yesterday but for generations of baseball fans we should be thankful he was part of our lives.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. I have a free weekend lined up. With spring baseball looming, I think we’ll hit some baseballs and get a little ramped up for the season. We’re less than a month away from camps opening and exactly 4 weeks out from NCAA baseball starting up.