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What's happening with incoming Cuban players?


vilehoopster

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I just have a general set of questions about some possible and probable incoming players with Cuban backgrounds. 

1.) First of all, has Norge Vera signed with the White Sox yet?  According to posts on this forum, he was supposed to sign last week. Where is that situation at?

2.) There were some comments on here that Yoenis Cespedes has changed his agent/ management team at that he was now with the same agent team as several other White Sox players from Cuba. The belief or implication was that he would soon be a White Sox player. Has anything happened with this? 

3.) And my last question is a tough one, sort of opinion based. When the Sox got Yoelqui Cespedes, he was, according to MLB.com, the No. 1 international player available in the draft. Marco Paddy bragged him up as major-league ready right now. I saw this and thought: There's our starting right fielder next year, in 2022. Yet, when I look at other ratings of international players, he is rated far down the list of best players, in some cases not even top-ten. What is going on here? Is it the usual difference of opinions between scouting services?  Also, how reliable is Marco Paddy? I understand that he found and talked the Sox into Luis Robert. Did he discover Abreu?  What is Paddy's track record with finding players?

Thanks for any comments or insights. 

 

 

 

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The White Sox will always be honest with you. I have an interest in learning what the future holds for US-Cuban relations following rumors of a new president. I think your next Yoelqui update will soon arrive from Glendale. He might as well bring his brother along. 

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Vera hasn't officially signed yet, but because of COVID the situation is fluid.  Even other members of the Sox class are signing on separate days, including a few over the end of last week.

The older Cespedes has had no real rumors, but it was an interesting tidbit about the agent switch.  Maybe an incentive laced contract draws him here?  Who knows.

The younger Cespedes is going to AZ for a separate minor league mini camp.  He is not invited to spring training at this time, so there is a near zero chance he breaks with the big club unless something drastic happens.

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Yoelqui is older more ready to play, and less of a question mark as some other younger prospects with higher upsides. Hence his high rating. Last I read Yoelqui was the number one prospect on one list, 10th on another.

 

Paddy. Well he's gotten us Robert, Abreu, and my namesake. That's pretty good. But he doesn't get much room to work volume prospects. It's not his fault, the team had a different (Reinsdorfian Williamsesque) approach aside from those bigger fish. For example the Cuban SS (Sanchez) they just signed for 2 million seemed like a better idea to them than signing 4 Dominicans. High floor low ceiling. From what I uderstand they may be adjusting that. For the love of God I hope. I don't have much belief they will. They seem to be ready to give Colas 3 million.

Edited by Fernando Tatis Jr
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5 hours ago, CeaseAndExist said:

Fangraphs has Yoelqui as the 49th best Int FA, with a 35+ FV rating.

I was surprised to see him that low given how he's talked about here and elsewhere

That ranking is being based off of an extremely small sample size in which Cespedes struggled. However, I do think he’s much more of a wildcard than people think. It’s been a while since he swung the bat competitively. Just because his big brother was a superstar for a few seasons, doesn’t make this guy on the same level. I’m really looking forward to where the Sox start him and how he performs.

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23 hours ago, vilehoopster said:

I just have a general set of questions about some possible and probable incoming players with Cuban backgrounds. 

1.) First of all, has Norge Vera signed with the White Sox yet?  According to posts on this forum, he was supposed to sign last week. Where is that situation at?

2.) There were some comments on here that Yoenis Cespedes has changed his agent/ management team at that he was now with the same agent team as several other White Sox players from Cuba. The belief or implication was that he would soon be a White Sox player. Has anything happened with this? 

3.) And my last question is a tough one, sort of opinion based. When the Sox got Yoelqui Cespedes, he was, according to MLB.com, the No. 1 international player available in the draft. Marco Paddy bragged him up as major-league ready right now. I saw this and thought: There's our starting right fielder next year, in 2022. Yet, when I look at other ratings of international players, he is rated far down the list of best players, in some cases not even top-ten. What is going on here? Is it the usual difference of opinions between scouting services?  Also, how reliable is Marco Paddy? I understand that he found and talked the Sox into Luis Robert. Did he discover Abreu?  What is Paddy's track record with finding players?

Thanks for any comments or insights. 

 

 

 

1. Norge Vera hasn't signed officially. I've been told that it should be any day now but I was told the same thing last week. It'll happen at some point. 

2. Cespedes is probably looking for a big league deal and I'm not sure anyone has that for him at this rate. I connected the agency to the Sox but they'd probably only be interested on a minors deal. 

3. MLB Pipeline made him the #1 international prospect and it's probably not fair to the kid. He's safe in a sense that he's the closest guy to the majors. Many of the 16-year-olds who were signed have significantly more upside though and I'd rank many of them higher. Marco Paddy is one of the better international scouts in the business. He has Jose Abreu, Luis Robert and Fernando Tatis Jr on his ledger. Jerry Reinsdorf hates paying amateur talent so there's a question on Sox strategy. Does Paddy not have the relationships with trainers to land the top end teenage Dominicans or is Jerry opposed to giving $2-$5 million to 16-year-olds and they don't even bother? When in doubt, I blame Reinsdorf. 

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