Doug Laumann conference call

[danman31]

White Sox Director of Amateur Scouting Doug Laumann took part in a conference call for bloggers this afternoon and I was lucky enough to be a part of it. Laumann comes off as a very intelligent baseball mind and it's hard to argue with his first rounders so far. I wanted to get more player specific questions in, but we were on a time limit and the questions tended towards more general stuff about draft strategy and philosophy. Laumann's a talker. I could talk to him for hours about baseball.

 

Doug Laumann talks draft strategy and international signings

 

This isn't a full transcript, but I think South Side Sox or one of the other sites might have one later. I'll link it here if so.

[southsider2k5]

Nice to see the blurb on Dex Carter getting right.

[DirtySox]

I'll be pretty disappointed if they don't sign Gardeck. One of my favorite selections.

[danman31]

I'll be pretty disappointed if they don't sign Gardeck. One of my favorite selections.

Me too. He sounded like a very talented arm.

[southsider2k5]

Me too. He sounded like a very talented arm.

 

That was a weird one as well. At first it sounded like a done deal. Now it sounds dead.

[caulfield12]

It's still not exactly clear why we're not a player in the international signings market. Last time I checked, we weren't a "small market" club.

 

We paid Viciedo more than anyone, and obviously we've had success with players like Contreras and Ramirez, so you'd think that some agents/buscones and players' families would look at OTHER issues, although unfortunately money is always going to be the #1 factor. Same thing with the potential to play for a "national hero" if you're a young Venezuelan player (not to mention the presence of Vizquel as part of the organization and probably a future coach).

 

I just don't get how we can throw money at Manny Ramirez or Mark Teahen and then just never take a chance signing one of these "big bonus baby" deals in the Dominican or Venezuela.

 

 

[danman31]

In fairness, the Latin America market is pretty crazy right now. You're paying 16 year olds as much as a top 10 draft pick and the scouting conditions are typically sheltered simulated games set up by the player's agent. I wish they would spend more on the draft in general, but I can't argue with not spending internationally. They've actually done pretty well in Venezuela recently. Escobar, Gonzalez, Carlos Sanchez and going a bit further back Jose Martinez.

[Springfield Soxfan]

Did the 30th round selection Parent from Texas A&M sign?

[southsider2k5]

Did the 30th round selection Parent from Texas A&M sign?

 

Story

 

http://soxbronzetitan.wordpress.com/2011/0...randon-parrent/

[Balta1701]

In fairness, the Latin America market is pretty crazy right now. You're paying 16 year olds as much as a top 10 draft pick and the scouting conditions are typically sheltered simulated games set up by the player's agent. I wish they would spend more on the draft in general, but I can't argue with not spending internationally. They've actually done pretty well in Venezuela recently. Escobar, Gonzalez, Carlos Sanchez and going a bit further back Jose Martinez.

Still though...if you're paying each of those guys $1-3 million...for the price of a Mark Teahen extension, you're talking about what, 5-8 of them? A 20% success rate makes your return on investment something like $50 million.

[southsider2k5]

Still though...if you're paying each of those guys $1-3 million...for the price of a Mark Teahen extension, you're talking about what, 5-8 of them? A 20% success rate makes your return on investment something like $50 million.

 

Which in real terms means we don't Jesse Crain or AJ this year.

[Balta1701]

Which in real terms means we don't Jesse Crain or AJ this year.

Or means that we don't have Teahen. Why is it that we'd still sign the people who underperform but fail to sign the people who overperform? That's double-plus bad management strategy...in all cases keep the underperforming guys

[southsider2k5]

Or means that we don't have Teahen. Why is it that we'd still sign the people who underperform but fail to sign the people who overperform? That's double-plus bad management strategy...in all cases keep the underperforming guys

 

Because we didn't extend Teahen this year.

[Balta1701]

Because we didn't extend Teahen this year.

If it has to be this year's guys...so we kept Kotsay and didn't sign Dunn, and instead signed 25 top guys from Latin America. We wouldn't really be any worse.

[southsider2k5]

If it has to be this year's guys...so we kept Kotsay and didn't sign Dunn, and instead signed 25 top guys from Latin America. We wouldn't really be any worse.

 

In theory.

[caulfield12]

It's like tech stocks 10-15 years ago.

 

If you just picked a basket of 25-50 top Latin American properties for $1 million each, you only need to hit on 1-2-3 of them to get the same rate of return you would get signing one Dunn or taking on the Rios contract.

 

Let's say you get a 3rd-5th starter, a position player who's league average and one All-Star.

 

Not to mention the fact that when you sign a FA, you're losing that first round draft pick, which is like you just forfeited the opportunity to sign maybe 3-5 top Latin American prospects.

 

Really...shouldn't we take this philosophy every time out when you look at resigning John Danks OR spending it all on development/minor leaguers?

 

As soon as Danks is making $15 million per year, he's not much of an asset. Look at Mark Buehrle. As good as he's been this year, it's not like we would get much more than a couple of B level prospects for him in trade. Actually, it's even more limited because there's only a few teams he would probably accept a trade to, so teams like the Cardinals or Yankees know that they don't have to offer as much if it really becomes a salary relief issue.

 

The problem seems to be that we're 2-3 years behind the curves on getting the right scouts in the right places to even begin returning to being a "player" again. In that sense, I'd rather the White Sox made a big splash with another Viciedo-esque signing that would put them back on the map in both the DR and Venezuela.