Jul
03
Quick Links: Matsui, Montero, Venditte, Sanchez
BySome quick links for you to read as you get ready to fire up the grill, if you haven’t already.
- Longtime reader Cameron emailed along this cool little nugget about Hideki Matsui from the Yomiuri Giants 1998 Season Preview: “It’s rumored that the clumsy center fielder will move to third base in 1998.” Hideki Matsui at third base? I can’t imagine …
- Erik Manning at FanGraphs wrote about the almighty Jesus Montero. In short, the kid’s good. Real good.
- Baseball America released their midseason minor league All-Star team, and the only Yankee farmhand to make the cut is switch pitcher Pat Venditte. You can certainly make a case for Montero over Carlos Santana, but Santana’s absolutely worthy.
- Another Latin American catcher, the recently signed Gary Sanchez, will report to the Rookie level Gulf Coast League Yankees within two weeks according to BP’s Kiley McDaniel. This is unheard, international signees typically sign contracts which begin the follow the season, and at best start their first professional season in Extended Spring Training. The Yanks must think this kid is really advanced.
- Beyond the Box Score took a quick look at the fastball of the recently defected Aroldis Chapman. Shockingly, the Yanks are interested in Chapmn’s services.
Some interesting stuff going on.
The Fangraphs article is good, but Montero’s defense is better than the article lets on.
But is it really? The knock on Montero is his defense, the article merely reiterates that by posting his stolen base statistics this year. Numbers don’t lie.
It appears that the Yankees really know this Sanchez kid which is why he’s starting in the states later this month.
They’ve probably known about this kid since he was like 10.
They’ve been on him since he was around 12. He’s been advanced for his age for several years. The team has evidently been following him for a while.
this isnt going to turn out like Danny Almonte is it?
I’m sure they were in on the initial breeding program
So how many times are we going to hear about this chapman fellow before he is able to be signed? Buster Olney has been going gaga over him.
The Chapman thing is on the cnn.com home page.
You’re looking at the biggest story of next off season.
I want to hear Fidel’s opinion on this.
Rebecca, I think it will be quicker. His agent will find a country to fast track his residency.
Well the article Montero was good.
Wouldn’t surprise me at all if he plays for the big league club next season this time of the year.
Montero is a beast.
I wonder what agent Chapman will choose.
Hahah lars anderson only has 8 homers. You’d think he has like 30 or 40 by now.
So this Chapman character will be a free agent in the offseason?
How do these contracts work? Can you sign him to like a 10 year deal? or is like signing a draft pick?
like a normal free agent I think but they usually have a clause in the contract that prevents you from offering them arbitration at end of contract.
They’re unrestricted free agents, yeah, which means that they go through the normal progression of 3 years, then three arbitration years, then they can declare free agency — unless, as you say, their agent negotiates a special clause, like some of the Japanese stars have done. I dunno if this kid will have enough leverage to do that, though he might. I’m sure he’ll be able to finagle a major league deal, though.
I think you are still controlled for first 6 years in the majors even if you sign a major league deal shorter than 6 years though, so I don’t know what the significance of a major league deal is. Like if Brackman signs a 4 year major league deal, he’s still not a free agent after 4 years and would be subject to arbitration instead and I think that would apply to Chapman as well.
Usually these international free agents (not the 7/2 types) don’t want that to happen so they get a clause in there.
And I guess I have to eat some crow…I snarkily asserted that Sanchez would be in the DSL for a couple years when people on another thread asked when they could start looking for him in the GCL. Apparently, I was wrong.
Hey man, at least you admit it.
I felt the same way you do, Sanchez coming to the States already is crazy(hopefully in a good way).
I asked this earlier but i guess i will ask again here. what happens to murphy now? To me is is unlikely that Higgy would go to Charleston and Murphy SI, so is this is a split time thing or they dont think he is going to sign until late?
Hey Mike, glad you enjoyed the link. Thanks for posting it!
I think Tabata signed and went straight to the GCL. That would be the only explanation that he played there at age 16, right?
Montero had 3 hits tonight!!!
This is a bit shocking to me. Gary Sanchez joining the GCL just sounds crazy, the fact that he is even starting his professional career in 2 weeks sounds weird. The Yankees must think very highly of Sanchez and his advanced ability. He will join a few other interesting prospects in the GCL, Kevin De Leon, Eduardo Sosa, and Ramon Flores. If Sanchez some how manages to play really well I wonder if that means he will play in Charlston (low-A Ball) next season, at the age of 17….that would be ridiculous.