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June 23, 2009 The Latin Talent MarketThe Rumor Mill
The Video Notebook Now that I've presented 25 scouting reports for July 2nd prospects (here and here) along with videos of the top players (all of them which you'll find here), you may be wondering what I have to left write about, with all of the crucial information already written and still 10 more days until players can sign. First, the ranking of players is always changing, though I'm not going to edit that list just yet. If there's one thing I can tell you about this market, it's that something is always happening. Every call I make not only yields solid information and teaches me something new, but there's at least one off-the-wall item mentioned as well. Maybe it's a function of a maturing market where everyone isn't on the same page yet, or perhaps there's just more to be made from misinformation in a free market. Probably both, and some other factors, but rest assured, I have more than enough material. The trick is to figure out what is most legitimate, and of that, what is most important. I've been working the phones as the signing period nears, so here is your information dump, notebook-style. The Curious Case of Guillermo Pimentel Guillermo Pimentel, OF, Dominican:This seemed to be an open-and-shut case from the start, the one sure thing in Latin America this year. Now it's become the complicated soap opera that no one seems to understand. To recap, it was alleged that Pimentel (scouting report) had struck a verbal deal with the Texas Rangers sometime late in January, for either $1.8 million or $2 million. Soon after his January workouts for Texas, other clubs began complaining that they weren't being allowed to see him, which is as effective as his agent setting up a 40-foot-tall neon sign outside his house saying "a deal is done with Texas, leave us alone." Literally every single Latin source I spoke with for months would respond to the topic of Pimentel with a sigh and a roll of the eyes so obvious that I could hear it through the phone. Teams were miffed enough that Pimentel was being "hidden" that I was told by multiple sources that formal complaints were lodged with MLB, and there was speculation that Texas would be barred from signing the player if any evidence of wrongdoing was found. Throughout the process, Texas denied doing anything inappropriate, insisting that Pimentel wasn't on "lockdown" at their academy, and that a deal hadn't been done by any stretch of the imagination. This issue became big enough that it inserted itself into any writing about Pimentel's talent—no one had seen him play for months, so scouting reports were outdated and there was no bidding war to speculate about.
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The Padres were big players last year and have sunk a sizable amount of money into their Dominican complex. Have you heard them linked to any names that we should know about?
They've been attached to JC Valdez and Jose Pena among the bigger names. They're active, we'll see how it shakes out.