Mariners Sign Esteilon Peguero
Dave · December 6, 2010 at 3:06 pm · Filed Under Mariners
As first reported by Baseball America’s Ben Badler on Twitter, the Mariners have signed 17-year-old Dominican SS Esteilon Peguero to a $2.9 million signing bonus. That’s the largest bonus any international prospect got this year. His write-up is here. I’ll see what I can dig up on him from down here.
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It’s nice to see the M’s signing some highly thought of prospects, even if he is only 17. Long journey, little steps.
I still don’t understand why international players don’t have to go through an entry draft like American and Canadian players. I know some people have some pretty strong opinions about this, but I just don’t get it. All the other North American pro sports leagues have an entry draft for all players, why is baseball different?
Never hurts to add a young infielder with the potential to actually hit to the organization. Even if/when he has to move off of short.
Personally, I love this. If you agree with Jack’s theory that winning is mainly about amassing talent, this is a great move. And man, how that guy attacks the ball!
The logistics of doing so would be a mess.
In basketball and football, you can be successful on a certain amount of physical talent, so when you scout some six foot whatever guy in Eastern Europe who can seem to block and maybe shoot a little, it’s okay, because he can learn on the job.
Comparing, straight up, a high school kid who grew up playing little league, American Legion, what have you, and a Dominican kid who was using a cardboard box for a glove, is a little tricky. And that’s what you get in baseball. A lot of the international countries that supply baseball players (Latin America in particular) are a little sketchy as far as competition and facilities. Even in places like Australia or South Africa, or anywhere around the Pac Rim, you can know the physical tools, and you can know how the player stacks up relative to his peers, but determining how that’s going to play out in the minor leagues is another matter.
So, baseball is different basically because it’s a little more skill oriented and because it draws on a larger pool of players (many countries in there) that often are playing in weaker leagues. Those are a few of the reasons why an international draft isn’t really feasible.
I understand, and (I think) you responded to me with a similar query; but I thought I heard that Major League Baseball was seriously considering it. At least, Bud Selig was considering it.
Bud Selig considers a lot of things and not all of them are good ideas.
It’s something that comes up every few years though.
Well, Christ, I know that, but a certain amount of Mr Selig’s bad ideas get approved, unfortunately.
Jay, difficulty in talent evaluation isn’t a very good reason, if a reason at all, for not having an international draft. Teams vary in their ability and willingness to evaluate international talent, whether such talent is distributed by a draft or by a free market operating outside of a draft. An international draft would be complicated — just figuring out eligibility would be a pain — but difficulty in evaluating the eligible players due to the nature of baseball shouldn’t be a reason not to have a draft. The only way that works as a reason is if one contends that the teams who are unwilling/unable to dedicate resources to evaluating international talent should not be forced to do so by the institution of a draft. I’m not sure that’s your point, but I could see some teams who are unwilling to focus on the international market being uncomfortable with the idea of having to draft, and pay, players using bad/incomplete information.
There were a number of teams a few years ago who almost completely eschewed the international market in favor of devoting the resources to their domestic operation. The Brewers were one such team, though they were also inclined at the time to throw large sums of money at a consensus top free agent.
In order to really make things work on the international level, you need an incredible group that’s on the ground and capable of both evaluating the “top” players and identifying others that might benefit from a more structured environment. The two top pitchers the system has generated in recent years, Felix and Pineda, weren’t given huge dollar bonuses: they were scouted early and courted throughout until they opted to sign. Felix even got a higher offer from another org.
So, there’s eligibility, there’s the matter of inconsistencies of competition leading to players being judged predominantly on physical traits for a skill oriented game, and there’s the matter of needing scouts (and money) to go out to all these far flung places and identify talent. It’s just not as easy with baseball as it is with the other sports.
Is it me, or is that swing eerily reminiscent of A-Rod’s?
Is Ja. Wilson signed through this upcoming season? I thought we signed our new SS till I saw he was 17, haha.
I thought that too. A little bit shorter, crisper, though. Probably a little less raw power at the same age.
Also, he drops his elbow a little more than A-Rod, I think.
Good to hear we finally are getting good prospects as this often. With the #2 pick next year and the slew of AAA and AA (and Franklin) prospects we have, as well as our several international signings lately, I feel some of the HAVE to turn into decent players.
I’m excited, but like a Mariner fan fool, I always am…
I really don’t see how it would be that complicated. The scouting isn’t really a problem, as we already have those in place, and if it was a problem, MLB could do like the NHL does and publish central scouting reports for everyone. The NHL being the league to compare this to as they go through a very similar struggle in finding and comparing players in tiny European regions playing in who knows what kind of league and translating that into north American hockey which is a night and day comparison.
Also, the fact that you can sign these kids at 16 compounds the issue. Wait till they are all 18, and you’d have a much clearer picture. For truer balance of competition, Id definitely support an international draft.
Without a draft, those with more money to spend will acquire more talent. Selig would be right for trying to get international implemented into the draft like they are in basketball. There may be more risk, but just like with the domestic draft, you must consider risk/reward in your draft strategy.
Baseball seems to have a shady side in South America. Perhaps I’m wrong, but it seems like the teams have this weird school/farm systems that make it unlikely for teams to actually wait until 18 to draft. And I don’t know that a team would spend that money down there unless they knew more about the players.
Weirdly, I thought MLB couldn’t draft non-US players because it wasn’t legally possible to enforce a monopolistic restriction on the market for the labor of non-US employees. But that doesn’t really make sense, and the NHL does it, so I was wrong.
I’m confused, though, as to why sensible readers of this blog would want to expand a system that annually rewards teams that have no business playing in the major leagues (Pittsburgh, Kansas City) and gives young players no say in their employment.
These are generally poor kids–sometimes extremely poor who may never get another payday again in baseball. It’d be a lot easier to jerk them around on signing bonuses than middle class American kids. I’m not going to advocate a policy to make it easy for billionaire owners to do that.
Meh on the elbow. He has typical rotational swing mechanics in which the back elbow drops as a matter of course (see Pujols for a good example of the rotational swing). Clearly that’s a good thing.
Oddly, his swing in the first clip is shorter than most of his swings in the second one. But his hand path on all but one of his swings in the second clip follow the ball-path with no holes.
I think he might resemble A-rod more for his similar frame, his stance and separation (which are identical to A-rod’s), and the ummm, the high socks look. Again, none of this is bad at all…except maybe the socks.
I agree it reminds me of A-Rod as well, and I think his swing looks very powerful. The obvious thing I notice that he needs to work on is hitting the ball to the opposite field. His swing looks like a total pull-hitting swing at this point, which isn’t surprising of a 17 year old. It would be nice to have one of these young kids pan out as a star in the future.
We’ll pull jersey #7 out of storage just in case.
Checked out the video. Some A-Rod similarities, but Alfonso Soriano was the first hitter that came to mind. Anybody else see it? Rock-loaded swing with too much shoulder/head slide and a similar finish at times. He had two or three different finishes altogether, not uncommon for a teenager. Strong kid – great action through the ball – looks like he can really drive it for a 17-year old.