Phillies president Pat Gillick will officially pass the baton to future-president Andy MacPhail in roughly 45 days, writes Jake Kaplan of the Philadelphia Inquirer. However, the first decision of the MacPhail administration was made on Thursday when the club dismissed GM Ruben Amaro Jr. Kaplan provides a look at potential candidates and names Angels assistant GM Matt Klentak as a possible favorite. Klentak, 34, fits plurality owner John Middleton’s suggestion that MacPhail “hire himself.” Klentak was also a favorite of MacPhail while both executives were with the Orioles. Former Reds GM Wayne Krivisky, Royals assistant GM J.J. Picollo, and Yankees assistant GM Billy Eppler are also names to watch.
- Regular season games may return to Puerto Rico in 2016 for the first time since 2004, writes Bill Shaiken of the LA Times. Major League Baseball plans to honor Puerto Rican legend Roberto Clemente in a series between the Pirates and Marlins. Details are as yet unconfirmed per Shaiken’s anonymous source. The visit could include part or all of a four game set between the two clubs. Shaiken also writes about the history of talent development out of Puerto Rico. When the island was included in the Rule 4 draft beginning in 1990, clubs refocused international scouting efforts to Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately, the unintended consequence weakened the popularity of baseball in Puerto Rico.
- We learned earlier today about how Jung-ho Kang’s success could influence the earning power of fellow Korean star Byung-ho Park. Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes about the “paradox” or Kang’s success. When Yoenis Cespedes and Ichiro Suzuki were acquired from their respective markets, they were a relative bargain. They were followed by Jose Abreu and Daisuke Matsuzaka respectively. In both cases, the second player earned substantially more. As such, the Pirates may be pushed out of the market for Park. Sawchik does have a word of caution. Davenport translations suggest Park may only be a roughly .249/.323/.443 hitter with 24 home runs. Teams may want to be careful about investing Abreu or Matsuzaka money in Park.
Perception is often just as much of a part of figuring out a player’s price tag than any other metric. A player that’s been hyped in the press can get more money than a similar player who’s toiling in relative obscurity.
Outside of Pittsburg and the NL Central, you rarely hear about Kang which is tragic because he’s been a star of one of the best teams in the majors. I don’t doubt Park will cost more but my guess is he won’t be on the scale of Abreu and Matsuzaka.
Worth noting that Park turns 30 next year. That seems like a tough age to be trying to adjust to a faster game in a new country. Still, some team will probably go out of its mind and offer him Abreu money.
Actually, the Marlins and Mets played a regular season series in Hiram Bithorn Stadium in June of 2010. Also, not sure why you chose Cespedes over Chapman as an “unknown” talent coming at a discount. First, Chapman arrived earlier and was really the first high profile Cuban player of the last ten years. Also, cespedes is a great player, but chapman is an ELITE player, and is earning much less than cespedes. In other words, chapman would have better proven your point.
The MlB would be wise to feature the Twins in a series in Puerto Rico. The reason is the Twins will likely have two young Puerto Ricans as key players on their team in Eddie Rosario and Jose Berrios.
Sorry bud, the Twins wont be as exciting to watch as the Bucs and Marlins.
I’d rather watch the Twins instead of the Marlins anytime Jose Fernandez isn’t pitching. Having said that, it makes more sense to see a series between the Pirates and Marlins played in Puerto Rico, but not necessarily because it’ll be more exciting.