The latest international signings…
- The Red Sox signed Venezuelan left-hander Dedgar Jimenez, Ben Badler of Baseball America reports. The 16-year-old obtained a bonus of $175K. Jimenez has a "David Wells-type frame" but good pitchability and a fastball in the 88-89 mph range, Badler writes.
He’s 16 and already is shaped like David Wells? That can’t be good.
You beat me to it. Even David Wells wasn’t shaped like David Wells at 16.
My thoughts exactly. Does this mean his potential upside is, say, Andre the Giant?
Bartolo Colon.
How can that’s shaped like David Wells only throw 88-89 and still get signed? Don’t those guys have to throw high 90’s? All I can say is that he better have the most controlled fastball in all of Venezuela, or else signing him is a waste?
He is 16…
True that. It still doesn’t sound good to be signing a 16 y/o of that size that’s only gonna get bigger as he matures, unless they put him through some massive conditioning program.
I am not at all with Boston throwing major $$$ at IFA players. Look over their history.. They have done far better on them with lower bonus guys and high bonus people have been 100% flops.. People trained by buscoes to do nothing but run 50yd dashes and hit BP.
Hanley Ramirez: 20K
Felix Doubrant: 200K
Xander Bogaerts: 510K
Yamaico Navaro: 10K
Then there have been huge bonus and so far at least, little gained for the most part:
Michael Almazar: 1.5m
Almazar. Raw and can’t make up his mind from 1 season to the next if he wants to improve or not. refuses to correct flaws.
Oscar Tejada: 525K
Played 1 decent sesason, years ago to a spot on the 40 man roster and finally DFA’d this year. Now on someone’s roster.. Forget which.
Engel Beltre: 550K
Sent to Texas in the Gagne deal. CLASSIC kid who was trained by buscoes to do nothing but what scouts want and a head case to boot.
So you’re saying at 175K you like the signing…. right?
Correct 🙂
Sorry.. left that out.. I prefer the lower dollar signings of the so called, non top 10 signings. Sometimes they work out just as well, sometimes they don’t and as for the note on speed brought up here?
Boston signed a kid..Frank Montas that was throwing 96-100mph at the age of 17. He is 19 now, still cannot find the K zone and has little to nothing else pitch wise. Just throwing that out there to some of the other posters here with regards to velocity and age. Some youngsters 6’2 and close to 200lbs have the velocity young.
I feel like someone with that build needs a really solid breaking pitch they can throw for strikes in order to succeed
I accidentally clicked on the David Wells Baseball Reference link instead of the link to the story. It’s pretty funny that Baseball Reference has him listed at 6’3″ and 187 lbs. I don’t ever remember seeing David Wells look like that…Maybe when he was 16.
Just saw a picture of the kid. He looks like your classic baby fat 16 year old. Get him really working out and he could be a beast.
I wonder if this kid has ever pitched a perfect game half-drunk.