This topic could generate some debate, given the fact that most parents in Latin America prefer their kids to sign with a Major League team instead of getting a scholarship to play College ball in the States. But what’s the driving force behind parents and their decision?

Well, in Latin America, most players come from families with very little income, and when a team approaches them with a $200,000 or $500,000  bonus for their kids, all they want is to get their hands on that check, regardless of the long term problems this could lead to.

We all know that probably around 92% of the draftees in the June Amateur Draft get lost in the Minors and never establish themselves in the Majors. Well, in Latin America that number could be closer to 99%, which means that out of a hundred players signed only one will make it. Tough odds if you ask me.

The problem is when a Latin player gets signed, he immediately quits school and becomes a professional baseball player. If he doesn’t make it, and the statistics are not in their favor, he will probably end up without a career in baseball, which up until this point is all they have known. And to be honest, almost none of them continue their studies once their baseball careers are over. In my experience I’ve met more than one hundred ex-professional baseball players and only two of them went back to school and graduated.

What parents need to know about all this, is that they should insist on their kids getting a scholarship to play College ball in the States. Not only will they get a degree in something, they will also participate in three different June Amateur Drafts and if they get drafted and they decide to sign, their signing bonus will be much, much larger than they one they could have signed out of Latin America. Getting scholarships will also prevent players from lying about their age and identities just to get signed. Like what happened with Leo Nunez last year, Miguel Tejada a couple of years ago and recently formerly Fausto Carmona.

Lately, a rumor about an International draft has been circulating through the media. If that draft reinforces kids quitting school and signing with a Major League organization I would have to say that I don’t support it. Latin American amateur players should first try to get a scholarship to a U.S College and then go for a career in professional baseball if they get drafted. After all, if they’re good enough to get a signing bonus from a Major League organization in Latin America they will be good enough to find a scholarship at a U.S College.

Here is a list of the 2011 June Amateur Draft signing bonus for the top five picks (list provided by mymlbdraft.com):

– Gerrit Cole: $8,000,000 with the Pirates.

– Danny Hultzen: $8,500,000 for a five-year, Major League deal with the Mariners.

– Trevor Bauer: $4,450,000 for a four-year, Major League deal with the Diamondbacks.

– Dylan Bundy: $6,250,000 for a five-year, Major League deal with the Orioles.

– Bubba Starling: $7,500,000 with the Royals.

And here’s a list of the five largest bonuses of all time signed by Latin American players (list provided by Patrick Clark of Beyond the Box Score):

– Michael Ynoa (Dominican Republic): $4,250,000 with the Oakland Athletics.

– Miguel Sano (Dominican Republic): $3,150,000 with the Minnesota Twins.

– Gary Sanchez (Dominican Republic): $3,000,000 with the New York Yankees.A

– Rafael Rodriguez (Dominican Republic): $2,550,000 with the San Francisco Giants.A

– Yorman Rodriguez (Venezuela): $2,500,000 with the Cincinnati Reds.A

Even though Bauer was just drafted this June, he has already played at Double-A for the Diamondbacks, but from the top-five Latin American players only three have cracked Class-A. Sanchez (signed in 2009), Rafael Rodriguez(signed in 2008) and Yorman Rodriguez (signed in 2008). The rest of them have only played in the rookie league.

If Latin American players pushed to receive a guaranteed college education, it would not only help them receive more attention from scouts in the States, but would also help them take back a solid college education to their respective Countries in hopes of being able to make a difference in their communities.

“Jeremy is excited to join the Rockies, and I see this as a positive result for all parties,” Guthrie’s agent, Brodie Van Wagenen, said in a statement. “Negotiations with the Orioles were steady yet slow, and an arbitration hearing seemed possible and even likely. Once informed of the trade, Jeremy decided to make a showing of good faith and agreed to a deal within the Rockies’ payroll structure, since he felt it important that his relationship with his new team get off on the right foot. Jeremy is excited about a fresh start with a new organization and a contending team close to home.”

Guthrie then agreed to a one-year deal with the Rockies for $8.2mm, thus avoiding arbitration.

Guthrie will be a free agent after the 2012 season and according to Connolly, he had been rumored to be on the trading block.

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Last season, Galarraga went 3-4 with Arizona while posting a 5.91 era.

Prior to last season Galarraga agreed to a one-year $2.3mm deal with Detroit and then released the next day. At that time, the Orioles were interested in the right hander.

The 29-year-old shot to worldwide fame for his sportsmanship that he displayed after an umpire’s error cost him a perfect game in 2010.

Galarraga will continue to be under team control through the 2013 season.

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Betemit hit .285 while splitting time between Kansas City before he was traded to the Tigers. He also posted a .343 OBP and a career high in strike outs with 105. Betemit made $1mm last season.

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Mora signed with the Diamondbacks prior to this last season, but was never able to establish his game and was subsequently released in June.

In 41 games with the Diamondbacks this season, Mora was hitting 230/.246/.278 with 0 home runs and 16 RBIs.

In his career, Mora totaled 1503 hits and 171 homers, while posting a .277 avg in  1556 games or 5422 at-bats.

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We are proud to announce that our PRO Rumors Android app version 1.0 is available on the Android Market.  We spent a lot of time on the app’s design and functionality, and we are sure that you’ll love it.  To download the app for an introductory price of $2.99 you can click here.

Here are a few features:

– Push Notifications to get the latest news and rumors for your favorite MLB team

– Pulse-like view of articles – it’s beautiful

– Real-time scoreboard

– Real-time box scores of in-game action

We’re working hard to add more features, so if you have any questions or feature requests, please send an email to support@prorumors.com.  We promise to write you back.

Allan

Crisp will earn $6mm in 2012 and $7mm in 2013. The team option has a salary of $7.5mm for 2014 or a $1mm buyout. If Crisp is traded, he gets a one-time bonus of $250K.

Yesterday, Crisp made his decision to sign with the A’s, his agent Steve Comte told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Basically, we just have to let that team know.” At the time, the A’s, Blue Jays and Orioles were rumored to have interest, along with the Cubs.

If he signed with the Cubs, he would re-joined another A’s outfielder, David DeJesus who signed a two-year deal earlier in the offseason.

Crisp hit .264 with 140 hits, 49 stolen bases and an OBP of .314.

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Sources also add that Hiroki Kuroda and Roy Oswalt are not likely for the Orioles since both would prefer to join a contending club.

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Mora signed with the Diamondbacks prior to this last season, but was never able to establish his game and was subsequently released in June.

In 41 games with the Diamondbacks this season, Mora was hitting 230/.246/.278 with 0 home runs and 16 RBIs.

In his career, Mora totaled 1503 hits and 171 homers, while posting a .277 avg in  1556 games or 5422 at-bats.

Image taken by Keith Allison and used under the Creative Commons License Agreement.

Chavez hit .301 in 274 plate appearances for the Rangers in 2011. He played the entire outfield as he helped provide depth to in outfield that included injury prone Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz.

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The Orioles may not be done raiding the Japanese league.  The team has interest in left-handed pitcher Chen Wei-Yin, a Twaiwanese left-handed pitcher from the Chunichi Dragons.

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Pie last played 85 games with the Baltimore Orioles in 2011 where he hit .220/.264/.280, but was designated for assignment in August..  He signed a one-year contract prior to last season for $985,000.

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Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun adds that the Dodgers will get Jarrett Martin and Tyler Henson (Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com) in exchange of Eveland.

Eveland was 3-2 with a 3.03 ERA in 29.2 innings in five starts with the Dodgers in 2011.

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Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports add that the Yankees, Blue Jays and Texas Rangers are expected to bid on the right-handed pitcher.

Darvish,25 has never posted an ERA above 2.00 in Japan. It is possible that other clubs will become involved in the bidding process for the Darvish who is viewed as another option for clubs who lost out on Mark Buhrle or C.J. Wilson.

For those wondering, MLB clubs have four days to bid on Darvish, then four days for Nippon-Ham Fighters to select a bid then thirty-days to work out a contract with the club with the winning bid.

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– Sources close to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports say that the Los Angeles Angels have met with free agent Aramis Ramirez and a contract offer is likely coming.

– Sources close to Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reports that the Texas Rangers are optimistic about signing Mike Napoli to a multi-year extension.  He’ll be a free agent after the 2012 season.

– According to Buster Olney of ESPN, the Milwaukee Brewers’ last formal offer to Prince Fielder was for five years and $100 million, and he says they could stretch it to six years and $120 million.

– The Baltimore Orioles are among the teams interested in veteran catcher Jason Varitek according to Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated. He adds that he finds it hard to imagine Varitek leaving the Red Sox.

– Another veteran catcher, Jorge Posada, is still looking for a job, and according to Heyman, he inquired with the Mets. Heyman adds that the Mets are looking for a backup catcher so Posada won’t probably be among their candidates as they are looking for defensive minded catchers.

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“Taylor is an accomplished catcher who has shown an ability to handle a pitching staff and control the running game,” O’s executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette said. “We believe he will be a nice complement to Matt Wieters and our pitching staff, and offensively, he will provide good power.”

In a parallel move, the Orioles designated left-handed pitcher Pedro Viola to make room on the 40-man roster for Teagarden.

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In the book’s preface, the author quotes work done by a Manhattan lawyer named Doug Pappas. Pappas, says that a team with only minimum wage players, both on the Major League roster and the rest of the 40-man, would still probably win 49 out of the 162 games played.

In 2011, the minimum wage for a player on the 25-man roster was $414,500. The minimum wage for a player on the 40-man roster, with at least one day of MLB service time or had been on the 40-man roster for a year was $67,300.

The minimum that a team could spend on their 40-man roster in 2011 was: $11,397,000. That’s $10,387,500 for their 25-man roster and $1,009,500 for the rest of their 40-man roster. If a team could get approximately 49 wins with a $11,397,000 payroll, that means that if you divide the total wins a team got above their 49th win by the total dollars they paid over the minimum, you get the “price” each team paid for each win they got.

After this brief introduction of the “marginal win” formula, I’m going to say what this report is all about. I’m going to analyze the “price” for each win a team got in 2011 so we can determine which teams were the most cost effective. Besides that, I’m going to list the top 5 paid players on each team and give you their performance line, to see how much they actually contributed to their team.

I’ll also list each team’s OBP, runs and SLG totals so we can see for ourselves how related these stats are at the moment of scoring runs and winning games. So get ready to experience a thoughtful analysis of every 2011 Major league team.

The team’s payroll was taken from USA Today and the individuals salaries from About.com.

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Izturis says he wants to keep playing and is looking for a Major League deal adds Connolly. The 31-year old agreed to a one-year deal with the Orioles back in December 2010. Last season, Izturis hit .200/.250/.200 with 1 RBI in 30 AB’s for the Orioles.

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Fox hit .246/.313/.443 with 2 HR’s and 6 RBI’s in 61 AB’s for the Orioles in 2011. Martis last pitched in the Majors in 2009 with the Nationales. That season he went 5-3 with a 5.25 ERA in 85.2 innings throughout 15 starts.

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Orioles’ executive VP of baseball operations, Dan Duquette said “He has a lifetime ERA under two,” A unique delivery. He has gotten results on the world stage when it’s counted.”

Ghiroli adds that if the deal becomes official, “Chong would be the first Korean player to make the jump directly from the KBO to the Major Leagues.”

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The New York Post (via Rosenthal) says that at one point the Mets tried to trade Mike Pelfrey for Street, but then they backed off. The 27-year old closer is owed around $7.5-8 million for 2012 and he has a $9 million option for 2013 or a $500,000 buyout.

Street was 1-4 with a 3.86 ERA with 29 saves in 58.1 innings with the Rockies in 2011.

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