Chisocks Ink Abreu

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Internet says. 6 yrs/ 68 mills.

That's affordable on the one hand and outrageous for an unproven Class AA player on the other.

[duan]

it's a hard one to figure. It's easy to see him being OK, but is that really worth $10 million per season?
There's a also probably bit of devil in the detail in the contract
For example, Puig's contract contains this
"may opt in to arbitration once he earns 3 years of Major League service time"
so he's guaranteed a minimum of 42 million, but he could end up getting quite a bit more then that.

I'm predicting Mark Trumbo as a comp

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

His contact skills, by anecdotal report, seem to be a little better than that... but, yeah, he definitely has a sort of Island Trumbo waft to him. If they're lucky, they'll get a Carib-Ryan Howard, but... a lumbering 250 lbs. at 26?

[Edgy MD]

I'm not sure how lumbering. I see some pictures of him, and he looks to have a solid athletic core. Other shots have me wondering when Dmitri Young went on to play for Team Cuba.

Anyhow, I kinda had a notion the Mets would be in on that action. Maybe they were.

[Frayed Knot]

Now the Dodgers have shelled out $28mil for 26 y/o Cuban SS (expected to move to 2B) - Alexander Guerrero.
Their over-the-top offer for the then under-the-radar Puig worked out great for them (at least in the short run) even with his run 'til they tag you style of play. I hadn't heard anything on this guy leading up to this signing. Could be that they've got themselves a nice pipeline, or could be that they're full of themselves with the Puig jackpot and are under the mistaken impression that all multi-million dollar deals for Castro-escapees are destined to work just as well.

If nothing else, this could signal the Dodgers as a non-participant in the Cano sweepstakes.



BA: Guerrero, 26, was one of the top performers in Serie Nacional, Cuba�s top league, while playing for Las Tunas. In his final season in Cuba in 2011-12, Guerrero hit .290/.402/.576 with 21 homers, 39 walks and 30 strikeouts in 328 plate appearances.
At 5-foot-10, 200 pounds, the righthanded-hitting Guerrero has been one of the top offensive players in the league for the last five seasons and has plus raw power, although scouts have questions about whether the power will translate. Those highest on Guerrero see him as a power-hitting second baseman, while others question whether his hitting will play against major league pitching. Guerrero was never a stolen base threat in Cuba, but he has revamped his body since arriving in the Dominican Republic, increasing his speed and his power. Several teams saw him as a fringe-level big leaguer.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Frayed Knot wrote: Guerrero was never a stolen base threat in Cuba, but he has revamped his body since arriving in the Dominican Republic, increasing his speed and his power. Several teams saw him as a fringe-level big leaguer.

If lines like this ain't suspicious I dunno what.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Right?

The Showtime Dodgers have a sufficiently-deep high minors system and throw so much money around to so many untested free agents and reclamation projects that they escape the burden of efficiency to an extent that even the MFYs must envy-- they can miss on 90% of the Nolascos and Marmols and Guerreros, and when they hit on one or two, it looks yuge.

[MFS62]

I wonder if this will become an episode of the cable show Bad Ink.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

This Abreu--Jose, the White Sox version, the Cuban defector who was open for 1B signing this winter--hit his ML-leading 10th HR today.
His BA & OBA are about on a par with where Duda is right now, but 17 of Abreu's 26 hits have gone for XBs

[Edgy MD]

There's some interesting insinuations up top. Is that the suspicion of what's going on here? Defect from Cuba and then spend a bunch of time roiding up, knowing they can't test you until X months after you sign as a pro?

Or perhaps arrive from Cuba already roided to the gills, where maybe they're spiking the Gatorade. Sign big in the US and hope you can get a few years out of your juiced up body before the effects wear off?