I think I read somewhere after signing Venezuelan prospects they are moved to the Dominican Academy and play there and develop, take English Classes, the Academy is like a College Dorm there, bunk beds, Classrooms, Cafeteria. If Astros like them than they give they apply for work visa move on to higher minors in the states.
The land and field is amazing, a lot of hard work by Dominicans and Astros officials to make that field, very organized. No doubt players would love to live there, It looks like Summer Camp in the woods.
Francis Martes comes to mind, he signed with Marlins than traded to Astros, if he signed with the Astros at 15 no doubt he would be speaking English now.
Not only has it happened, it's extremely common. Scouting these days is so deep that some players are identified before they turn 16 and a bidding war happens, but for years and to this day simple tryout camps are where many players are found.
MLB Releases 2018-19 International Bonus Pools $6,025,400 bonus pool: Athletics, Brewers, Marlins, Rays, Reds, Twins $5,504,500 bonus pool: Diamondbacks, Indians, Orioles, Padres, Pirates, Rockies, Royals $5,004,500 bonus pool: Cardinals $4,983,500 bonus pool: Angels, Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Mariners, Mets, Nationals, Rangers, Red Sox, Tigers, White Sox, Yankees $3,949,000 bonus pool: Phillies
Houston is restricted to $300k max bonuses, so they will likely trade the majority of their pool. Could be the equivalent to a good prospect at the deadline this year.
A shotgun approach of signing as many prospects as they can may be the best approach, especially if they beat the bushes in Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, Columbia & Brazil where the talent evaluation is not as comprehensive. There may be some gems outside of the Dominican to be found. I doubt the Astros will be able to get any better prospects by trading their pool money than by spreading it around. That being said, if the scouts who said Yordan Alvarez was worth trading for find a player they like, is available for trade & think is worth trading pool money for, I say, 'Go for it!'
Especially if the result is anything like Agent Fields. That trade could end up being one of the most significant in Astros history.
Even with a shotgun approach there’s no way they’ll use their pool. Assuming they can get whoever they want, there’s no way they can get 15 $300k prospects. I will be pretty surprised if they don’t trade at least 1/2 their pool.
They were in the same situation this year, and didn't trade any, even with Otanimania and the Braves thing. I think they value having the ability to put down 200K on a late bloomer or Cuban defector over the fringy prospects that bonus pool money has been getting recently.
The Astros used the majority of their pool this year while not trading away any of the pool and being restricted to signing no player for more than 300K. What makes you think they will change course this year?
I could have sworn they traded away about half their pool last year, but I’m unable to find any articles on it so I must be wrong. They signed 26 guys in July, which at ~$5M would mean the average guy got nearly $200k, which I find hard to believe. There are typically <200 total guys in each international signing period that sign for >$200k, so Houston getting 15+ of them (without giving any of them >$300k) seems far fetched. But I suppose maybe they just overpaid a bunch of guys rather than have the money go to waste.
Using the numbers I could find online, I counted up ~$3.6M spent, with ~6 guys unaccounted for, I would bet they still have a fair bit left over, but I'd expect them to sign a few more players between now and June 15. I'd love to know more details about some of these deals, for instance, the Astros spent nearly $900k last July 2 on players that were eligible to sign in the previous period (led by Wilyer Abreu and Jose Betances) where the Astros were over the limit. Unless those deals came together in the 17 days between the 2 periods, the Astros chose to push them to the next period to save money, but that came with the price of the inability to trade away that space. Idk if the budget is just that tight, or the Astros just felt dealing pool money wasn't worth it, but that does feel like a bit of a waste, imo.
I’d love to see your numbers if you don’t mind sharing. It seemed like international slots were valued pretty highly due to the Ohtani sweepstakes, which is why I am surprised they didnt trade any.
Most of the information I got here, then I assumed Jairo Lopez whose bonus wasn't listed got $300k since BA said he was in consideration for their top 50. I saw some site say Franny Cobos got $125k, Rolando Espinosa get $175k, and Julio Robaina get $220k. I'm also assuming Victors Coutinho and Mascai are the same person.
As an interesting move, the Astros traded Hector Leon, who they signed August 30 of this period to the Orioles for more international money for this period. I guess they must be closer to the limit than I originally calculated, and have an idea of what to do with that money before it disappears on the 15th of this month.
