Outside the Box: Carribean Dreams

Coming to a ballpark near you:

Rusney Castillo
Age: 27
Years Pro: 6

Represented by J-Z's ROC, Castillo appeared at his showcase 20 pounds stronger and put on a powerball show that may have upped his price-tag to Puig money ($40+Million or so).  A smaller guy at only 5'9, Castillo is not projected to have a super-star upside. Initial scouting reports tout a quick, line-drive swing with good loft, a good glove and plus plus speed.   MVP of the IBAF World Cup games in Panama, Castillo was considered a top-ten player on the island (after Cespeddes, Puig, and Jose Abreu left) and has drawn comparisons to Jacoby Ellsbury and Andrew McCutchen.

Is Castillo the next big thing or big flop?

Having already navigated his way through the murky legal maze of applying for MLB free agency when you're from Cuba (you have to establish residence in a second country and then be approved by MLB as well as Government to be eligible), Castillo is available right now and might be playing in September.

Go get 'em, Reuben!

Slugger Tomas may be too expensive

Yasmani Tomas
Age: 23
Years Pro: 5

 6'1, 230 pounds of svelte muscle, Tomas has an elegance to his swing that may command a commitment of 40+  Million.

Maybe not.

Tomas' Cuban league stats are only slightly above average, and at the most recent incarnation of the WBC, Tomas looked over-matched at times by pitchers with plus heat.

Scouts agree on Tomas's power potential but disagree on his approach and contact ability.  Some say he will start his career in High A while others argue a month in triple A and Tomas will be major league ready.

Whatever the case, Tomas defected in late June, so he still has to establish residency and be cleared by the MLB before he can even sign.  

The next Cuban Legend

Yoan Moncada
Years Pro: 2
Age: 19
A husky six foot one, two hundred pound switch hitting infielder, Moncada is the youngest player of the group at just 19.  This is the guy to sign (if Amaro signs any of them) Possibly a five tool prodigy who in high school and the Cuban League played all over the diamond, Moncada absolutely destroyed his competition in the 16U and 18U leagues.  Not a whole lot of video or Cuban League stats to look over, but the anecdotal comparisons and reports vary from flowery to jubilant.

Tantalizing a prospect as they come, Moncada's departure from the island is a little murky.  The story posted is that Moncada did not defect, but was granted passage by a Cuban government that seems to have shifted priorities.

That's the story anyhow.

95+ fastball

Jorge Despaigne (Wilson)
Age: 23
Years Pro: 5
Not a whole lot of information about this long, lanky 23 year old, Despaigne left the country sometime in June, so like Tomas, the Phillies (and the rest of the league) will have plenty of time to put together a solid scouting report.  When Despaigne left, he was considered one of the top young pitchers on the island, his fastball hovering in the mid 90's, but a weird mechanical issue (can't repeat delivery) will most likely lower his stock (and pricetag).



TRIED to defect once already:

3 time Cuban League MVP

Alfredo Despaigne
Age: 28
Years Pro: 10
A bonafide monster in his prime (only 28 years old) Despaigne is currently playing for the Chiba Lottes after receiving a lifetime ban from the Mexican League for obtaining illegal documents.  As this is the first year of a sort of loan agreement between the government of Cuba and Japanese club teams, it should be interesting to see what Despaigne does.

I have a feeling that after having destroyed both the Mexican League (.346/.407/.603) and the Nippon League (7 HR, 21 RBI in 22 games), Despaigne may still want to play in the Major Leagues at the end of the year.

The power potential could be an difference maker for the Phils immediately, so fingers crossed everyone.

NOT gonna happen:


Yuliesky Gourriel
Age: 31
Years Pro: 12
For the last decade, this guy has been the best player in Cuba and we, here at the Phorum, have held out hope (our outstretched hands) that somehow, someway, this five tool wunderkid would find his way onto a major league roster (we of course imagined Gourriel playing third for the Phils).  We've got high in the sky apple pie hopes, we admit it.  But, imagine for a moment, dear Philadelphia fan, the best player in Cuba since Omar Linares playing gold glove D alongside Jimmy and Chase, makes you wonder how many more f*#@ing World Champion banners would be hanging in Ashburn Alley.

In our sweet sweet dreams, dearest Philadelphia fan.

#1 Big Meany signed with Yokohama Bay Stars

This past off-season, the Cuban government changed the rules. Gourriel is 30, but still a top player on the island.  We said to ourselves (yes, we talk to ourselves.  We are ONE to begin with.  DUH!), Gourriel could be a franchise saver (evil slightly hysterical laughter).  YES! we said (more laughter).  To rule the world we must have a legit bat and glove (FINALLY!) from the right side. Our heartbeats quickened and we laughed some more (we laughted alot more really.  Dark evil tortured laughter in front of the mirror) and then the BIG MEANIE signed with a Japanese team and Amaro rolled the team into Spring Training looking like what they look like and we canceled our MLB subscriptions in late May settling for listening to the lulling play by play of radio instead.  Listening and lapsing into our fantasy baseball teams and hoping the year would end quickly.

Thanks for ruining baseball.  Yuliesky.

Ya big Meanie.

Outside the Box: Prologue

Though it may seem that Rome is burning to the ground, dearest Philadelphia fan, you must understand that this kind of agony is the price the baseball gods demand for success.  Of course this version of the Phillies is god-awful, just unwatchable at times but don’t fault your GM for this team (there's plenty of other stuff you can fault him for).  If you remember (and you should remember, it’s an important faculty, not just in baseball, but in life, remember the good things, remember championships,

Doc and Reuben in the good ol' days

remember that the harder the struggle the sweeter the victory), Amaro was a gunslinger and you rooted him on as he stacked aces on top of aces on top of his trio of perennial  MVP candidates.  A delicate tower, to be sure, but he was gunning for a ring - of course you’re gonna over-reach all over the place.

I don’t recall anyone complaining that the Phillies were too good, that Amaro should trade Jimmy Rollins for some big name prospects.  That oh no, we traded for Roy Freaking Halladay and then resigned him to a bezillion dollar contract.  There were no uproars of dear god, take him back or we just don’t want the the franchise to pay for the best pitcher in baseball.  Really?

Its hard to fault a GM who is winning now, and wants to keep winning now.  We want to win now.

Nonetheless, here we are now at an obvious and conspicuous crossroads (Ryan Howard is never going to be Ryan Howard again, we just need to accept that) and it may seem, Philadelphia fan as if you are going back, back to the bad old days, the Calvin Maduro and Rico Brogna days, the coming up just short days and playing fantasy baseball instead of actually watching the game days.  And like a man just released from prison, you cannot go back.  Will not!  We hear you.  We understand.  Rooting for a looser is an emotional deconstruction project.

JP Crawford is a five tool shortstop

It's possible that the rage and terror inspired by this years brand of baseball is entirely justified.  The anxiety of the bad philadelphia thoughts, do you think maybe 2007-11' was all just a beautiful dream? Do ya?  Was the beautiful new park and Gillick just some  circumstantial shooting star, the rare statistical outlier of ten thousand losses.

Did management merely stumble unexpectedly and blindly into a short-lived golden age?  Is it true that because we pelted Santa with snowballs and booed Mike Schmmidt (mercilessly) at the end that we have bullied the organization into a formless shiftless feckless blundering group of fools.  Not only are they unable to sustain or (tee-hee) prolong success but they are also fated to enact a series of catastrophic personnel and management mistakes dooming the organization to inevitable bottom-feeder status for the next fifteen years. Or.  Maybe. Ever.  They will be awful forever! (like the Cubs, only Philly is not lovable when they're loosing.)

Take a breath.  Its ok, Philadelphia. We know a quick glance through the minors is an exercise in darkness.  That (for God's sake its happening all over again!) there are only three real prospects, and that of the three, only JP Crawford has the look of special talent, and he's still in A ball.

The Phillies will once again be the Phillies, you say .  God-awful, underachieving, under resourced, under managed baseball chum.  Philly.com's Mike Sielski certainly thinks so.  Compelling stuff Mike. 

There's another possibility to consider.  Consider that the Phillies ownership has crossed a threshhold.  If 2014 is to have any meaning, maybe its this:  the paradigm has shifted.  That at the end of a championship run, ownership having tasted immortality is desperate for more and when the Howard contract is finally off the books, and Amaro is still around (hopefully a little bit wiser), the gunslinger GM will have enough gold to chase dragons in the Orient.  To take a lottery ticket out of Havanna.

THink that sounds craaa-zy!  Consider the other side of this contractual, aging player mess.  The proof is in the pudding, as they say.  Think about it; ownership was willing to dole out the Benji's and let Reuben play Russian roulette with the both the payroll and the minors trying to win another championship.  The boundaries have been broadened.

Castillo was impressive in Clearwater

Literally.  The Phils are reported to have worked out Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo.

Miguel Gonzalez, the Cuban starter turned reliever,is a tip of the cap to the new kind of thinking and comes from an intriguing, high risk reward player resource, a resource that if combined with a little drafting, some outside the box roster construction (per the A's and Rays anypostion super players and platoons) and a lot of baseball luck, the kind of quirky back to the 90's bunch could turn up in Pinstripes and we could be dancing down Broad again.

Or at least watching the games.

The resource: The international free agent market. (Guys from the KBO, Nippon and Cuban Leagues).  Yoennis  Cespedes, Yu Darvish, and Hyun Jin Ryu (all international free agents) are just the first of what might become a tsunami of near or major-league ready talent. The NFL and NBA have cut deeply into baseball's American market, and truly, sadly, baseball is no longer America’s first sport.  It is, however, played professionally on every continent in the world, because as you, yes, you, true fan of baseball know, baseball is a sublime, peaceful metric.  Something you may not know, a bunch of those other leagues play in big modern jam packed stadiums. 

Kajik Baseball Stadium (Lotte Giants), Seoul, South Korea

So, buck up, Philly fans.  After scouring scouting reports and game video from all over the globe (internet and u-tube), the Phorum compiled of list of players who are probably coming to ballpark near you and soon.

Hopefully a few of them play at the Bank.