M's Bidding for Dominican RHP DePaula
Written by Jay Yencich   
Wednesday, 24 February 2010 00:20

January is still international prospecting season, to some extent. And with that, via various Twitter updates from prolific Tweeter Jorge Arangure, we know that the Mariners are hot in pursuit of one Dominican RHP Rafael DePaula. As is commonly the case in these kinds of situations, should the Mariners sign him, multiple Yankees fans scattered across the eastern seaboard will begin to open veins. Red Sox fans may also join in, but in an embarrassing, obnoxious little brother sort of way.

 

De Paula’s case is an interesting one, one that indicates that scouting in the Dominican is far from perfect. While it seemed for a while that we were out of the era in which falsifying documents was common practice, a few fellows still get nabbed every year and de Paula was one of them, reporting his birthdate to be April 1, 1992, though this was later proven to be false. The loss of him was considered a serious blow to the strength of the crop, as he was expected to command seven figures.

 

Coming into the opening of last year’s period, he was regarded as one of the top pitchers available, a tall (6’3) projectable right-hander who was already throwing in the low-90s while touching the midrange. On top of that, he featured both a curve and a slider which got good reviews, along with a good change-up. But what impressed people the most about him was his mechanics, which were considered to be extremely polished for a kid (?) his age (?), which in turn allowed him to command his offerings quite well.  What I've seen of his mechanics would confirm the fact that they are indeed pretty and he doesn't seem to do anything with his elbow that would warrant a whole lot of flashing red lights.  It also appears that he repeats his release point fairly well.

 

Now he’s back on the market, hiring a new agent now that his suspension has passed, and the Mariners are in on the action along with the usual suspects. On top of that, he seems to be touching 97 now, which shows that he was still working at it during his off year. If the Mariners do in fact sign him, it would certainly be a boon to the system, which competes rather poorly with the Rangers at this point. A high pricetag is certainly no guarantee of success, but the Mariners seem to be quite enthusiastic in the attention they are giving him and, on matters of Latin American scouting, I’m happy to defer to Bob Engle.



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Comments (4)Add Comment
This one excites me
written by lailoken, February 24, 2010
Besides Pineda there is not a starter in the system whose future I feel comfortable about. The other righties in the system (namely Cortes, Kasparek, Hensley, Valdivia, & Blandford) all have a long ways to go. A 6'3 righty with excellent mechanics who touches 97 sounds like a true gem & Engle is as sharp as they come. The M's have disappointed me a bit in not pursuing some of the international free agents this year (Chapman, Castro, Vinicio, Sano, Arguelles, Salcedo, Moronta, Mateo etc.) but if they reel in DePaula I would be happy with the lot overall. Pimentel, Parma, DePaula, & a slew of possible gems would look like a solid haul. Having that one major pitching prospect makes a difference, especially since the 2009 draft focused on position players.
I wouldn't complain so much about us on the int'l front this year.
written by Jay Yencich, February 25, 2010
It's something I could probably spin off into a whole post later on, but to summarize a bit, as six-figure, or probable six-figure signings go, we have...

From Brazil:
IF Pedro Okuda

From Colombia:
IF Diego Mina

From the Dominican Republic:
OF Guillermo Pimentel
OF Alfredo Morales
RHP Jochi Ogando

From El Salvador:
RHP Kevin Quintanilla

From Korea:
C Ji-Man Choi (gee-mon CHOY)
RHP Seon-Gi Kim (sun key KIM)

From Panama:
RHP Waldy Alvarez

From South Africa (?):
RHP Dylan Unsworth

From Venezuela:
3B Andres Brito
OF Alexy Palma
RHP Julian Alvarado
RHP Daniel Mata


That's a lot. I agree that it could stand a high-octane pitcher to make it look just right though. Otherwise, you're absolutely right, there's a dearth of pitching at the lower levels that we can really be proud of. I could probably do a little study of that a bit later.
Quintanilla's change-up
written by lailoken, February 26, 2010
On second thought, after reading about Quintanilla's change-up via your link to Lookout Landing we might already have a stud RH starter.
Big-$ pitching signings...
written by JH, March 01, 2010
have a very, very, very bad return rate. After Felix, the most expensive pitching signings the Ms have made internationally in recent years: Chia-An Huang, Miguel Marquez, Doug Salinas, and Jose Valdivia. The three best pitchers that have come out of our international program in recent years - Juan Ramirez, Michael Pineda, and Edward Paredes - were all pretty low-dollar signings. Don't worry about the Ms not spending money. The team has the money, and will spend it on talent Engle believes in.

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