Others say he's 55 and throws an eephus pitch.

it’s likely many teams don’t know enough about him to make an accurate judgement on when he should be selected.

He'll fit right in with all the other players in the draft, then.

I missed it, if you follow the link, the article has been updated, Speck isn't eligible, he's a resident of Nicaragua or something.

No Speck...but that still leaves Bundy.

Bundy to the Orioles at #4!

No Speck...but that still leaves Bundy.

Speck has a great cutter

Bundy can sell a pump to a blimp.

Others say he's 55 and throws an eephus pitch.

All we know, he's called the Speck.

Edit: double-post.

I am amused that Kevin Goldstein reported two completely contradictory letters from the league office today about Speck's eligibility. Wonder if he'll get drafted amid the confusion.

I think we're all better off that he wasn't called the Streak.

So how is this guy different from Aroldis Chapman or anyone not named ¡Livan!

I mean, his momma's alright, his daddy's alright, he just seems a little bit weird.

he's maybe a resident of nicaragua. tbd.

(for some reason, when i saw this was repoz, i expected a richard speck reference, maybe w/ wesley willis.)

I wonder if he got out on a raft.

Speck is his mother's maiden name, so he should be called Garcia or maybe Garcia Speck, but not Speck.

I don't have an age for him, but he was a rotation regular (although not very good) in his 2007 rookie year. Aroldis Chapman did play at 16, but I'd be more comfortable assuming Garcia was 18+ in 2007, thus 22+ now.

Not very good control in a league of free swinging batters.

Year ERA BA OB SA G GS W L IP H HR BB SO
2007 6.66 .266 .387 .346 14 14 3 3 48.2 38 3 35 51
2008 4.42 .263 .351 .367 16 15 4 2 71.1 71 4 40 69
2009 3.40 .241 .347 .373 15 15 5 6 84.2 75 9 51 74

Quite a day for Mr. Garcia. As of mid-afternoon yesterday (June 6), Garcia was in Los Angeles and getting ready for a previously scheduled June 11 workout, after having lived in the U.S. since February:

Garcia, who was also reported as a 21-year-old who is 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, is represented by Los Angeles-based agent Gus Dominguez, who scouts said had scheduled a workout for Garcia Speck to be seen on Saturday, June 11 at Pierce Junior College. (Baseball America)

source: http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/2011/06/sleeper-alert-onelki-garcia-speck/


Then, within hours, came this from ESPN's Keith Law on Twitter:

.@c_dowley Right, but the issue is residency. Agent told me the player is in Mexico and has residency there. (approx. 6:00 PM on June 6, 2011)

source: http://twitter.com/#!/keithlaw/status/77864406805000192


Then, apparently within that same hour, the agent submitted papers to MLB claiming Garcia is a resident not of Mexico but of Nicaragua, as detailed in this official MLB memo that was sent minutes before the draft:

Since I sent my last email, Gus Dominguez, advisor to Onelki Garcia, has submitted documentation to the Office of the Commissioner that purportedly establishes that Garcia is a resident of Nicaragua. The Office of the Commissioner does not have sufficient time to evaluate the legitimacy of this documentation prior to the draft. After discussions with Garcia, we have decided to declare Garcia ineligible for the 2011 Draft pending a further investigation of his residency. ...

source: http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/display.aspx?sp=26463870&s=2&p=26462437#26463870


Nicaragua, of course, is one of communist Cuba's closest allies on the planet, arguably second only to Venezuela. Oh, and the agent is a convicted felon who's been out of prison for less than a year. But I'm sure all of this is on the up and up. Ha ha.

Im glad they made him ineligable for the draft then. Seems like theres something not right about it all.

Speck has a great cutter

I know eight student nurses who won't disagree.

Thank you, Vlad - that's what I was waiting for.

Oh, and the agent is a convicted felon who's been out of prison for less than a year.
To be clear, he was convicted for being an agent to Cuban baseball players (well, helping to smuggle them out of the country) - we had a thread on him back in the day.

As for:
Nicaragua, of course, is one of communist Cuba's closest allies on the planet, arguably second only to Venezuela.
I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. Anyway, a number of Cuban players have declared residency in Nicaragua - I don't think that means the Cuban regime is happy about their leaving.
Granted, none of that means anything about this being on the 'up and up' - when it comes to Cuban ex-pros, all bets are usually off.

[To be clear, Mr. Kehoskie knows waaaaaaaaaaaay more about this subject than I do (or virtually anyone else in the world). I consider this an opportunity for education.]

Perhaps Speck will open M.E.R.C. once he retires. A.I.M needs the competition, anyway.

Thanks Mr. Selig for saving the Cubs from themselves.

Was that a Jagged Alliance reference?

Was that a Jagged Alliance reference?

And my quest to come up with a reference too obscure for Primer continues to be fruitless . . .

So now he'll be punishsed by being made a free agent, able to be bid on by every team, driving up his price? Oh Bud got him good this time!!!!

Why was he trying to establish residency for the draft? Seems like you'd want to establish residency to avoid the draft.

Speck is his mother's maiden name, so he should be called Garcia or maybe Garcia Speck, but not Speck.

Ian Snell Oquendo says shut the hell up and let the guy call himself whatever he feels like.

Why was he trying to establish residency for the draft? Seems like you'd want to establish residency to avoid the draft.
Same thing.

The punishment could be being subject to the draft and having to wait another year.

To be clear, he was convicted for being an agent to Cuban baseball players (well, helping to smuggle them out of the country) - we had a thread on him back in the day.

I thought he was also convicted of "borrowing" something like $250,000 from a client's bank account (Henry Blanco?), but I might be wrong about that. (As I recall, Dominguez admitted to doing so, but I don't recall if that was one of the charges of which he was convicted.)

Somewhat interestingly, the word around baseball back then was that the union was far less concerned with the felony smuggling charges than it was about the improprieties with client financial accounts. I had been told that, as a convicted felon, Dominguez was banned from not only working as an agent but also from working for an agent both by California's athlete-agent law and by the MLBPA's revised agent regulations. Thus, seeing Dominguez's name in yesterday's news reports was very surprising. (Judging by the jokes on Twitter yesterday, I wasn't the only one surprised.)

As for: "Nicaragua, of course, is one of communist Cuba's closest allies on the planet, arguably second only to Venezuela."
I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. Anyway, a number of Cuban players have declared residency in Nicaragua - I don't think that means the Cuban regime is happy about their leaving.

My point was simply that Cuba's allies generally don't do anything to help defectors, especially high-profile ones. I'm aware of some Cubans who were granted residency in Nicaragua back before Daniel Ortega retook power in Jan. 2007, but none since. With money, anything is possible in Latin America, but I wouldn't have guessed that Nicaragua would have been in any Cuban defector's Top 10 list of target countries for residency purposes.

To be clear, Mr. Kehoskie knows waaaaaaaaaaaay more about this subject than I do (or virtually anyone else in the world). I consider this an opportunity for education.

Ha ha. My knowledge of this stuff and $3 won't get me in the door at Starbucks. It's mostly the result of my having misspent my late 20s and 30s.

The punishment could be being subject to the draft and having to wait another year.

This, to me, is now the most interesting aspect of this whole story. Other than MLB taking a blind eye to its own draft rules, it seems unlikely MLB could come to any conclusion other than the one that was initially issued (i.e., U.S. resident and draft-eligible). Garcia has been out of Cuba for something like 8 months. If he truly had any form of foreign residency, he would have sent it to MLB long before 5:30 PM on draft day.