Knobler: Inside MLB’s Cuban Pipeline: It’s High-Risk, High-Reward

Mr. Burns, I think we can trust the President of Cuba.

Eventually, the players who leave the island establish residency in another country and are declared free agents. Workouts are scheduled, sometimes attracting 200 scouts and executives if the player is a big enough star.

Sometimes, a player may work out for a specific team, as Abreu did for the Reds when they wanted to see if he could play third base or left field (he couldn’t, at least not to their satisfaction, and with Joey Votto set at first base, they reluctantly dropped out of the bidding).

Eventually, a player signs pending a physical exam, which can be something of an adventure in itself. The Dodgers had to have someone drive Puig 1.5 hours across Mexico City to find an MRI machine. When the Reds recently signed pitcher Raisel Iglesias, scheduling the physical was almost a bigger obstacle than negotiating the contract.

“We were working on a tight deadline, and the kid couldn’t get a visa yet to come to the Dominican Republic or the U.S.,” Reds general manager Walt Jocketty explained. “We finally brought a doctor from the Dominican, and a Spanish-speaking doctor we work with in Cincinnati, to see the kid in Haiti. But then they had to find an MRI machine in Haiti.”

It all got done, and now the Reds will hope Iglesias does as well for them as Chapman has. He was nearly as expensive, costing the Reds $27 million for a seven-year contract, even though he wasn’t as highly touted as Chapman (who got $30.25 million for six years in January 2010).

The prices keep going up, which only makes the decisions tougher.

“The gut feel has to be there,” said Don Welke, a top Rangers scout who has been to many Cuban showcases and was involved in the signing of outfielder Leonys Martin. “It’s huge risk, huge reward. As it’s turned out recently, whoever has taken the risk has gotten the reward.

“But some scout had to stick his neck out for every one of these guys. And you’d better darn well be right, because your owner is asking you why you want to spend so much on a guy you only saw in two workouts.”

Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams … and Yasiel Puig « Dodger Insider

“I think Puig is definitely in this family of nearly mythical characters.” ~ John Thorn

Yasiel Puig hearing set for Friday

Puig is being sued for $12 million in an action that alleges he wrongfully accused the man, Miguel Angel Corbacho Daudinot, of attempting to set up a prior defection from his native Cuba. The plaintiff was sentenced to seven years in jail as a result of Puig’s testimony.

If he really got a guy sentenced to 7 years with a false testimony, that’s pretty terrible.

In baseball, is the right way the “white way?”

How fair is it for Latin and black players to be criticized for playing the game the wrong way? Is the right way really “the white way?” Who keeps track of the “unwritten rules?”

Just a few years ago, for the first time, more professional players were under contract (counting all baseball players at the major and minor league levels) who had been born outside the United States than were born inside the country. Most of those players are Latinos, prominently from Venezuela, the Dominican, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Cuba, among other nations. Increasingly, these players are coming from a background unlike that of the white players they’re facing in the professional leagues in the U.S. they haven’t been “schooled” in the unwritten rules of the game.

Bat flips, slow home run trots, gesticulations on the mound and on the basepaths — these are all things the Latin players are introducing to the big league game here in this country. Sometimes it seems the hubbub over these incidents are more about race than right.

Le Batard: It’s difficult for us to understand Puig’s lack of understanding.

I found the anecdotes about the other players particularly interesting.

ESPN: Le Batard: Let’s cut Yasiel Puig some slack

In terms of style, Vladimir Guerrero’s most closely resembled Puig’s. Reckless. Raw. But so overwhelmingly skilled. Guerrero was Puig before Puig, albeit soaked in fear instead of defiance, but he got to make his mistakes pre-Internet, and more quietly in Canada. Guerrero drank from puddles as a child. He had a fifth-grade education because his mother had to put him to work in the fields.

Guerrero’s mother lived with him as a major leaguer because he was so scared of everything new and different and awful outside, and he wanted something, anything, that felt more like home. But you have to wonder how all of that plays out differently, how we and fame would mutate Guerrero, if we had dropped him in Los Angeles and immediately demanded that he star for the city and the country and the sport beginning at 22.

Tardy Yasiel Puig scratched from Dodgers’ home opener

He doesn’t feel tardy…

Yasiel Puig was scratched from the starting lineup after arriving late for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ home opener on Friday.

The rest of the team was already on the field stretching before batting practice while Puig was getting dressed in the clubhouse. He had been slated to start in right field for the afternoon game against the San Francisco Giants.

Instead, Matt Kemp replaced Puig after manager Don Mattingly had earlier said Kemp wouldn’t start. Kemp came off the disabled list on Friday, and according to Mattingly, Kemp was upset when initially told that he wasn’t in the lineup…

Mattingly didn’t speak with reporters after the lineup change was posted Friday.