Pimentel at Mariners Academy

Baseball America reports that the M's are looking at Guillermo Pimentel, and that he is working out at the M's academy in the DR

over 2 years ago Zach Sanders 15 comments 0 recs |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Well that's...exciting?

Nice Guys Finish Third - My semantics are a waste of time.

by pdb on Jun 18, 2009 9:16 AM PDT reply actions

That would be a pretty nice signing.

by Aaron Campeau on Jun 18, 2009 9:30 AM PDT up reply actions

If you’re the type who’s into the international signing period. He’s probably the second or third best prospect available. We might break our record for a single signing on him, and it still won’t cost us Inoa money and maybe not even Rafael/Yorman Rodriguez money.

LH power hitting OF? Yes please.

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://mvn.com/marinersminors/

by JY on Jun 18, 2009 9:37 AM PDT up reply actions

So this update on one of the Baseball America guy's Twitter..

“Sounds more and more like Dominican OF Guillermo Pimentel will be a Mariner”

by Rudy4three on Jun 18, 2009 4:42 PM PDT up reply actions

If anyone wants it

Link

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://mvn.com/marinersminors/

by JY on Jun 18, 2009 5:15 PM PDT up reply actions

Its only a nice signing if the kid is 16.

And I have my doubts.

by Mariner Melee on Jun 18, 2009 10:49 AM PDT reply actions

Aside from Esmailyn Gonzalez...

name the last big prospect (so we’re not counting Tejada or whoever) that was caught misrepresenting their age.

The trend in recent years has been that those players have been caught before they sign (Salcedo) rather than after. Unless Pimentel completely disappears from the prospect radar in the next month, I think they’ve probably already done their homework.

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://mvn.com/marinersminors/

by JY on Jun 18, 2009 11:05 AM PDT up reply actions

JY, any idea why kids down there had it so easy in terms of faking IDs/DOBs?

I’ve heard the stories about how parents typically wait to register birth certificates, etc, but it seems strange that MLB would take this long to crack down on Latin American players falsifying ages – giving huge bonuses to kids down there isn’t exactly new, so why so long before teams started putting more effort into these million dollar investments?

by seattlebruin on Jun 18, 2009 5:00 PM PDT up reply actions

It's not even that they wait sometimes.

It’s that in a lot of cases, they don’t know why they would need one. It’s not until the kid needs a visa that they really know what purpose a birth certificate would serve.

As for the investments, yeah, it is a little bit strange, but bonuses have only really taken off in the past several years, when we’ve seen them climb over one million for the top few guys on a regular basis. Last year, the top eight guys got a million or more and only the top four got two million or more. Until Inoa shattered the record, the top dollar signing was Willy Mo Pena in ’99 for $2.44 million, and Joel Guzman was behind him with $2.25 million in 2001.

The visa issue really all came to a head post 9/11, when the crackdowns really began. Prior to that, seven-figure bonuses were pretty much unheard of, but now they’re getting to be more commonplace.

Helfgott could probably speak better to this than I can. He probably has more insight into the social and political factors involved, and something like this will probably bring him out of hiding.

"Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett http://mvn.com/marinersminors/

by JY on Jun 18, 2009 5:13 PM PDT up reply actions

I bet your doubts are well-founded

and not based on knee-jerk reactions from the past which have since been largely corrected and improved!

by Matthew on Jun 18, 2009 11:27 AM PDT up reply actions

Dooooo eeeeeeet

by abender20 on Jun 18, 2009 12:28 PM PDT reply actions

I saw on Churcill's site he said that scouts told him the M's would definately come

away with one of the Top 5 talents down there

by Rudy4three on Jun 18, 2009 4:33 PM PDT reply actions

Oh god we're not going to get anything good then

by Graham MacAree on Jun 19, 2009 8:54 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

Yes please

by OlSalty on Jun 18, 2009 8:17 PM PDT reply actions

Oh THAT Guillermo Pimentel

Just to add to the confusion, the Rangers already have a Guillermo Pimentel playing Outfield in Rookie Ball (link).

GP1 is from the the Dominican, is 19 years old and he bats right handed. GP2 is from the Dominican, is 16 years old and bats left handed. Apparently the 19 year old has a cannon arm, while the 16 year old has a below average arm. From the stats of the GP1 in the DSL, it looks like he’s more of a speed guy while GP2 is meant to be a power hitter. The video I saw of the 16 year old, make him look pretty filled out for 16. He could be a pretty big man. Think Pujols size.

by rdave on Jun 23, 2009 6:04 AM PDT reply actions