And speaking of familiar names, there is another Guerrero playing pro ball now:

Another Vladdy!

The Mets have reportedly signed international free agent Vladimir Miguel Guerrero, son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero and half-brother of Blue Jays All-Star Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

📸: supervlad27 on IG pic.twitter.com/n6us4iI2f0

— MLB (@MLB) January 15, 2024

KT 90 said:

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DallasAg 94 said:

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We should be discussing the International Signings.

Top Ranked International players by MLB

Rangers signings:

2. Paulino Santana, OF, DR (17, 6'2"/180, RHB)
29. Curley Martha, SS, Curacao (17, 6'1"/165, RHB)
46. Yolfran Castillo, SS, Vz (16, 6'3"/175, RHB)
Nathaniel Palacios, SS, Venezuela
Daniel Flames, SS, Venezuela
Jose Marcano, C, Venezuela
Angel Arredondo, SS, Mexico
Manni Ramirez, OF, Dominican Republic
Javier Sanchez, C, Venezuela
Jonathan Rangel, OF, Venezuela
Claudiel Lantigua, SS, Dominican Republic
Jesus Lopez, RHP, Venezuela

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Santana fits the mold of a five-tool player. If the 16-year-old from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, played against premier American high-school talents, it's believed that he would line up well with the elite of the class. He has drawn comparisons to Julio Rodrguez both on and off the field.

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Quote:

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Santana's plus speed on the basepaths and in the field gives him the chance to play center field and stick there as he climbs through the system. Praised for his physical attributes and approach in a similar vein to last year's No. 1 international prospect Ethan Salas, who climbed to Double-A in his first pro season, Santana could be a similarly fast riser through the ranks.

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Quote:

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Known as a pure hitter with plus bat speed and a solid, strong build, the bat is unquestionably Martha's leading tool. His advanced instincts have earned praise from evaluators, and his all-around athleticism and strength have earned positive marks as he continues to hone his game.

Martha has shown the ability to play shortstop as his pro career gets underway, but his diverse skill set and strong arm could also lead to him seeing time at second or third base.

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Quote:

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Castillo doesn't boast the "wow" factor of the other top international prospects in this year's class, but the foundation is there for future success.

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FWIW, Seattle signed Julio Rodriguez in July 2017. Made it the MLB in 2022 (age 21.100).

Santana (11/17/2006) is about a year older than Julio (12/29/2000} was in January of their signing year.

If the same age for debut, Santana would project to 2028. I know... I know... that's a long long way away.

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This list includes a few more names, including a familiar name:

The Rangers signings from international signing day. Santana is the big get; Martha (besides great name) is also high-profile. Arias is the son of former Ranger Joaquin Arias, so, yeah, you should feel old. pic.twitter.com/43RM5rZlcj

— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) January 15, 2024

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I know that I'm in no position to complain about being old since I was only born in 94, but it makes me kind of sick seeing all of these DOBs after 2000 lol

MrCoachEricTaylor said:

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I know that I'm in no position to complain about being old since I was only born in 94, but it makes me kind of sick seeing all of these DOBs after 2000 lol

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I have HS classmates that have grandchildren older than my kids.

DallasAg 94 said:

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MrCoachEricTaylor said:

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I know that I'm in no position to complain about being old since I was only born in 94, but it makes me kind of sick seeing all of these DOBs after 2000 lol

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I have HS classmates that have grandchildren older than my kids.

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Time is cruel

it's pretty amazing the mlb allows 16 and 17 year old kids to be signed. I guess there are reasons, but that always seemed a little strange to me.

Not even drafted right? They just get signed.

Quincey P. Morris said:

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Not even drafted right? They just get signed.

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Correct, typo on my part. I'll edit and fix. Teams get a certain amount of international pool money, and then that money can increase/decrease for various reasons (I don't really follow it closely enough to know the specifics). But I know I recall seeing blurbs about teams increasing or decreasing their international pool money.

KT 90 said:

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Quincey P. Morris said:

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Not even drafted right? They just get signed.

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Correct, typo on my part. I'll edit and fix. Teams get a certain amount of international pool money, and then that money can increase/decrease for various reasons (I don't really follow it closely enough to know the specifics). But I know I recall seeing blurbs about teams increasing or decreasing their international pool money.

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International Pool money can be traded.

Baltimore historically didn't play in the Int'l market and would trade it.

KT 90 said:

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it's pretty amazing the mlb allows 16 and 17 year old kids to be signed. I guess there are reasons, but that always seemed a little strange to me.

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I believe in the US, if you complete HS early, you can be eligible for the draft.

For countries like PR, DR, et al, their education stops at 15... 16 years old. They end up going to baseball academies.

It also accelerates their timeline. At 20... 21 they become Rule V eligible, where as an 18 HS kid in the US isn't eligible until say, 23.

10-15 years ago, it was much different. AJPreller and a couple others setup team camps and it was the wild-west. Many of the kids didn't have birth certificates and it was quite controversial because you'd see 2 different BCs on a kid and you knew one was forged.

There is more organization, now and more given back to the communities, but there is still a ways to go. Sports are a way to get off the island.

Stacking up a few more options, just in case:

Rangers have acquired RHP Daniel Duarte, DFA'd by Reds last week, in a cash transaction.

Also, Rangers have signed RHP José Ureña to a minor league deal with invite to major league spring training. Ureña has 143 MLB starts over the last nine seasons

— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) January 16, 2024

shack009 said:

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KT 90 said:

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it's pretty amazing the mlb allows 16 and 17 year old kids to be signed. I guess there are reasons, but that always seemed a little strange to me.

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If it makes you feel any better, they are probably actually 18-19 years old and lying about their age to appear more attractive to MLB teams.

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#truth

I think they've either gotten better at faking their birth certificates, or nobody cares anymore. At least we don't seem to hear about teams getting busted for that anymore.

Pujols is the one forged BC that really stood out. I think he lied by three or four years.

As a high school senior in New York when he was "18"



When the Angels signed him to 10 years in 2012, they thought he was 32 but he was really 35 or 36. It showed towards the end.

Those are the types I'm expecting.

KT 90 said:

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shack009 said:

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KT 90 said:

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it's pretty amazing the mlb allows 16 and 17 year old kids to be signed. I guess there are reasons, but that always seemed a little strange to me.

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If it makes you feel any better, they are probably actually 18-19 years old and lying about their age to appear more attractive to MLB teams.

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#truth

I think they've either gotten better at faking their birth certificates, or nobody cares anymore. At least we don't seem to hear about teams getting busted for that anymore.

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I think since MLB kinda stepped in, it is less about real or fake as much as one that MLB can enforce and teams comply with.

Beras was one of the cases with AJPreller/Rangers that has required it:
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/jairo-beras-decision-leaves-unanswered-questions/

As long as all teams have equal access and nobody jumps in with a forged date earlier, it allows teams to do their own decision making.

I wonder how much of Pujols' decline was no longer juicing.

Danny Almonte was another high profile case and typical.

Quote:

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Almonte's mother, Sonia Rojas Breton, owned a handwritten birth certificate saying that he had been born at home in Jamao with the help of a midwife in 1989. She had registered Danny's 1989 birth date in 2000.

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beagle2009 said:

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Amazon has agreed to acquire a minority stake in Diamond Sports Group.

The deal provides DSG — the largest RSN operator in the U.S. — a framework to emerge from bankruptcy.@AEricFisher’s story ⬇️

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) January 17, 2024

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This sounds like good news, at least in terms of salvaging the current deal with Bally/Diamond Sports Group.

That website is making you sign up to read the full article, but here is the part that I can see:

Quote:

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Confirming prior reports, Amazon has agreed to invest in the Bally Sports parent and the deal will establish Prime Video as DSG's "primary partner" for fans to access the regional sports networks on a direct-to-consumer basis. Amazon's investment runs parallel to a $450 million restructuring agreement for DSG with its debt holders. The deal also significantly expands Amazon's presence in live sports in the U.S. beyond its existing relationships with the NFL, New York Yankees, and fighting promotion Premier Boxing Champions.

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So if this goes through, looks like everyone will need an Amazon Prime account to get to the Bally/Diamond SPorts Group content. I already have one, so there's that

and damn, of all pics to include in the X/Tweet, they chose James Harden and "the beard". Yikes. I guess it help gets attention though...

Amazon prime is cheaper than the Bally subscription (doesn't include rangers) plus all the other content and benefits you get with prime. That would be great for everyone if we can watch the games on prime!

Quote:

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Amazon will partner with Diamond Sports as part of a restructuring agreement as the largest owner of regional sports networks looks to emerge from bankruptcy.

Diamond owns 18 networks under the Bally Sports banner. Those networks have the rights to 37 professional teams: 11 MLB, 15 NBA and 11 NHL.

Diamond Sports has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas since it filed for protection last March. The company said in a late 2021 financial filing that it had debt of $8.67 billion.

The terms of the agreement were announced by Diamond Sports on Wednesday morning. Amazon had no comment. It remains subject to approval by the bankruptcy court.

The agreement with Diamond Sports' largest creditors allows it to emerge from bankruptcy, continue operations and prevents a total collapse of the regional sports network system where the NBA, NHL and MLB would have to step in to take over production and distribution of most of their teams.

Last season, MLB had to take over production and distribution of the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks after Diamond let rights payments to the Padres lapse and was unable to agree to an amended deal with the Diamondbacks.

Under the terms of the restructuring agreement, Amazon will make a minority investment in Diamond and enter into a commercial arrangement to provide access to Diamond's content via Prime Video.

Customers will be able to access their local team's content on Prime Video channels where Diamond has rights. Pricing and availability will be announced at a later date. Regional sports content will also remain available on cable and satellite providers.

Amazon Prime already carries some New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets games produced by the YES Network.

Diamond also has an agreement in principle with Sinclair to settle the pending litigation between the companies and the other named defendants. The settlement is supported by Diamond's creditors that are parties to the RSA.

Sinclair Broadcast Group bought the regional sports networks from The Walt Disney Co. for nearly $10 billion in 2019. Disney was required by the Department of Justice to sell the networks for its acquisition of 21st Century Fox's film and television assets to be approved.

Even before Sinclair bought the regional networks, the business was in a downturn due to cord-cutting and declines in advertising revenue after entering into exorbitant long-term deals with some teams.
Under an agreement with creditors last year, Diamond Sports Group became a separate company from Sinclair.

As part of the settlement, Sinclair will pay Diamond $495 million and provide ongoing services to support Diamond's reorganization. The proceeds from the settlement will also pay off some creditors.

"We are thrilled to have reached a comprehensive restructuring agreement that provides a detailed framework for a reorganization plan and substantial new financing that will enable Diamond to operate and thrive beyond 2024," Diamond Sports CEO David Preschlack said in a statement. "We are grateful for the support from Amazon and a group of our largest creditors who clearly believe in the value-creating potential of this business. Diamond's near-term focus will be on implementing the RSA and emerging from bankruptcy as a going concern for the benefit of our investors, our employees, our team, league and distribution partners, and the millions of fans who will continue to enjoy our broadcasts."

Diamond recently reached agreements with the NHL and NBA to keep local rights through the end of this season. It remains in discussions with MLB on reworked agreements for the upcoming season, with the next court hearing scheduled for Friday.

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Does Diamond have streaming rights to the Rangers? I don't think they do. That's been a point of contention in the legal proceedings, and also the reason Bally couldn't sell direct streaming service to the Rangers last year (but could for the Stars/Mavs)

Something tells me we're gonna be stuck in Fubo/DirecTV purgatory again.

Agreed. This part of the concern.

Direct-to-consumer streaming was a limitation for Bally's and why MLB and them had a problem. MLB said they couldn't sell directly to consumer and had to go through a distributor (like Dish/Cable/Etc).

Two questions emerge.
Will MLB accept Amazon Prime as a "distributor" for MLB content. It could be agreed upon, at least for 1 year.

Second was 2025. Originally in bankruptcy, it was agreed (AFAIK) that Bally's would give up 2025 Rights and return them to MLB/Teams. It was reported Amazon was offering to inject cash, but they wanted the 2025 Rights. So, is this exclusive to 2024 or does it include 2025.

There was a video posted on here that commented on the 2nd.

We'll see if this was the big negotiation that postponed last week's court meeting, whether it gives the Rangers the necessary assurance/certainty to add Monty (or another arm), and whether we get to watch games without Dish.

ETA: Bally's used interchangeably as the name that represents Sinclair/BSG/Other that hold us hostage.

Worth following the money.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/01/diamond-sports-group-announces-restructuring-deal-featuring-investment-from-amazon.html

9:50am: Amazon is giving Diamond roughly $100MM for the streaming rights of the Tigers, Royals, Marlins, Brewers and Rays.


8:45am: It apparently has approval from most of the company's debt holders and also features an investment from Amazon. It also has a $495MM deal from Sinclair Broadcasting Group to settle outstanding litigation.


That $100M is about $20M per team. From the collective information, MLB is picking up the difference between what Teams were guaranteed previously and what they get from this deal, in order to get out of the 2025 Rights.

11 MLB teams impacted:
* Those clubs are the Angels, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Guardians, Marlins, Rangers, Rays, Reds, Royals, and Tigers.

I don't have time to dig into all of the details, but here is another article with information.

Quote:

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The impact of the deal on the Rangers is not clear at the moment. While the Rangers are one of the 11 MLB teams with Bally Sports deals, Diamond Sports only owns the digital rights deals with the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays.

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-->>so who owns the digital rights for the Rangers? Bally? I had thought that Bally/DSG were pretty much the same entity?


Evan Grant or one of the other beat writers will likely put out some recap of all this and what it means (if they haven't already), but looks like there are still details and deals to be worked to get this mess resolved.

My understanding is MLB owns them. Bally/DSG never had them.

So is this MLB only?

Based on a Tweet (X?) I saw earlier, it looked like NHL and NBA, as well.

Langford was kind of a given to get an invite.

The guy I'm excited to see is Teodo. That's a position of need on the MLB roster and he's been lights out in the fall league.

Quote:

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Emiliano Teodo
11 IP, 19 K, 4 BB, 0.00 ERA

The Rangers have developed Teodo as a starter, but his future appears to be in the bullpen. Though listed at 6' 1'', one evaluator I contacted believes he's several inches shorter. That's backed by the FanGraphs crew they describe him as "lilliputian." His usage and success in the AFL points to an imminent role shift. As a starter, he touched upper-90s. He has the look of an on-meta power arm who relies on effectively wild heaters and hammer curves.

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so...

Crim (1B-26-AAA): 133G, .290, 22 HR, 107 SO, .385 OBP, .891 OPS (71BB)
Ortiz (1B-21-A/A+): 109G, .294, 33 HR, 126 SO, .371 OBP, .990 OPS (49BB)
Hicks (C-24-A+/AA): 92G, .275, 4 HR, 63 SO, .414 OBP, .787 OPS (59BB)
Wendzel (IF-26-AAA): 124G, .236, 30 HR, 129 SO, .361 OBP, .838 OPS (77BB)
Zavala (OF-23-AA): 95G, .194, 5HR, 159 SO, .343 OBP, .627 OPS (72BB)
Langford (OF-21-All): 44G, .360, 10HR, 34 SO, .480 OBP, 1.157 OPS (36BB)

Leiter (RHP-23-AA/AAA): 20GS, 5.19, 85.0 IP, 114 SO, 1.459 WHIP
Robert (RHP-28-AAA): 2GS, 28G, 4.40 ERA, 43.0 IP, 51 SO, 1.317 WHIP
Teodo (RHP-22-A+): 14GS, 18G, 4.52 ERA, 61.2 IP, 84 SO, 1.395 WHIP

Wolfram (LHP-26-AA/AAA): 1GS, 40G, 3.90 ERA, 62.1 IP, 78 SO, 1.107 WHIP

With guys like: Scherzer, Mahle, and deGrom beginning the season on the 60IL, you figure the Rangers are going to have a couple spots open up on the 40.


We'll need 2 SPs, IMO sometime during the season from guys not on the 40.

We'll have (on 40):
Rotation: Eovaldi, Dunning, Gray, Heaney, Bradford
AAA: Cole Winn, Owen White
AA: Corneill

60IL: Mahle, Scherzer, deGrom

FA Minors: Urena, <need 2 more>
Minor 40: Leiter <need 1 more>

We probably need to sign 2 projects that are experienced MLB/Retreads signed to minor league deals.
We need to identify 1 more SP in our minors that can be available.

If we sign Monty, then Bradford fills the role as a MLB project. If Leiter makes the 40 out of ST, he can be a "project."

All-in-all... we need to add 3 SPs to the organization, for me to be comfortable.