NewsWhore
11-04-2009, 05:00 PM
The Dominican Republic has long been a hothouse for young baseball hopefuls. Aside from producing some of the world's best baseball players, the DR's baseball culture also generates millions of dollars in revenue that is divided up by anyone "with their hand in the pot."
Recent scandals involving Dominican ball players has led to calls for stricter regulations by Major League Baseball for better management of the product that is coming out of the DR. There has been talk about instituting an annual draft of Dominican players, but opponents say a draft would only worsen the problem and sink the Dominican baseball culture.
Opponents of the draft, Ulises Cabrera, Brian Mejia and Roberto Morales have launched the Dominican Prospect League. Cabrera believes that if a draft were instituted, the DR could lose as much as RD$1 billion in revenue generated from signing players. The concept of the league is to bring together top Dominican amateur prospects in a once-a-week, four-team league where scouts can watch them play and for which stats will be kept.
Cabrera says the draft in Puerto Rico had hurt player development there. "We can use what happened in Puerto Rico as an example. They used to produce players like Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Carlos Delgado and Roberto Alomar. When the draft was introduced, look at the results. There are hardly any Puerto Ricans playing in Major League Baseball."
Cabrera says: "The first part of implementation is to improve the ability for baseball teams to evaluate the talent." Each team will have twenty players and will be open to the best players in the DR's development system.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#13)
Recent scandals involving Dominican ball players has led to calls for stricter regulations by Major League Baseball for better management of the product that is coming out of the DR. There has been talk about instituting an annual draft of Dominican players, but opponents say a draft would only worsen the problem and sink the Dominican baseball culture.
Opponents of the draft, Ulises Cabrera, Brian Mejia and Roberto Morales have launched the Dominican Prospect League. Cabrera believes that if a draft were instituted, the DR could lose as much as RD$1 billion in revenue generated from signing players. The concept of the league is to bring together top Dominican amateur prospects in a once-a-week, four-team league where scouts can watch them play and for which stats will be kept.
Cabrera says the draft in Puerto Rico had hurt player development there. "We can use what happened in Puerto Rico as an example. They used to produce players like Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez, Carlos Delgado and Roberto Alomar. When the draft was introduced, look at the results. There are hardly any Puerto Ricans playing in Major League Baseball."
Cabrera says: "The first part of implementation is to improve the ability for baseball teams to evaluate the talent." Each team will have twenty players and will be open to the best players in the DR's development system.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#13)