Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Jays add Gulf Coast League affiliate

Baseball America has confirmed that the Jays have added an affiliate in the Gulf Coast League.

The club seems to have changed somewhat its drafting and development philosophy recently, and this move appears to be the result. At the end of the 2006 season, the club ended its relationship with Pulaski in the Appalachian League, and it appeared that the Jays would have a major-league low of 5 affiliates in 2007. All of the leagues in which their 3 A ball affiliates play have a high proportion of college drafts.

Since season's end, the club has gained a number of high draft picks as compensation for lost free agents, and has indicated an intention to look more closely at high school prospects. The possibility of more high school drafts and increased signing activity in Latin America suggested the need for a Rookie League affiliate, and led to the Gulf Coast League affiliation.

Thanks to KevinJaysfan for the tip and link.

Posted by Mike Green on Wednesday, January 24 2007 @ 12:52 PM EST.

Jays add Gulf Coast League affiliate | 11 comments | Create New Account

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MatO - Wednesday, January 24 2007 @ 01:43 PM EST (#162528) #

The draft stategy past the early rounds should be interesting. Teams don't send college players to the GCL so I assume that signing of 35th round college seniors is history other than to fill out the roster in Auburn. On the other hand, the end of the draft and follow, which propelled the increased drafting of HS players in the late rounds, means that drafting a HSer in the 35th round also may not make sense. I wonder what teams, not just the Blue Jays, will do?

Trivia: What Blue Jay player played for the previous Blue Jay GCL team in its final season?

actionjackson - Wednesday, January 24 2007 @ 02:35 PM EST (#162530) #

Both the increased Latin American amateur signings and the possible high school draftees are excellent signs for all Jays fans, as is this foray, or re-foray if you will, into the GCL. It indicates to me that the loosening of the purse strings is going to extend on down to bringing in the higher priced (and riskier) amateur talent and that's very important to me because you can pay for them when they're young or PAY for them when they're free agents with 6 years of major league service. This team won't be able to do the latter to an unlimited ceiling, so it's time to start using the new money wisely. The more variety in the methods of player procurement the better.

Ryan Day - Wednesday, January 24 2007 @ 02:59 PM EST (#162533) #

Digging around a bit, it appears new Latin Scouting Director Marco Paddy spent several years in the Braves organization. That seems like a pretty good place to be if you want to learn about developing talent.

Pistol - Wednesday, January 24 2007 @ 03:39 PM EST (#162537) #

the team decided to add a Rookie-level team after a busy offseason of signings under new director of Latin American operations Marco Paddy.

Other than Balbino I wasn't aware of the Jays doing anything with international signings recently. That's good news. It only takes a couple hits to make up for a lot of misses.

The GCL might actually be a better spot for early international and high school players (not selected high in the draft) than the Appy league.

Craig B - Wednesday, January 24 2007 @ 11:38 PM EST (#162570) #

Other than Balbino I wasn't aware of the Jays doing anything with international signings recently.

Other than the big-money guys like Balbino, international activity usually goes unnoticed. Guys signing for low five figures and below don't attract any attention, yet form the lifeblood of the Dominican and Venezuelan programs.

Gerry - Thursday, January 25 2007 @ 10:23 AM EST (#162581) #

The Jays do have a lot of early picks and might draft some high school players in those rounds for the gulf coast team. Later in the draft it gets more difficult to sign high school players when you are competing against a college offer. A four year college deal might be valued at $80,000 or $100,000 whereas major league teams might offer $20,000 or less for a lower round draft choice. In the second half of the draft you would be looking to pick guys who are not interested in going to college.

I suspect the golf coast team will have a lot of latin players with fewer high school and junior college players.

Pistol - Thursday, January 25 2007 @ 10:54 AM EST (#162584) #

Other than the big-money guys like Balbino, international activity usually goes unnoticed.

Right. I guess I meant to say I wasn't aware that the Jays have made more of a commitment to the area recently.

Marc Hulet - Thursday, January 25 2007 @ 11:03 AM EST (#162585) #

These are the players the Jays have signed out of Latin America in the past six months:
RHP Henderson Alvarez
RHP Kevin Fuenmayor
LHP Juan Hernandez
IF Alesone Escalante
IF Manuel Falcon
IF Enyer Chirinos
3B Balbino Fuenmayor
SS Natera Tomas
OF Carlos Ortega
OF Rafael Bejas
OF Manuel Monge
OF Suero Smith
OF Aponte Yeico

Balbino is probably the only one who will play in North America this year, though.

Paul D - Thursday, January 25 2007 @ 11:30 AM EST (#162588) #

So where do the rest of them play then Marc? Do the Jays have an academy somewhere, or are these guys so young that they just continue to play for their local teams?

Marc Hulet - Thursday, January 25 2007 @ 11:37 AM EST (#162590) #

The Jays have a Dominican Summer League team, as well as one in the Venezuelan League.

MatO - Thursday, January 25 2007 @ 01:50 PM EST (#162605) #

Signing that many Latin players has been pretty normal for the Jays. It's the quality of the signings that hopefully goes up which means there would have to be more bonus money for them.

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