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Diaz is a 22 year old SS, Alvarez a 24 year old OF who can play all 3 positions. Both alpear to be cleared within the week, gaining residency in Mexico. Can't link from my cell, article on MLB.com. I hope Alvarez is good, he won't count against the IFA budget and could fill an OF spot soon, maybe even immediately.

We'll take em.

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Some 2011 numbers:

Seems weird that Diaz is considered more major league ready when Alvarez is older and has far better numbers...

I'm guessing the position and extremely sexy K:BB numbers have something to do with that.

Also, I don't think I had ever seen Puig's numbers. Dang, though we very well might have been the highest bidder. Anyway, judging by the numbers, it looks like Alvarez has the hit tool. If he can play a legit CF, and maybe even if he can't, it might be time to overpay.

Alvarez wasn't a good hitter before last year
http://www.claydavenport.com/ht/ALVAREZcubaD03.shtml

Diaz:
http://www.claydavenport.com/ht/DIAZcubaA04.shtml

Diaz turns 23 on January 8th and evidently will wait until after then to sign, to skip the IFA crap. Sanchez mentioned he's heard the "usual suspects" have already shown interest in these two.

From what I remember when we were courting Soler and Cespedes, the Cuban league is the equivalent of high A for us. I don't know how I feel about the guy who just figured it out at 23, especially with his BB/K ratios. Kind of like an AAAA guy would be here.

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Hopefully these guys are next in Theo's mission to add depth to the farm system.

Man, I want Diaz

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Both have now established residency in Mexico, be FA very soon.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... b&c_id=mlb

Jesse Sanchez says as early as next week.

I'm already preparing myself for Diaz to be a Dodger. If he's a damn good SS prospect, the idea of having Castro in front of him probably isn't all that appealing. My hope is he'll be a fringe SS and amiable to a position change. Alvarez, on the other hand, appears at first glance to be an easier target for us.

Will these guys require 40 man spots? That alone could hamper us at this point I feel. There's some relative deadweight on the 40, but you can't have 1/3 of your non mlbers not be even close to mlb ready


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Who knows? If they're big bonus types, they'll want to be on the 40 man to begin with. That said(we've got the cash anyway), we could conceivably give out a gigantic, one time payment, I suppose and keep them off of it. At their ages though, if they're going to get big money, they ought to be fairly close to being MLB ready as it is.

Well, that was quicker than expected...

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There are age-related questions on Aldemys Diaz - he hasn't been cleared for free agency: http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/pro ... dmys-diaz/

And there's a scouting report is in that link too:

The age is that he's actually older, and thus a lesser prospect? Or that he's actually younger, and shouldn't be eligible?

The age thing is that he is possibly younger than reported, and bumped his age up so he could meet the rules to be a normal FA. There were some DOB's from earlier that listed him as a year younger. His agent said those aren't credible and denies everything.

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Good. If he's list age or younger, and the Cubs like him enough to invest a couple million, in the event they signed him, that would mean he'd have at least a chance. If he'd been actually older and a lesser prospect with lesser projection left, that would make him significantly less interesting.

Not sure how hard or easy it is to get out of Cuba these days. And maybe the guy escapes well before he connects with the agent. But if the agent was really steering this from the beginning, an agent would not want him to defect early. Doesn't want him to sit out for a year, and he'll lose some millions I think (assuming he might sign for $2 or more, perhaps Concepcion or more), if he goes into the "pool". In the unlikely event the agent was steering even before the defection, he might not have encouraged that if he didn't believe the age was correct.

The scouting reports are less than flattering. If the age issue is real, he could get suspended from signing for a year. With the 2nd highest IFA budget this year, I want it spent on high impact types. Which Diaz doesn't appear to be. If he's 23 or older and doesn't count against our IFA budget? Sure. If he's younger and would count against it? Nope.

After I posted my link, Ben Badler found a few more instances of box scores/media guides from international competitions when he was with Cuba where his age didn't match up. Looks like MLB will have to research it a bit.

Despite being younger, he actually doesn't sound like much of a prospect.