quote:
Originally posted by ClevelandDad:
Big problem in the Dominican Republic. They got birth certificate problems and performance enhancing drug problems. All kinds of fraud down there.
Most milb players busted are from there or other countries.
IMO, most latin players do not become the phenoms in their 20's they appeared to be when at 15, 16. From what I see, speed is most likely their best tool. Yes you do have a few that move forward. The farm systems that stock with latin players are the worst teams, have very little real prospects to trade for and end up spending lots of money on FA.
The kids get here and have to stop taking whatever it was that got them here, they struggle and they get hurt. They know that a trip on the DL or poor performance may mean being sent back, so they do what they feel they have to in order to stay in the game because there is nothing there for them back home.
Is this a good thing? It depends how you look at it, there's so much corruption, fraud, so much drugs, lying, this is MLB's way of weeding out the players they may pay big bucks for down there, and don't pan out, a lot slips by on a urine test only. If this helps to stop the fraud and corruption and dangerment of health of these young kids, I am ok with it. You can't just do it for one group and not the other. Don't be transparent in your reasoning, we know why you are doing it.
The thing that bothers me is that milb players have no respresentation even for discussion. Do any of you have to take a blood test at your workplace?