Internationals

AL South

Little Rock Boulders- ($18.25m/year) Arte’s ML team has only one IFA, Ruben Dali, who signed in season 4. Since then, Arte has continuously cut funding to this endeavor, which has shown in the quality of prospect he has signed. See Hector Rodriguez, Brian Wanatabe, and Al Guerrero as evidence of the reductio in quality prospects. So then it isn’t particularly condemning or unfair to give out an F grade here.

Texas Black Socks- ($27.5m/year) noccolo has clearly increased his focus on IFAs simply based on his spending pattern, but it is only now beginning to pay dividends. Pat Zhang is a nice pick up out of Japan who will put up good numbers in the Bigs. Beyond him, Texas has netted some guys who could fill out their bullpen, with Carlos Colon and Delino Castillo. Will give a grade of C here to a team with 4 IFAs on the ML club.

Memphis Elvi- ($16m/year) mh17 has never put a whole lot of investment into signing IFAs. In fact, the largest signing bonus a prospect received was 1.3 million to Al Garrido. Other players who’ve been signed include Bartolo Gonzalez, Manuel Lopez, and Lou Roundtree. Still, an increased amount allotted to int’l scouting seems to hint that mh17 may soon become a player on the IFA market. But still for now, an F grade, noting that 2 IFAs at the big league level.

Nashville Hound Dogs- ($18m/year) This is another franchise that has never spent a lot towards getting top end IFAs, but as a result of an extra large prospect budget this past season, psanders84 landed Sammy Martin, who I see topping out as a #2/#3 starter, only because he isn’t great with righties. Beyond him there is Harry Alvarado, who ought to break through to the ML level because of his great defense with a below average bat. The only other player that’s been signed is Bernie Garces. Nashville has 3 IFAs at the show, and a grade here of C.