I was over at John Sickel's minorleagueball.com and there is a diary posted with an article that claims Cuba's stud second baseman from the World Baseball Classic has defected!
The kid is 21 years old. His WBC line was .273/.342/.515 in just 33 ABs.
Here is the link to the thread:
http://www.minorleagueball.com/story.../28/16914/7801
Here is the link to the article cited in the thread:
http://www.elnacional.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=59855
Discuss this potentially BIG NEWS! This guy would be an exciting player to watch!
Here is a link to a BA article about Gourriel from the WBC:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today...wbccuba3b.html
Also, Will Carrol talks about him a little bit here:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/ar...articleid=5355
He quotes a scout as saying "He's the biggest Cuban ever." Which is pretty high praise, considering that Cuban Tony Perez is in the Hall of Fame.
UPDATE: False alarm. Cancel your Gourriel Mets jerseys. The rumor was not true.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2006/0....html#comments