Originally Posted by TRF
The kid may be a little older but he's still a prospect.
That money's probably long gone.
The kid may be a little older but he's still a prospect.
That money's probably long gone.
It's a real shame that Rijo is caught up in this. The guy is still one of my all time favorite Reds.
That being said Bowden is an idiot.
Marty's going to love talking about this.
Why isn't there an international draft by now? In this day and age, there's no need to treat the Lation nations like a second-class world.
Where is the crime on the part of the Nationals? Seems to me that they are the victims here.
Bowden should be handed his head and Rijo if blameless should gut his long time friend for his actions in this ordeal.
2006 Redzone mock Draftee's- 1(st) Daniel Bard(redsox), 1(st sup)( Jordan Walden (Angels), 2(nd) rd.- Zach Britton(Orioles), 3(rd) Blair Erickson(Cardinals), 3(rd) Tim Norton( Yankees),(cuz its a Tim Hortons thing
Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory... lasts forever.
If I were commissioner, the international draft is one of the first things I'd work on.
It might have to do with them being the ones who sponsor him coming into the US as employers. Since 2001 getting into the states with a fake name is a larger crime than prior with a thinner line separating who is innocent in the situation and who isn't. The law might be demanding of the Nats (MLB) to do more due diligence on their out of country employers.
Wouldn't the union have to approve it? And with some of the salaries prospects get by being free agents instead of drafted, I'm sure the agents oppose that totally.
Thomas Boswell should tell us how he really feels about Bowden. LOL. I love it.
Bowden, Rijo and the Reds
Posted by JohnFay at 2/21/2009 11:42 AM EST on Cincinnati.com
Jim Bowden’s been gone from the Reds for five years. But it’s interesting that three of the main characters in the scandal over the signing of Esmailyn Gonzalez or Carlos David Alvarez Lugo are former Reds employees: Bowden, special assistant Jose Rijo and director of Dominican operations Jose Baez.
The Reds contracted to use Rijo’s academy in the Dominican from 1999 to 2003 and Baez was the director.
There’s nothing to suggest that they were involved in any scandal under the Reds. But it’s safe to say the academy did the Reds zero good. Only one Latin player signed in four years the Reds used it remains with the Reds -- Luis Montano, a 24-year-old right-hander who pitched in Dayton last year.
The Reds were paying over $50,000 a month to use that facility. They’re paying less $20,000 a month for the current facility, one that produced Johnny Cueto and Juan Francisco.
I wrote about the Washington-Reds connection for my Sunday insider.
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs...cincinnati.com
No need for that, just have the draft include EVERYONE all over the world.
If you are not drafted, than you can sign as a FA.
sorry we're boring
I just thought this would be a good time to remind you all of Alejandro Diaz. Um, er, I mean, uh, Alejandro Quezada. Maybe that should be looked into now that this stuff about Gonzalez/Lugo has come out.
Quickest way to jack up the prices on the international talent fyi.
Baseball made a huge stink about an international draft during the last work stoppage threat. They researched it, and everyone quietly slipped it under the rug to not to be spoken about again when they reached that conclusion.
Bowden, Nats duped
Team's tale shows Latin pitfalls
By John Fay • jfay@enquirer.com • February 22, 2009
SARASOTA, Fla. - The story of the Washington Nationals' top prospect who aged four years overnight has piqued the interest of many in Reds camp.
Here's a quick synopsis of the story: The Nationals gave Esmailyn "Smiley" Gonzalez a $1.4 million signing bonus in 2006. It turns out that Gonzalez is actually Carlos David Alvarez Lugo. Lugo was born in November 1985, not Sept. 21, 1989, which was listed as Gonzalez's birthdate. So the player who led the Gulf Coast League in hitting with a .343 average last season was actually 22, not 18. That's a huge difference.
The Nationals say they were duped.
"We've been defrauded. And make no mistake: This wasn't a college kid with a fake ID that came in and did this," team president Stan Kasten told reporters after the story broke. "This was a deliberate, premeditated fraud with a lot more to this story, and we are going to get to the bottom of it. There were many, many people involved in this premeditated fraud."
Kasten would not say if any members of Washington's organization are suspected of playing a role.
Three of the main characters in this story used to work for the Reds: Nationals general manager Jim Bowden, special assistant Jose Rijo and Jose Baez, the club's director of Dominican operations.
Bowden signed the player he thought was Gonzalez, and Rijo was credited with finding him in the Dominican Republic.
"I'm extremely angry, just as mad as everybody else," Bowden said last week, according to the Washington Post. "None of us knew."
Under Bowden, who was Cincinnati's general manager from 1992-2003, the Reds contracted with Rijo to run an academy in the Dominican from 1999-2003. Baez was the academy's director.
The academy produced just one Latin American player - Luis Montano, a 24-year-old right-hander who pitched for low-A Dayton - who remains with the organization.
When former general manager Dan O'Brien took over the Reds in 2003, he ended the team's relationship with Rijo's academy. One reason is the Reds were paying more than $50,000 a month in rent to use the facility. The Reds were also concerned that Rijo had players at the academy who weren't under contract with the Reds.
The Reds currently pay less than $20,000 a month for a shared facility in the Dominican, which produced pitcher Johnny Cueto and infielder Juan Francisco.
This is not Major League Baseball's first controversy involving players from the Dominican. Other players have been found to be older than originally thought. And the FBI has investigated alleged scams involving signing bonuses for Dominican prospects.
Bowden told the Washington Post last summer that he, along with many others throughout baseball, had met with FBI investigators looking into the alleged scam.
The Reds have not been contacted by investigators as part of that probe, general manager Walt Jocketty said.
"They haven't talked to me," Jocketty said this week, "or anyone else with us that I know of."
Today, nearly everyone from the Bowden regime is out of the Reds' organization. But what was done on his watch still affects the team.
Before Bowden was fired, he renewed assistant general manager Leland Maddox's contract without telling his boss, John Allen, then the Reds' chief operating officer.
Maddox stayed on in a lesser role but at an assistant GM's salary until just before last season.
Add that to the grievance over the trade for reliever Gary Majewski - the Reds say Majewski was damaged goods when he was traded to Cincinnati from Washington in 2006 - and let's just say Bowden is not a popular guy in Redsland.
But Jocketty is confident the Reds are back on the right track in the Dominican.
"One of the first things I had (special assistant) Bill Bavasi do is look at our program in the Dominican," Jocketty said. "It's a good program."
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...902220413/1071
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