Reds sign another Australian player

[Muggerd]

Why can't a 16 year old kid have the right to make a living though? If you are good at your trade, then I don't see the problem.

It has nothing to do with the talent level of the 16 year old kid. I dont see why there are different rules for different people. No kid should be under a major league contract at that young of an age. You guys might think its ok, and I cant blame you but to me it just feels to be unethical almost.

Lets just drop it. Is this debate really going to get anywhere?

[dougdirt]

Well what is the difference between a 16 year old kid getting paid to play baseball or a 16 year old kid working at Mcdonalds 30 hours a week?

[Muggerd]

Well what is the difference between a 16 year old kid getting paid to play baseball or a 16 year old kid working at Mcdonalds 30 hours a week?

The kid at McDonalds doesnt sign a contract that makes him unable to work for any other business for years.

[camisadelgolf]

The kid at McDonalds doesnt sign a contract that makes him unable to work for any other business for years.

The kid who signs the contract isn't forced to sign it. You're acting like at the age of 18, you're going to be so much smarter than when you're 16. If that's the case, you could say the same about the difference between 21-year-olds and 18-year-olds. For the record, I don't think we're going to see any eight-year-olds under contract for Major League affiliates. The bar has been set, and it has been that way for years, and it seems to be working out fine.

[dougdirt]

The kid at McDonalds doesnt sign a contract that makes him unable to work for any other business for years.

The kid at Mcdonals isnt making nearly the money either. Lets say a kid invents something at age 16.... should have have to wait until he is 18 to sell his invention for a ton of money? While we are at it though, the kid playing baseball can work for any other business in the world he wants, with the exception of about 60 professional baseball teams around the world.

[Muggerd]

The kid who signs the contract isn't forced to sign it. You're acting like at the age of 18, you're going to be so much smarter than when you're 16. If that's the case, you could say the same about the difference between 21-year-olds and 18-year-olds. For the record, I don't think we're going to see any eight-year-olds under contract for Major League affiliates. The bar has been set, and it has been that way for years, and it seems to be working out fine.

There is a lot of things a 16 year old cant do. At 18 you are a legal adult.

As some in this thread have said that maybe the money is a jackpot then they are pretty much forced to sign it.

[Muggerd]

The kid at Mcdonals isnt making nearly the money either. Lets say a kid invents something at age 16.... should have have to wait until he is 18 to sell his invention for a ton of money? While we are at it though, the kid playing baseball can work for any other business in the world he wants, with the exception of about 60 professional baseball teams around the world.

You asked the question about the difference between the two didnt you?

How are you connecting a kid making an invention and a kid signing a contract to be a professional sports player as a minor?

I also would say the contract very likely doesnt allow him to play any sports out side of playing baseball for the team he signed either.

[dougdirt]

You asked the question about the difference between the two didnt you?

How are you connecting a kid making an invention and a kid signing a contract to be a professional sports player as a minor?

I also would say the contract very likely doesnt allow him to play any sports out side of playing baseball for the team he signed either.

Becuase the kid who invented something has to sign a contract to not sell his ideas to anyone else and if its good he will get a nice chunk of change.

As for your 18 is a legal adult thing..... yes, in this country, but its not always that way internationally.

As for being forced to sign it becuase its a jackpot.... well, if you grew up in extreme poverty your entire life and then someone came to you and offered you 6 figures to play a sport for them at age 16, and you could change the life of your entire family, then I fail to see where there is any downside.

I dont care if the contract says he cant play any other sport outside of baseball.... that happens. I know kids in HS who were advised to not play any other sport other than football becuase of scholarships, they were just 16 and 17 at the time.

Is it any different than a kid signing a scholarship to go play football at a large school? Educations are expensive and now this kid is getting it paid for. This kids ultimate goal is to be employed to play football. How is this not the same?

[Muggerd]

Becuase the kid who invented something has to sign a contract to not sell his ideas to anyone else and if its good he will get a nice chunk of change.

As for your 18 is a legal adult thing..... yes, in this country, but its not always that way internationally.

As for being forced to sign it becuase its a jackpot.... well, if you grew up in extreme poverty your entire life and then someone came to you and offered you 6 figures to play a sport for them at age 16, and you could change the life of your entire family, then I fail to see where there is any downside.

I dont care if the contract says he cant play any other sport outside of baseball.... that happens. I know kids in HS who were advised to not play any other sport other than football becuase of scholarships, they were just 16 and 17 at the time.

Is it any different than a kid signing a scholarship to go play football at a large school? Educations are expensive and now this kid is getting it paid for. This kids ultimate goal is to be employed to play football. How is this not the same?

Scholarships and professional sport contracts are no where near the same thing.

Him signing that contract at 16 locks him into something for life as a minor.

The invention isnt the selling of your ability for multiple years of your life. Its selling of your idea. Once you sell that idea you never have to do anything ever again regarding it.

Its a bad system in my mind but if you disagree what are we going to argue about in circles and not get anywhere. So lets just agree to disagree.

[camisadelgolf]

If things don't work out for the "kid", he can give the money back and not play baseball. It doesn't happen very often, though, because most people who play professional baseball are 'living the dream'. The age for an acceptable time to sign is a cultural thing, and I apologize for getting political, but we are no position to force our beliefs and standards on other cultures.

[Muggerd]

If things don't work out for the "kid", he can give the money back and not play baseball. It doesn't happen very often, though, because most people who play professional baseball are 'living the dream'. The age for an acceptable time to sign is a cultural thing, and I apologize for getting political, but we are no position to force our beliefs and standards on other cultures.

I dont think its forcing anything its making it the same rules for every player.

[texasdave]

This is an interesting blurb from www.jinaz-reds.blogspot.com.

How do MLB's activities affect the Dominican Republic?

On a somewhat related note, a few weeks back, I made a comment about Edwin Encarnacion's status as a ballplayer from the Dominican Republic, and what that likely means for what he has been through to arrive at this point in his still-young career. While I still haven't found much on Eddie's personal history, I did spend an evening doing a bit of research on Dominican ballplayers in general...and found some disturbing things.

The story we tend to hear about Dominican ballplayers are the success stories--the Miguel Tejada's and David Ortiz's, and to a lesser extent, the Edwin Encarnacion's, who have made it off the island and onto major league rosters. Even making the league minimum, for example, Encarnacion's annual salary of $390,000 is an enormous sum of money compared to what I hope to make upon finishing grad school in a few months. ... And is an outrageous sum of money compared to what one might hope to make in the D.R., which ranks 73rd in per capita income in the world, with an value just 20% that found in the USA.

But what we don't hear about is impact of the far more frequent cases of young boys and men from the Dominican Republic who fail to make it even off Hispanola. This article by Dave Zinn, while somewhat dated, reports that boys in that country often quit school at 10-12 years old to join baseball academies. There they stay for several years before being discarded, with little education or other additional skills, in their late teens. And even of the small number that do make it to the the US minor league system, only a small fraction of those individuals will ever arrive in the major leagues and start earning good money. While there are rare successes, Zimm insinuates that the activities of Major League Baseball are causing more harm than good to that country's people. In fact, he calls it strip mining.
I'm having a hard time confirming the extent to which this is true. There are a few other articles like this scattered about the internet, but none seem to incorporate enough quantifiable numbers or hard sources to make me feel confident that this is the case. Major League Baseball certainly has focused on the positives related to its activities, such as how they pull these kids out of poverty, give them clean sheets and English lessons, and teach them discipline as well as baseball. I may try to do some searches in the academic literature when I have some time...

But if Zimm's argument is true, it's a genuine problem that we, as fans, need to be aware of. And the Reds, one of many teams with an academy in the Dominican Republic, will be partly to blame. Hopefully more will come to the surface on this issue in the future--like most problems of social justice, it will most likely need to be the people (in this case, the fans) who drive the institution to make a change in its practices, and that won't happen without information.

As with most things people tend to focus on those few who have successfully grabbed the golden ring; while ignoring the many who lunged and fell off the horse. It may go back to being a simple matter of free will. People have the right to try. And failure is always going to be part of that equation. I certainly don't have the answer.

[OnBaseMachine]

I'm bringing this thread back to the top. It's been a little over a year now since the Reds signed Jamie Gianchou from Australia. He didn't play in the GCL this year and he's not listed on any rosters. Baseball America had some decent things to say about him after he signed with the Reds last year.

Here was their writeup:

The Reds gave the largest bonus yet to an Australian player in third baseman Jamie Gianchou, who received $100,000. Gianchou wasn't able to play in the Australian academy due to a knee injury but has an excellent body, an average arm, and a chance to hit for power.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/onlin...07/264684.html

[redsmetz]

I'm bringing this thread back to the top. It's been a little over a year now since the Reds signed Jamie Gianchou from Australia. He didn't play in the GCL this year and he's not listed on any rosters. Baseball America had some decent things to say about him after he signed with the Reds last year.

Here was their writeup:

The Reds gave the largest bonus yet to an Australian player in third baseman Jamie Gianchou, who received $100,000. Gianchou wasn't able to play in the Australian academy due to a knee injury but has an excellent body, an average arm, and a chance to hit for power.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/onlin...07/264684.html

I emailed the website www.baseball.com.au overnight and got a response stating that the contract was voided due to his failing his physical due to the knee injury.

[camisadelgolf]

I emailed the website www.baseball.com.au overnight and got a response stating that the contract was voided due to his failing his physical due to the knee injury.

Thanks for doing that. I was going to do the same thing. Gianchou wasn't listed anywhere in the organization, so I figured the contract was voided somehow.