Marlins closer Nunez suspended for immigration issue (false identity?)

[savafan]

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/sports/...130401963.html

Florida Marlins closer Leo Nunez was placed on the restricted list Thursday and has left the country.

The reason? Two people people familiar with his immigration status told the Associated Press Nunez has been playing under an assumed name, and the issue prompted him to return Thursday to his native Dominican Republic.

[LoganBuck]

The curse of LoganBuck's fantasy baseball team continues. I have lost nearly half my team to stupid stuff like this over the course of the last month.

[Strikes Out Looking]

Originally Posted by LoganBuck

The curse of LoganBuck's fantasy baseball team continues. I have lost nearly half my team to stupid stuff like this over the course of the last month.

That makes two of us. Ugh.

[reds1869]

Originally Posted by Strikes Out Looking

That makes two of us. Ugh.

I had a player shoot himself in the leg in fantasy football. I think I win.

[LoganBuck]

Originally Posted by reds1869

I had a player shoot himself in the leg in fantasy football. I think I win.

I had Chris Coghlin last year when he tore his acl during a post game shaving cream pie incident.

[mth123]

Originally Posted by LoganBuck

I had Chris Coghlin last year when he tore his acl during a post game shaving cream pie incident.

I got you guys all beat. I had Kirby Puckett the year he got Glaucoma. I had Brett Butler the year he had cancer. I had Mike Schmidt the year he up and quit. I even had Glenallen Hill the year he missed a month after falling out of bed during a nightmare about spiders.

[savafan]

I had Nick Adenhart...

[cincinnati chili]

Whoopy ding dong. The guy is 29 instead of 28. Let's put him on the restricted list and save a couple weeks of salary. The Marlins are a horrible organization. Putting him on the restricted list is par for the course.

To wit:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/69...vance-demotion

http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?o...news&Itemid=42

And I haven't even mentioned what their owner did to the Expos

[Chip R]

Here's an interesting column from ESPN.com about this. For those who wonder why it's such a big deal that he only shaved a year off his age:

The younger the players are, the more desirable they are. Marlins reliever Edward Mujica, a close friend of Oviedo's, told the Herald that, "At 17 years old, you maybe lose $100,000 or $150,000 when you sign [compared to a 16-year-old with the same skills]. And if you're like 18, you might sign for $5,000 and maybe they give you an opportunity."

http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/s...-fake-name-age

[cincinnati chili]

Worldwide draft would solve this. If everyone had to be 18 to be draft eligible, the only Dominicans lying about their age would be those claiming to be OLDER than they actually are.

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by cincinnati chili

Worldwide draft would solve this. If everyone had to be 18 to be draft eligible, the only Dominicans lying about their age would be those claiming to be OLDER than they actually are.

It simply is never going to happen. There are too many things that will get in the way.

[Dan]

Originally Posted by cincinnati chili

Worldwide draft would solve this. If everyone had to be 18 to be draft eligible, the only Dominicans lying about their age would be those claiming to be OLDER than they actually are.

The big issue is nutrition. Most countries like The Dominican Republic, the kids don't get proper nutrition as they grow up. The older they are, the worse off their bodies. So a kid at 18 isn't going to develop physically as well as a kid at 16 with proper nutrition. Thus a world wide 18+ draft would be devestating to those players' prospects for playing professionally.

[cincinnati chili]

Originally Posted by Dan

The big issue is nutrition. Most countries like The Dominican Republic, the kids don't get proper nutrition as they grow up. The older they are, the worse off their bodies. So a kid at 18 isn't going to develop physically as well as a kid at 16 with proper nutrition. Thus a world wide 18+ draft would be devestating to those players' prospects for playing professionally.

You're right, and if they shut down the academies, fewer ultrapoor kids will get the intervention they need. From a purely Machiavellian standpoint though, MLB (not the people of the Dominican, necessarily) would be much better off with a worldwide draft.

Maybe the compromise is to turn the Dominican and Venezuelan Winter leagues (16-18 year olds) into an unaffiliated enterprise (sort of like junior hockey). MLB could run the leagues (rather than have teams affiliated with Reds, Pirates, etc) as single entities and MLB teams could split the costs. Theoretically, you'd get the intervention for nutrition, etc.