Daily Archives: December 2, 2011
Playing Winter Ball in Panama: The Chris Swauger Guest MLB Blog
Friday December 2, 2011
MLB reports: We are proud to welcome Chris Swauger (aka Swags) back to the Reports! After our interview with the St. Louis Cardinals prospect, we are fortunate to have Swags return as a Guest MLB Blogger. Have you ever wondered what goes through a player’s mind playing winter ball in a foreign country? Swags is here to give you the scoop on the experience of playing ball in the offseason. A big thank you to Swags for his time in preparing this feature, as well as the photographs used which were supplied for from his personal collection.
Chris Swauger- Guest MLB Blog: I was walking out of a LA Fitness in Tampa when I got the call to play winter ball in Panama. After an hour of being stared at like I was an alien by the juice-monkeys for actually using the squat rack and leg machines, I figured why not be a true alien in a foreign country again? Having played the last two years in Colombia, I was used to the funny looks and had become fluent in Spanish. It seemed like a great opportunity to see a new place and continue to improve my baseball skills. So a week later I said goodbye to my family and the motherland and got on a plane to the middle of nowhere.
I didn’t see the sun for the first 5 days I was down here. I was a new member of the Caballos de Cocle, and I felt like I should have been playing in galoshes instead of cleats. Our practices started at 9 AM because it poured every afternoon. It felt a lot like Spring Training, with the heavy eyes and constant practicing of fundamentals. However, the practice field was slightly different. I had played on fields with pebbles and rocks sprinkled on the field, but this place had full-blown boulders laying around. The warning track consisted of grass as tall as me and was home to a family of iguanas. But I figured if we could play defense on this field, when we got on ours we would all be Gold-Glovers. We grinded it out for a week and went into opening night feeling invincible.
We were exactly that for two games. We pitched, hit, and played defense like seasoned veterans en route to two straight walk-off wins. I had both of the walk-off hits, but before we crown me a clutch performer, I must inform you that they were the only hits I had in either game. I would have probably been put on a plane home if I hadn’t come through in those at-bats. Going into the final game of our first series, we were pretty much fitting ourselves for championship rings. Then reality kicked in.
We started blowing saves and our clutch hitting disappeared. Guys on the team, including myself, continued to put up good numbers but the wins did not come. As a team we could not get in sync. We would pitch well and not hit. Then we would put up four runs in the first and our pitchers struggled to hold the lead. It is one of those things that happens in this game. Rough patches are bound to happen, but they take the highway to panic mode when the season is only 36 games long. I sit here today writing this blog with our team sitting 5 games out of the playoff race with 3 games left to play. On paper our team should have not lost a game, but that’s why you play. The better teams are in the playoff hunt, and ours is sitting here like me trying to figure out where we went wrong.
When the game starts challenging you on the field you start to look for positives off of it. In a town as small as Aguadulce, Cocle, Panama, you have to look really hard. By my official head count the town has 50 people in it (I might be off by a few hundred). The biggest structure in the town is the church, and, outside of a few restaurants and dollar stores, there really isn’t much to do. My roommates and I began to find humor and entertainment in the smallest things. Such as:
The gym that has every piece of Tony Little endorsed equipment from the 80s and 90s…but has no free weights or squat rack.
The clubhouse that has TWO washing machines but no dryer. When I show up to the stadium early, right field looks like a Goodwill
clothing yard sale.
The ability for men to wear Capri pants and be considered stylish.
The maid that works diligently every day cleaning and scrubbing the entire 4 room two-story house every day…and also has a habit of turning off the A/C every morning so we wake up like we are in the middle of a Bikram yoga class.
The Korean player on our team who plays “light-field” and complains about the “blain fleeze” he gets when he eats ice cream.
The fact that one of my roommates thought a mothball was a Mentos.
The flocks of geese people have as pets.
The chauffeur that honks at every female we passed regardless of age (extremely creepy).
The amount that the Latin guys on my team enjoy mayonnaise sandwiches.
The Thanksgiving meal of ham and cheese sandwiches.
The clubhouse attendant who scrubs down our lockers, shoes, uniforms, AND batting practice balls. No one has hit a home run in BP for 3 weeks because they are water-logged but they sure do shine like pearls.
The fact that I only eat at two restaurants because the others have made me do my best bus-driver impression on the toilet seat.
The team bus that is an Aladdin movie prop during the day, and the hottest club in town at night.
As you can tell it’s not the most glamorous of lives, however it is quite amusing. Paying dues in the Minor Leagues and foreign countries can be a bit of an adventure, but it has provided me with many life experiences. I hope to use this blog as a means to share those experiences. I would like people to see what players like myself go through to chase their dreams. Follow me on Twitter @cswag8 if you would like to get a daily perspective and interact with me.
Until next time,
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Preview of the 2011 MLB Rule 5 Draft: December 8th
Friday December 2, 2011
Rob Bland (Baseball Writer – MLB reports): With the MLB Winter Meetings just around the corner, we can all get excited about the draft that takes place there. The Rule 5 draft is a very important draft for teams, as they can find their diamond in the rough that may be undervalued by his current team. The Rule 5 Draft was created as a way for more players to have a chance at the big leagues, rather than spending more years in the minors. It forces a team to “protect” its minor leaguers by placing them on the 40-man roster.
The Rule 5 Draft is not simply for any minor leaguer, the players who are eligible must fall under certain criteria. The criteria are as follows:
If a player was signed at age 19 or older, and has been in the same organization for four years.
If a player was signed at age 18 or younger, and has been in the same organization for five years.
What this means that if an 18-year-old signs with a team, plays in the minor leagues for five years, and is not added to the 40-man roster, he will be put in a pool of eligible players for the Rule 5 draft. This forces teams to make a decision on their prospect and if he is ready to be added to the 40-man roster. The order of the draft is the same as the Amateur Draft that takes place in June, in reverse order of standings from the season prior.
Since many international players sign at the age of 16, they are eligible for the Rule 5 draft after their age-20 season. If not picked up on the team’s 40-man roster, an opposing team can take a big chance on a player in selecting him.
The draft is different from any other in that it costs the team $50,000 to select a player, which is paid to the team losing said player. Also, this player must be on the 25-man roster for the entirety of the season. If he is taken off the 25-man roster, he must then be offered back to his original club at half the price ($25,000).
There are two other phases of the Rule 5 Draft: AAA and AA. In the AAA phase, teams can select eligible players from AA and lower who fit the same criteria, and pay $12,000 for the selection. In the AA phase, players from A and lower are chosen at a cost of $4,000.
While it is pretty rare for a Rule 5 draftee to become a superstar, it does happen- and there are plenty of players who become useful with their new teams. Some of the most notable players chose in the Rule 5 draft are Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente (the Rule 5 draft was drastically different in 1954), Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista, Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton, and, in my opinion, the best Rule 5 selection of all, Johan Santana.
The Rule 5 Draft can take some interesting turns, and players are often offered back to their original team. Trades are made for other Rule 5 selections or money can be exchanged. Johan Santana was left off the Houston Astros 40-man roster before the 1999 Rule 5 Draft, and was selected by the Florida Marlins. The Marlins then trade Santana to the Minnesota Twins for cash and Jared Camp. After a lacklustre 2000 season, he went on to have a great career with the Twins, and has won 2 Cy Young Awards.
Bautista also represents an interesting case, as he was selected in the 2003 Rule 5 draft, and became the only Major League player in history to be on 5 ML rosters in one season. The Baltimore Orioles selected him in the Rule 5, was claimed off waivers by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2 months into the season, and then traded to the Kansas City Royals less than a month later. A month after that, he was traded to the New York Mets, who then flipped him to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were his original team. He has since gone on to blossom into one of the finest hitters in all of baseball, leading the MLB in home runs in 2010 and 2011.
Josh Hamilton was selected in the 2006 Rule 5 draft by the Chicago Cubs, but was returned to the Cincinnati Reds before the season
began. He was traded to the Texas Rangers after the 2007 seasons and won the 2010 American League MVP.
Other notable players taken in the Rule 5 Draft:
Bobby Bonilla, Jeff Nelson, Joakim Soria, Dan Uggla, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, Kelly Gruber and George Bell.
Most teams have between 15 and 30 eligible players, meaning that there are hundreds of players available. However, the Rue 5 draft has lasted no more than 21 picks in the last 9 years. Over this time, 40 or so players are selected in the AA and AAA phase combined per year.
Will a team strike gold and find the next MVP or CY Young in this year’s Rule 5 Draft? Probably not. But some teams may find some useful bullpen arms, or even a utility player or two that may stick around for a full season.
***Today’s feature was prepared by our Baseball Writer, Rob Bland. We highly encourage you to leave your comments and feedback at the bottom of the page and share in the discussion with our readers. You can also follow Rob on Twitter.***
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