With the United States talking about normalizing relations with Cuba, how will that affect MLB process of integrating Cubans into the game? Will they adopt the posting system like they do with Asian teams? Would it be draft and development like in the DR? What are your thoughts?
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Cuban Players--what might change?
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Cuban Players--what might change?
If I whisper my wicked marching orders into the ether with no regard to where or how they may bear fruit, I am blameless should a broken spirit carry those orders out upon the innocent, for it was not my hand that took the action merely my lips which let slip their darkest wish. ~Daniel Devereaux 2011
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Tags: None
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I don't think anything changes in the short term. Except now the players don't have to go through the process of establishing citizenship in the DR or Mexico or something.
If MLB still considers Cuba a "professional" league, then teams are still subject to the international bonus rules unless players have 5 years of experience (or something like that).
Now, maybe MLB makes some changes in the long run. Maybe this makes an international draft more likely.
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Great article by Ben Badler at BA re: this very subject:
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we should have minimum 2, potentially 4, MLB teams in Cuba"You know what's wrong with America? If I lovingly tongue a woman's nipple in a movie, it gets an "NC-17" rating, if I chop it off with a machete, it's an "R". That's what's wrong with America, man...."--Dennis Hopper
"One should judge a man mainly from his depravities. Virtues can be faked. Depravities are real." -- Klaus Kinski
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Originally posted by Fresno Bob View Postwe should have minimum 2, potentially 4, MLB teams in Cuba
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Champagne for breakfast and a Sherman in my hand !
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The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
George Orwell, 1984
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Originally posted by Fresno Bob View Postwe should have minimum 2, potentially 4, MLB teams in Cuba
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Originally posted by The Feral Slasher View PostIt will be interesting to see how it all plays out. How will the Cuban leagues be impacted and how much money can MLB make in Cuba ? I saw an interesting article on the Cuban baseball stadiums, they clearly have a ways to go to be up to MLB standards.
http://ballparkdigest.com/2011101742...lparks-of-cuba
I know a bit about the quality of ballparks in 3rd-world locations. I've been to Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, when the Expos played a few games there in 2004 before they moved to DC. At that time, MLB was proposing San Juan as a viable option for the Expos to move to. That was a joke if there ever was one. It wasnt even a good Triple-A stadium. For this, you had to pay about $70 to get a seat behind home plate and the other better seats werent too much less expensive. I sat in the bleachers for $10 and got scorched by the sun. You would think that if fans in Puerto Rico were hungry for an MLB team, they would have turned out in droves to see the few games that the Expos played there. But there were only about 10000 fans there (looked like it had a capacity of only around 25000). And most of the fans seemed to be cheering for the opposing club! (the Marlins and the Mets for the 2 games I saw).
I also saw some games (Caribbean World Series) at a ballpark in Santo Domingo, DR (it was called something like Quezada). This also wasnt even a decent Triple-A park. Both parks looked like they were decades old.
Havana is much bigger than San Juan or Santo Domingo, and the Cubans I think are even more passionate about baseball than the Puerto Ricans or the Dominicans, which is why I think MLB might have a chance there. Economically, they'll be much better after we lift the embargo, if and when we do.
I didnt know about the Cubaballtours tour. The website is no longer operating, so I hope that the tours are still available. I would be interested in going so I will investigate this.
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Originally posted by rhd View PostGreat article! Thanx for posting this.
I know a bit about the quality of ballparks in 3rd-world locations. I've been to Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, when the Expos played a few games there in 2004 before they moved to DC. At that time, MLB was proposing San Juan as a viable option for the Expos to move to. That was a joke if there ever was one. It wasnt even a good Triple-A stadium. For this, you had to pay about $70 to get a seat behind home plate and the other better seats werent too much less expensive. I sat in the bleachers for $10 and got scorched by the sun. You would think that if fans in Puerto Rico were hungry for an MLB team, they would have turned out in droves to see the few games that the Expos played there. But there were only about 10000 fans there (looked like it had a capacity of only around 25000). And most of the fans seemed to be cheering for the opposing club! (the Marlins and the Mets for the 2 games I saw).
I also saw some games (Caribbean World Series) at a ballpark in Santo Domingo, DR (it was called something like Quezada). This also wasnt even a decent Triple-A park. Both parks looked like they were decades old.
Havana is much bigger than San Juan or Santo Domingo, and the Cubans I think are even more passionate about baseball than the Puerto Ricans or the Dominicans, which is why I think MLB might have a chance there. Economically, they'll be much better after we lift the embargo, if and when we do.
I didnt know about the Cubaballtours tour. The website is no longer operating, so I hope that the tours are still available. I would be interested in going so I will investigate this.---------------------------------------------
Champagne for breakfast and a Sherman in my hand !
---------------------------------------------
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
George Orwell, 1984
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Originally posted by rhd View PostBut there were only about 10000 fans there (looked like it had a capacity of only around 25000)."Instead of all of this energy and effort directed at the war to end drugs, how about a little attention to drugs which will end war?" Albert Hofmann
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There is no way that there will be a major league team in Cuba as things stand. Twenty or thirty years from now maybe. In the near future, I would say that it is more likely that the Cuban league would expand to Florida than a major league team go there and I don't expect either to occur.
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