The Foreign report

 

Yesterday, when the agent for Cuban ace Maels Rodriguez announced that the 24-year-old righty has officially defected to El Salvador. Rodriguez reportedly throws over 100 mph and has a great splitter, his agent, Henry Vilar, expects to talk with several teams, including the Marlins.

 

Also could another Korean be on the way? OF Shim Jong-soo Shim who was with the Marlins during spring training last season is expected to get a call from the Marlins, when he becomes available which will be next season. He can't become a free agent until after the 2004 season.

do you have any stats on these guys?

He's a closer right? We need all the bullpen help we can get.

Edcanes=the freakin man!you are just brilliant!

Isn't Maels the guy reports a few weeks ago said his fastball fell off to about 85 mph recently?

Isn't Maels the guy reports a few weeks ago said his fastball fell off to about 85 mph recently?

That's not good...

I would like links to examine these stories myself...

 

It seems too early to tell on anything. The Shim scenario is pretty much speculative - of course we can expect to contact him after this season. Why not? He came here for ST in 2003, but wont be available until 2005. There is too much in the air about that situation, I think it is safe to say we can expect anything at this point. No news there.

I would like links to examine these stories myself...

 

It seems too early to tell on anything.? The Shim scenario is pretty much speculative - of course we can expect to contact him after this season.? Why not?? He came here for ST in 2003, but wont be available until 2005.? There is too much in the air about that situation, I think it is safe to say we can expect anything at this point.? No news there.

jonnylons, your right about Shim Jong-soo Shim it was just talk with a couple of guys who over heard it talked about once the Choi deal was complete.

 

As for the Maels Rodriguez story I would think you would hear about it or read about it tommorrow. But I would also think there would have to be a link about his defected to El Salvador already??? and quotes from his agent

I would like links to examine these stories myself...

 

It seems too early to tell on anything.? The Shim scenario is pretty much speculative - of course we can expect to contact him after this season.? Why not?? He came here for ST in 2003, but wont be available until 2005.? There is too much in the air about that situation, I think it is safe to say we can expect anything at this point.? No news there.

jonnylons, your right about Shim Jong-soo Shim it was just talk with a couple of guys who over heard it talked about once the Choi deal was complete.

 

As for the Maels Rodriguez story I would think you would hear about it or read about it tommorrow. But I would also think there would have to be a link about his defected to El Salvador already??? and quotes from his agent Thanks Ed. I find it interesting that since we traded for a Korean (Choi) now all of a sudden we may be a player in the Korean market. I dont know if this follows or not, but it certainly becomes speculative.

I would like links to examine these stories myself...

 

It seems too early to tell on anything.? The Shim scenario is pretty much speculative - of course we can expect to contact him after this season.? Why not?? He came here for ST in 2003, but wont be available until 2005.? There is too much in the air about that situation, I think it is safe to say we can expect anything at this point.? No news there.

jonnylons, your right about Shim Jong-soo Shim it was just talk with a couple of guys who over heard it talked about once the Choi deal was complete.

 

As for the Maels Rodriguez story I would think you would hear about it or read about it tommorrow. But I would also think there would have to be a link about his defected to El Salvador already??? and quotes from his agent Thanks Ed. I find it interesting that since we traded for a Korean (Choi) now all of a sudden we may be a player in the Korean market. I dont know if this follows or not, but it certainly becomes speculative. Not really let just say the guy that brought up the topic works for the team :whistle BUT I would have to say IMO it was base more on finding ways to make Choi feel more comfortable knowing the possibility of one of his countryman playing with him was a good start

the Marlins shouldnt go after him.

 

We dont know how good he is or nothing. He just came from a league which is totally diffent than the MLB.

 

I would rather go after Mike Dejean or Jose Jimenez who have been around for a long time

the Marlins shouldnt go after him.

 

We dont know how good he is or nothing. He just came from a league which is totally diffent than the MLB.

 

I would rather go after Mike Dejean or Jose Jimenez who have been around for a long time

Jose Jimenez? Did you see what he did last year? you might wanna rethink that.

yeah he had a horrible season he was the closer for the rockies and blew saves and he started games for the rockies and didn't do well.

Remember the no-hitter jimenez threw when he was a card-Man that was cool!

i've heard about it i,didn't see that game, but i saw highlights of the no hitter.

 

but i guess that was cool

I would like links to examine these stories myself...

 

It seems too early to tell on anything.? The Shim scenario is pretty much speculative - of course we can expect to contact him after this season.? Why not?? He came here for ST in 2003, but wont be available until 2005.? There is too much in the air about that situation, I think it is safe to say we can expect anything at this point.? No news there.

jonnylons, your right about Shim Jong-soo Shim it was just talk with a couple of guys who over heard it talked about once the Choi deal was complete.

 

As for the Maels Rodriguez story I would think you would hear about it or read about it tommorrow. But I would also think there would have to be a link about his defected to El Salvador already??? and quotes from his agent Thanks Ed. I find it interesting that since we traded for a Korean (Choi) now all of a sudden we may be a player in the Korean market. I dont know if this follows or not, but it certainly becomes speculative. Not really let just say the guy that brought up the topic works for the team :whistle BUT I would have to say IMO it was base more on finding ways to make Choi feel more comfortable knowing the possibility of one of his countryman playing with him was a good start I thought that with the guys we had in S.T. last year, we were in the Korean market before Choi came here. I know it had been discussed.

I would like links to examine these stories myself...

 

It seems too early to tell on anything.? The Shim scenario is pretty much speculative - of course we can expect to contact him after this season.? Why not?? He came here for ST in 2003, but wont be available until 2005.? There is too much in the air about that situation, I think it is safe to say we can expect anything at this point.? No news there.

jonnylons, your right about Shim Jong-soo Shim it was just talk with a couple of guys who over heard it talked about once the Choi deal was complete.

 

As for the Maels Rodriguez story I would think you would hear about it or read about it tommorrow. But I would also think there would have to be a link about his defected to El Salvador already??? and quotes from his agent Thanks Ed. I find it interesting that since we traded for a Korean (Choi) now all of a sudden we may be a player in the Korean market. I dont know if this follows or not, but it certainly becomes speculative. Not really let just say the guy that brought up the topic works for the team :whistle BUT I would have to say IMO it was base more on finding ways to make Choi feel more comfortable knowing the possibility of one of his countryman playing with him was a good start I thought that with the guys we had in S.T. last year, we were in the Korean market before Choi came here. I know it had been discussed. One thing is for sure, the Marlins will crawl the planet looking for talent. The fact we are way off in the Korean market I think is good, but from a marketing standpoint a little difficult. Miami is not know for its Asian population...

 

Yes, Gee, you are certainly right to think we are in 'the market' for Korean players considering we had 2 of them (Lee and Shim) here in ST this past year. That said, I think that really put us on the map, but not in the market. Choi certainly gives us some credibility and currency if we are thinking of trying to get these Korean prospects to come here. It is very exciting to see the world involved in baseball though, and I would welcome any players in any market to come here and win. Another place I would like to see us turn to is Europe - especially, believe it or not, Italy. Baseball is growing there, not quite as popular as soccer, bicycling, or maybe basketball, but it is getting there.

Italy made the Olympics something the US failed to do. So they must have some talented players over there.

the Marlins shouldnt go after him.

 

We dont know how good he is or nothing. He just came from a league which is totally diffent than the MLB.

 

I would rather go after Mike Dejean or Jose Jimenez who have been around for a long time

Jose Jimenez? Did you see what he did last year? you might wanna rethink that. But the Marlins wanna go after him....

 

He played in Coors. He throws a sinker, the sinker stays very FLAT out there in the altitude. So he left alot of hanging pitches. I bet he can really pitch better than that down here in South Florida.

Unfortunately we do have NO talented players at all here in Italy!

Italy made the Olympics just because the quality of baseball in Europe is very poor: only Holland and Italy can play a decent baseball but believe me it's millions miles away from your lower minors level!!

There will be 3 european teams at the Olympics (Holland, Italy and Greece!!) and that's a scandal!!

Only one would have been even too much!!

 

However in the past 2/3 years some Italian players tried the Minors experience (a couple in the NYY organization and one in Seattle and I think one in chicago!) but all fails and get back home.

Here baseball is not very popular: main sports are soccer (almost 99% people follow it!!) and far away basket, Formula1, volley, cyclism.

 

Baseball was very popolar in the 50s and 60s (there could be up to 15.000 people to a game!!) and at the time the level was much better.

My dad played baseball at the time for the team of Milan and won 3/4 championship also wearing the national jersey for about 4/5 games: then married my mam, I was born and quit baseball (so you can imagine the high pay).

 

In recent years the Baseball Italian Federation tried to come out from this awful moment with no good players researching for american players who have italian relatives: I think they started for the 1st Olympics with baseball (LA?).

They selected a lot of young players and gave them the italian passport even if they could not speak a word in our language.

This situation went on in the years but Italy just won a couple of European Ch.

 

Jason Simontacchi is a totally different story: he could not find anymore a contract in US and start thinking quitting baseball.

Than he was called by an Italian team (Rimini, same team who had Chuck Curr last season) and he played 2 season there: he enjoeyd his staying here, started to like Italy and he got double passport being able to play for the natioanl team!

 

He did well in an international competition and was called back from a Major organization (I think not S.Luois immediately!) and then he surprised everybody by getting a spot in the Cardinals starting rotation.

Here is very popular and he came back several times and promised he will play again for the italian national team if Cardinal allow him.

 

Another story again is Jason Grilli: he was contacted to get double passport (maybe he got!) but then the italian federation decide to finish that unsportive behavior right that year!!

 

Just imagine that we still have in our national roster a pitcher (Daniel Newman) who is "Italian" and is the best both pitching and batting!!

 

Should I add anything on the "talented" italian players!!

 

i am so sorry US are not in the Olympics but I am hapy that coul move the Major to look at internationa event dates and maybe we will see all the best players playing for their national team: again baseball at the very top!!

Believe me, you will not see Italy there!!

 

Ciao

Luca