Cubano

QUOTE (Texsox @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 10:40 AM) Funny we don't seem to mind these "illegal aliens". Are you canadian? They defected in Canada. By the way, there is a USA law called Cuban Adjustment Law. If you oppose this law, then you should call your US Congress representative.

According to this other article, there are more rumors than two more have defected besides Iglesias and Arguelles. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...730.wsptcuban29

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 30, 2008 -> 07:25 AM) Sign me up for Noel. This guy is 17 or 18 years old. You feed him well and when he turns 20-21 he should be hitting 95 MPH. Also, in the USA players are taken care better as oppose as Cuba and Japan. In Cuba, they overuse pitchers. Cuban baseball minds had not have a chance of screwing him up yet. Remember, right now there are three young cubans waiting to sign with somebody. They are good prospects though 3B or RF Dayan Viciedo is more developed than these two. Viciedo defected around two months ago. There is no issue with age here because they can not lie about their real age. Viciedo was in the junior team last year and was part of the cuban roster for the WBC # 1. He was there to get some grooming for future tournaments.

These are two great prospects especially LHP Noel Argüelles. Noel is tall and has long arms. He throws 90 + MPH. He was the number one starter on this team. Both have experience in the cuban league. SS Juan Iglesias is a contact hitter and very good defensively. The ChiSox should go after LHP Noel Argüelles. http://www.canada.com/theprovince/story.ht...cc-9cf044bc6a98

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Jul 26, 2008 -> 01:46 AM) What an a**. Just posted mine. This reporter must write a similar article about Fukudome. Have you guys compared Fukudome's and Alexei's stats and salaries? This is what I have conveyed in other posts. The media give a free pass to the japanese and the cubans rarely catch a break. How old is Fukudome?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 11:07 PM) Is that a roundabout way of saying the level of US baseball would not drop off? Maybe... If you could assign players or lend players to other teams, then the level may not drop as much. Take Josh Filed as an example. He is a major leaguer but had to go to the minors this year. He is way better that other 3B around the majors. Would you take any of the Twins 3B over him? No way. He is better than all the Twins 3B combined. There are good american players in the minors, but they are blocked for various reasons.

Thanks Heads22. Cuba is a close society and sometimes people have not had the opportunity to get to know things about Cuba in general. I like to add the Tony Oliva earned rookie of the year honors.

Before 1959, Cuba was the main source of foreign players to the majors. The cuban revolution blocked cubans from coming to the USA. I compared Alexei rookie year vs other cuban position players excepts catchers. These are Alexei's numbers so far: http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_stats_...playerID=493351 2B's Tony Taylor http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=123122 Cookie Rojas http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=121406 Tito Fuentes http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=114470 Chico Ruíz http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=121549 SS's Bert Campaneris http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/player...tor_results.jsp Leo Cardenas http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=111982 Rey Ordonez (aunque este es producto de la SN) http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=120045 Willy Miranda http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=119184 Jackie Hernandez http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=115823 José Valdivielso http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/player...tor_results.jsp Marty Martínez http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=118374 3B's Mike de la Hoz http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/player...tor_results.jsp Rafael Almeida http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/player...tor_results.jsp 1B's Tony Perez http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=120404 Rafael Palmeiro (cubanoamericano) http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=120191 Julio Becquer http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=110780 Pancho Herrera http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=115843 Napoleón Reyes http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=121098 Orestes Destrade (llego de la mal llamada segunda GL de Japon) http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/player...tor_results.jsp Bárbaro Garbey (de la SN) http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/player...tor_results.jsp Among the outfielders, Tony Oliva and Orestes "the cuban comet" MiÑoso put good numbers that Alexei may not surpase. In fact, these are the only two players and maybe Danny Tartabull that had a better rookie season than Alexei is having so far. Outfielders Tony González http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=114925 José Tartabull http://www.baseball-reference.com/t/tartajo01.shtml Bobby Estalella http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=113912 Jose Canseco (mucho poder pero nada de average) http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=111962 Tony Oliva http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/indivi...playerID=119980 Orestes MiÑoso http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/player...tor_results.jsp Danny Tartabull http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/player...tor_results.jsp

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 02:56 PM) On the other hand though...When in recent memory have actual, top level, in their prime, major league baseball players ever gone out and taken on the top level people from other countries in international competition? The only thing even close was the WBC, and that's at that crazy point in spring training when no one knows what you can get from anyone, and half of America's best people sat it out because they didn't want to get hurt playing real games in the spring. In the olympics and so on, it's been the Cuban league's A team, the Japanese league's A team, probably the A team from a couple other countries, against the best guys not on anyone's 40 man roster. If you took 4 weeks off of MLB later this month for the olympics and genuinely allowed every nation to grab its stars back for a rental...that'd be a much more interesting test. You may be right and I agree with you for the most part. However, let's not forget about the NBA's Dream Teams. Since MJ times, USA have struggle mighty against other teams. As for the baseball topic, if MLB moves the WBC to November, then some will argue that MLB players are tired. Then, Cuba will say that their are in Spring Training.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jul 25, 2008 -> 01:06 PM) Keith Law also says Josh Fields can hit a fastball. I usually do not read baseball articles. I am quite disappointed about the lack of seriousness and the lack of research of many sport writers. IMO many of these writers are just lazy and do not want to do the proper research or do not have the time to do it. For instance, Baseball Prospectus compared cuban ball to the NY-Penn State League. This is not even A+ guys. Many in the media read that article and now keep repeating the same song like the Examiner's article mentioning cuban ball is A ball. If the mexican summer league is AAA according to MLB, how come cuban ball is A ball. I garantee you guys that all the good mexican players are in the states either in MLB, AAA, AA, A, Rookie balls. Despite this fact, MLB gives this mexican league AAA label.

QUOTE (YASNY @ Jul 24, 2008 -> 01:51 PM) If you take the Domicans, Venezualans, Japanese, Mexicans, Cubans from the Major Leagues. Where would you rate US Baseball? Then, you'll have the big leagues with US players from AAA, AA and A ball. One thing that I do not like about the majors is that contracts or name recognition often keep players in the minors that are better than the ones in the big show.

That is my boy from the Pinar del Rio Green Sox. He is getting closer to that batting average leader. The only way he gets rookie of the year is if he wins the batting average title. Longoria is looking good now.

I decided to share this article with you guys because the Sox has two cuban players. http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/feature...7?currentPage=1

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 08:42 PM) I completely disagree. Unless Contreras has some sort of injury or is going through an undsiclosed dead-arm (July is the typical time a pitcher would go through a regular season dead-arm) than there is absolutely no reason to be optimistic. His velocity is down and he's turned into a one pitch pitcher (the forkball). The problem is the forkball is an inconsistent pitch by nature and as such he can't rely on it because all a hitter would have to do is lay off the fork ball and sit on his mediocre fastball (the difference between his FB and change is miniscule with the decreased velocity on his fastball, which means not only does his fastball have zero velocity/movement but his change-up isn't deceptive so thats terrible). Bottom line, given the dearth of pitching on the trade market you could probably dupe some team into taking Contreras (you may not get anything in return, but you could move him). I would take the approach that moving him is best for the squad and than look at targeting someone like Bedard or even just a serviceable 5 who is a FA or a fair contract and just take him and go with that as the 5th (and try to use Richard as a 6th starter down the stretch to help rest the younger arms). The problem is the Sox probably won't take this approach since they probably still feel Contreras could be a serviceable 5th. The reality is though, him being a serviceable fifth is unlikely and on top of that, when he proves he isn't, he will be untradeable in the off-season and thus the Sox will be stuck with his albatross contract for a final year. Trading Jose would be a gutsy move (1st place teams don't typically trade starters) but it would be the right move. The only other option to move is putting him on the DL to give him rest and just have him work on throwing regime set aside to increase velocity and get his arm fresh again. Let Richard or Egbert pitch during that period and if they are doing great, you put Jose in the pen/on the block and if they don't do good you bring Jose back into the rotation and hope the break helped him regain some of his velocity. No team is going to eat Contreras's contract.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Jul 13, 2008 -> 05:56 PM) How do we deal with the nasty issue of him forgetting how to pitch. Do we send him to the DL with a phantom injury? Do we try someone in AAA? Go out in a trade? It's tough to have faith in a 40 year old. Deport him back to Cuba!

I was checking the average leaders and Alexei would be 12th right now. He still does not have the necessary AB.

I do not why Guillen has Anderson second against a lefty and Alexei 8th or 9th.

Alexei should gain some pounds in the USA due to more food, better gyms and better quality of life.

I was thinking that the White Sox should not move Alexei to SS in 2009 and allow him to continue to master the 2B position. The Sox can sign a SS in the FA market. What do you guys think? Alexei's video: http://www.4shared.com/file/53314487/4dd0e...rez_080629.html

We should get to Marshall.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jun 28, 2008 -> 07:58 PM) 1 Dollar = .6 Euro but I'm not going to get into all that. The dollar is devalued because the Federal Reserve has been dropping the interest rate until the last meeting 3 days ago when they left rates unchange. The whole world has been raising interest rates to combat inflation. The USA has been doing the opposite because the banking mess. As soon as the Fed start raising interest rate at the end of this year, watch for the dollar strenghten in value against the Euro. The commodities such as oil, gold, silver, etc are going to come down hard just like the Nasdaq bubble in 2000, the housing market in 2006 and Shanghai market in 2007.

Now his boy is american and he can stay in the USA. I am telling you guys we need to change the constitution so these foreigners do not take advantage of the system. Ha, ha, ha. The USA is the best country in the world. Appreciate what you have guys. Alexei can stay in the USA because he is cuban. Cubans can apply for the green card after one year and one day in the USA regardless of any situation.

Today, I could not watch this game. Somehow DirectTV did not have this game. Thanks guys for all the comments.

Alexei has to be there everyday. His speed is good for this team.

Guillen is going to mess up Ramirez timing now with all this crap about benching him. Ramirez must thinking what do I have to do to play on this team regularly? Do I need to hit a HR every time? I want somebody in the media to question Guillen hard on this decision. I do not want any reporter being pay by the White Sox asking stupid question, but somebody independent. I am mad as hell. If Alexei sucks, I will be the first one saying send him back to Cuba. I am going to sleep now. I can't take this nonsense anymore.