Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
What that tells me is that if there are guys they are similarly certain about in IFA in the future, they should be willing to blow it out when the time is right.
$12 million in investment ($4 million - Vladito; $3 million - Soto; 2.2 million - Matias and 150k - Acuna, plus tax penalties) would have completely changed the course of the franchise.
Actually makes me feel a little better about their hesitance to spend big this year.
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That said - a lot of scouting is about luck and shooting your shot when you have it.
You could look at it as 'man, the Royals were on those guys and I'll bet they'v learned lessons that ensure they get the next 'core 4' signing class....'
You could just as easily say that the Royals had it on their racket and miffed it. Buckner never got another grounder - sometimes you had your moment and then your moment is past. Given the highly competitive nature of the scouting process, I'd probably trend more closely to the latter than the former. It would be damn hard to really have that kind of opportunity again. And frankly I'd imagine that even the Royals didn't realize they had it at the time (afterall, knowing what they know now they'd have obviously pulled those triggers in a heartbeat).
But seriously, I wanna know what the hell 'couldn't get the money together in time' means. There has to be an interesting backstory there. Some intern get lost on his way to the bank? I mean we hear stories like that all the time where some prospect is seemingly going to sign with Team A, vanishes for 2 weeks and later we find out that at the last minute he just signed with Team B and went to one of their latin academies without anyone knowing. The Yankees had that happen with Torres and the Cubs, IIRC.
Weird shit happens in the span of 15 minutes with those Latin American signings. I'd be curious to know if there's more to that story.