These Might Be Good Cubans

Three and a half years ago I went to the deciding game of the International League Championship between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Durham Bulls.  The game was not only a chance to see a team win the Governor's Cup, it was also a chance to see heralded Red Sox prospect Rusney Castillo.  

Castillo had defected from Cuba and signed a 72 million dollar contract with the Red Sox.  I took it as a chance to see a Major League player in a Minor League stadium.  Always cool to see Major League talent up close in a smaller stadium.   

Since that last game of the 2014 playoffs, I have had the chance to watch Castillo play for the Paw Sox in 2015, 2016, and 2017.  He's halfway through his $72 million dollar contract and he's made $34 million dollars playing three season in Triple A.  Although, Castillo has played 99 games with the Red Sox, but 80 of those games were in 2015.  

While Castillo has not worked out, there have been plenty of other Cuban players who have been able to successfully make the jump to the Majors.  

Yoenis Cespedas, Jose Abreu, Yasiel Puig, Aroldis Chapman, Jose Fernandez, the list could go on and on.  

I have recently picked up cards of two former Cuban players.  Hopefully they will be joining the list of successful players above. 

First up is a Blue Jays prospect.....

easier and the cheaper of the two prospects that I am featuring in this post.  Lourdes Gurriel is the younger brother of the Astros Yuli Gurriel.  He's turning 24 this season, and he's not past Double A, but there are a lot of people who think very highly of his future.  Baseball America has him rated as a Top 100 prospect.  Since his cards are fairly inexpensive, I paid more for this card in shipping off of Ebay than I actually did for the card, I am willing to risk it.  

I also like these Bowman TEK cards.  The Topps TEK cards are better, but these are not that far behind.  Besides picking up the autographed version of this card, I also landed a base card.  

Not any difference between the cards outside of the autograph.  

Little bit bigger prospect, more expensive card, and a guy who has not played outside of the Dominican Summer League.  He did hit really well there though.....

Luis Robert (pronounced row-bear) signed last year with the White Sox.  Panini has several cards of him out in a White Sox uniform.  Well, a White Sox uniform with the logos air brushed out, because it's Panini.  I am guessing that Topps will get a Robert card into some sort of Bowman product this year.  The autographed version of whatever card they give him will cost an arm and leg.  

This International Contenders card is a little goofy with Robert wearing some sort of aqua colored worksheet.  I believe that this picture is from one of his showcase workouts.....

The opinions of Robert are mixed.  I have seen some baseball people claim that he is the next coming of Bryce Harper, or Mickey Mantle.  I have also seen baseball people cite the fact that there have been far more Cuban position players who have not measured up to the amount of money spent up front to sign them, nor do they live up to the hype.  

The White Sox have two A ball teams in North Carolina, so perhaps there is a chance that I will be able to see him play at some point this summer.  Guessing he would be a fun player to see in person.  If not this summer, he will surely end up in Charlotte in a few years.  The Knights are in the same division as the Durham Bulls and they play frequently.  

Cuban National Team vs USA Baseball College National Team

I had the chance to check out the first game of the USA Baseball College team's friendly series against the Cuban National Baseball just up the road from my house in Cary, North Carolina.  I have done a few write ups on the games I have attended at the National Training Complex in the past, my favorite of which was a no-hitter thrown by Tanner Houck (Mizzou/Red Sox), A.J. Puk (Florida/A's), and Ryan Hendrix (Texas A&M/Reds).

The final out from that no-hitter from the arm of Ryan Hendrix, which was also against Cuba....

I have not been to many games yet this year between kids and work, so a holiday weekend is just what the doctor ordered.  It was a little bit hot at the start of the game, but overall a really nice evening to take in a baseball game.  The USA Baseball complex is a nice place to watch a game.  

There were a few players I was excited to see last night.  The main player of interest however was Clemson outfielder Seth Beer.  The past two seasons the slugging outfielder has been one of the better players in the ACC.  Beer should also be one of the higher draft picks coming up next summer.  

He had some really good at-bats early in the game, worked the counts, and showed good patience.  

The best at-bat of the game took place in extra innings after the game went into the "International Tie-Breaker Rules".  You say you do not know what that is?  Neither did I, nor 90% of the stadium, and likely 100% of the players on the US team.  Here's a quick tutorial.....

Anyway, Cuba was the road team, so they batted first and scored twice.  The US team then put Cuba in a bind by scoring two runs, loading the bases, for Mr. Beer.  The Cubans brought in the infield and their pitcher actually made a decent pitch breaking his bat, but......

Very cool game to watch.  Not as cool as the no-hitter game, but still one of the better amateur baseball games that I have ever attended.  I need to do one of those Friday countdown things this week to share out the cool ones.

There were autographs too.  Towards the middle of the game there was a table set up on the concourse of the stadium with different signers.  A few Olympians that I did not really know and a member of the 1984 Olympic Baseball team, former Rangers pitcher Bobby Witt.  He signed a ticket for me......

I mentioned being a Cardinals fan and the fact that I saw him pitch for the Cardinals in 1998.  He didn't seem thrilled that I remembered him as a Cardinal.  Not his best year.