When it comes to international free agency, 'the Acuña Effect is real'
Things are just different for the Atlanta Braves when scouting for amateur talent in Venezuela.
"We've had an edge with Venezuelans," admitted Braves Latin American scouting director Jonathan Cruz to the media on Tuesday.
And the reason? Ronald Acuña Jr.
Acuña, who signed with Atlanta in July of 2014, is a legend in Venezuela. And yeah, it gives the Braves an advantage when scouting for talent in the South American country.
"Are we calling Acuña and telling him 'hey, help us out with these guys'? No. (But) we don't have to ask for help. Every one of these kids dreams about being on the same field as him."
And while Cruz admitted that the signing bonus ($5M) may have been the bigger factor behind Atlanta's signing of top international prospect Jose Perdomo, a shortstop, it wasn't the only factor that brought Perdomo into the fold.
"Alex (Anthopoulos, Braves GM and president of baseball operations) is pretty passionate about international free agents. [...] There were other teams involved early in the mix (but) when Alex wants the top guy, he's going to get the top guy. We felt tremendous support from him. He was well involved and that's how we landed our guy."
And Atlanta's comfortable with the potential of Perdomo, as much as you can be about a player at this stage of their career.
"Obviously these kids are very young," reminded Cruz, before discussing what they saw from a scouting perspective. "We think the hardest thing to teach, if you can teach it at all, is to hit. And that's his calling card."
Atlanta scouted Perdomo early, starting at the age of twelve, when he actually competed in domestic youth baseball showcases here in the United States.
"He went to a Perfect Game (showcase), which was good, but he had a big showcase side by side with Ethan Salas."
Salas, the top signing of the San Diego Padres last season, hd an absolutely meteoric rise through the minors this season. Skipping the Dominican Summer League entirely, which is where most international prospects play their first season with their organization, Salas was in major league spring training and began his year with Single-A Lake Elsinore, turning seventeen in June, and then being promoted to High-A Fort Wayne and then Double-A San Antonio to finish the season.
But there's some across baseball who thought the Padres pushed Salas too quickly, pointing to his .200 batting average in Ft. Wayne and .179 batting average in San Antonio. That's a scenario that Cruz doesn't foresee happening with Perdomo, a testament to both his natural ability and how Atlanta paces their international prospects.
"The floor on his bat is just incredibly high for his age. He exudes confidence when he's hitting. We've got plenty of information where we tried to overmatch the kid all the time and he showed the ability to adapt and overcome, which is something we haven't seen in a long time."
But that pacing bit is important - Atlanta won't push Perdomo or any of their other international prospects before they're ready.
"We don't like to rush kids. He is mentally prepared to play at a higher level, but we're going to take our time. [...] We're not going to make unnecessary moves this year. We're going to let them play, we're going to let them enjoy the process, and then I think the following year is (where) if he's just blowing everyone away, we might hit the accelerator on him."
"But the first year, it's more about him being comfortable. [...] We're going to have him playing in the DSL this year and take it from there."
And if Perdomo, who chose #13 (Acuña's jersey number) for his first uniform, is ready to head stateside and enter the system?
"I asked him maybe like three or four times if he was sure what he was doing with the number 13 and he was confident. That's the number he likes."
"He said himself we will address (changing) that number when we get into the bigs."
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