Listen: Creando Las Estrellas: Determining the quality of the Dominican and Cuban baseball development systems. Baseball in the Dominican Republic has a long history, popularized in the sugar refineries of the Dominican's passionate national game. Cordova described this event to Rob Ruck, author of The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic.
Other authors have also made useful contributions to the larger body of work surrounding baseball in the Dominican. Rob Ruck, another author of many works about baseball, wrote The Tropic of Baseball: Baseball in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican system of player development remains one of the last bastions of true scouting ability.
Buscones or independent player developers play an incredibly important role in the Dominican player development system. Many prospects will have trouble adjusting to the rigors of working at a Major League Baseball Academy. Another off-field aspect is important regarding the operation of the Dominican player development system.
Republic and the major league baseball teams in the Dominican fail to provide a quality education necessary for success off the field and at times success on the field.
Climbing the Pyramid
However, Milton Jamail, considered an authority on Cuban baseball and the system of player development used in the country today, connects the national identity of early Cuban baseball to the new Cuban political environment of the 1950s. Much of the literature provides insights into the Cuban baseball system that people outside the baseball industry can usually only dream of. His contemporary look at the Cuban baseball player development system is both comprehensive and eye-opening, illustrating the remarkable progress Cubans have made in developing some of the most impressive baseball players in the world.
As the point from which baseball spread, seeing the growth of baseball in other countries helps in understanding Cuba as one of the most important baseball countries in terms of the spread and love of baseball. The historical nature of some of the current literature on Cuban baseball limits understanding of the Cuban player development system. Although informative, many of the works fail to accurately and capably describe the current status of Cuban baseball.
González, Echevarría, and Hernández each fall short in providing an analysis of the Cuban situation. Because of these shortcomings, much of the literature on Cuban baseball and Cuban player development in particular is extremely limited. Jamail describes the Cuban national team as, “basically the equivalent of all-star teams from the USA.
During an interview with Jamail, Miguel Valdés explains the important reality of the Cuban baseball system: “The Cubans work on the mental game, they explain that you have to be patient, disciplined and ready to adapt. The focus on player development from a young age is aware of its importance not only in recognizing the excellent quality of not only Cuban baseball, but also the Cuban player. Over the past two decades, the resurgence of the Serie Nacional, which was on hiatus for a while under the Castro regime, has been a springboard for Cubans looking to defect.
The winner of the Serie Nacional competes each year in the Caribbean Series, a tournament held between the winners of the Dominican, Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, Mexican and Cuban winter leagues. The nature of the Cuban system also increases in importance when considering the existing infrastructure in Cuba. The result is a more literate and healthier population than that of the Dominican Republic." The.
Comparing the End Result
True average began its statistical prominence in 2010 with the rebranding of statistical equivalent average by the experts at Baseball Prospectus. As you can see from the graph above, Major League Cubans have not always placed players in the top 100 when ranked by TAv. However, unlike the Cubans, the Dominicans have consistently placed a large number of players among the top 100 players ranked by TAv.
The 176 debuts represent the most active Dominicans in any of the last nine years examined, so the possibility of even more Dominican players in the top 100 seems unlikely. Offensively, the Cubans and Dominicans are consistently finishing in the top 100 players when ranked by TAv. Similar to True Average, the chart below demonstrates the likelihood of a Dominican and Cuban player being in the top 100 when ranked by Fielding Runs Above Average, assuming the player had a minimum of 400 plate appearances.
With the exception of one year, 2013, Cubans have consistently placed a higher percentage of players in the top 100 players in FRAA over the last decade. Many of the Dominicans, and more recently Cubans, were among the highest in the BWARP rankings. However, this chart shows a consistent number of Dominicans in the top 100 players ranked by BWARP.
This mirrors the increase seen in the top 100 players from 2009 from the True Average graph. This graph's representation of 2014 shows a huge increase in the percentage of Cuban players among the top 100 players ranked by BWARP. However, the main takeaway from Cuban's line on the graph has to be the high rebound in the likelihood of pitchers in recent years ranking in the top 100 by WHIP.
Most likely due to a much higher number in the population of Major League Baseball players, Dominicans maintain consistent percentages in the top 100 by WHIP. The continued consistency of the Dominican percentages remains stable throughout the same period, with the Cubans seeing an increase in the percentage of Cuban pitchers in the top 100 of cFIP. 51 The following graph, as with the previous graphs, shows the probability that Cuban and Dominican pitchers will be ranked among the top 100 pitchers when ranked by PWARP.
The graph above shows a number of things, but two of the most important demonstrable trends can be seen in the graph in recent years. In the case of the Dominican line in the PWARP graph, not much has changed from previous statistics.
Chapter Four: Lingering Problems and the Superior System
The size of the Dominican system compared to the Cuban system is more or less the same. The Dominican system and its accessibility are incomparable to the closed island that is Cuba. Although the player development system in Cuba is incredibly successful, the numbers of those players who end up coming to the United States are much, much smaller than the number of players from the Dominican Republic.
The sheer amount of players that Dominican player development produces ready to ship to the United States is significantly higher. More than anything this discrepancy between the two systems and the advantage for the Dominican player development system is caused by nothing more than politics. The changing political landscape refers to two situations surrounding baseball and the Dominican and Cuban player development systems.
The immigration system in the United States greatly affects the Dominican player development system, and only affects the Cuban player development system if a Cuban player defects. All foreign players require a visa to play baseball in the United States, but with a system that continually pumps out large amounts of talent, such as the Dominican player development system, allowing all these players to come to the United States. The immigration situation is an obstacle for the Dominican player development system and creates a barrier that the Dominican player development system must respond to.
Cuba and the Dominican Republic have excellent player development systems, but Cuba's advantages combined with its political landscape point to a slight advantage for Cuba as the king of player development. Although Cuba far outperforms the Dominican Republic in education and player health, it cannot match the capabilities of a Major League Baseball system and that of the best coaches in the world. As Major League Baseball continues to invest in its own future, it is also investing in the future of the Dominican Republic.
Right now, the only advantage the Dominican Republic has is the ability to produce more players. As more players from Cuba play baseball in the major leagues and more Major League clubs invest in the future of player development in Cuba, Cuba will overtake the Dominican Republic as the elite producer of Major League talent through its player development system. School is out forever: The applicability of international human rights law to major league baseball academies in the Dominican Republic.
