College Hardball Players Only Star Later?

[Crash Course]

See: http://www.netshrine.com/20040609.html

Discussion welcome and appreciated.

[TimmyB]

If one is willing to make the leap of faith that most NDFA are the equivalent of high school players from the United States in terms of age and playing experience...

I'm not sure I'm ready to make that leap. Don't get me wrong... I'm not dead set against the idea, just not sold.

Let's take only the college/hs US "top" numbers. The college benefit is approx. 2-1 for hitters and 1.7-1 for pitchers.

What would make the NDFA kids so special that they could break that trend? Or, to another point, what other influences are making those "high school-esque" FA's so different?

I think there're apples and oranges being compared there. And, since the draft only covers college and high school players, the results seem to lean pretty heavily in favor of drafting the college players.

[Crash Course]

Originally Posted by TimmyB

What would make the NDFA kids so special that they could break that trend?

The majority of the NDFAs are not eligible for the draft because they are from countries outside the US. If they were eligible for the draft, most would be drafted - and because of the age that they signed, they would be the same as the HS kids here.

Pedro Martinez
Mariano Rivera
Bartolo Colon
Steve Reed
Armando Benitez
Shigetoshi Hasegawa
Wilson Alvarez
Ugueth Urbina
Edgar Martinez
Larry Walker
Sammy Sosa
Carlos Delgado
Bernie Williams
Bobby Abreu
Vladimir Guerrero
Roberto Alomar
Juan Gonzalez

How many of these signed after the age of 18? If I had to guess - I would say one for sure (Siggy) and maybe one or two more. Many probably signed at 16. I think Bernie did.