Santo Domingo, DR: Major League Baseball will roll out this Saturday its umpteenth attempt to establish a development platform that serves as a reference for scouts of the 30 teams.
The tournament will be played in four regions, with players between the ages of 15 and 18, the bulk that has the greatest difficulty signing in times of very early agreements. It will start tomorrow at the Cibao stadium, with four teams led by coaches associated with the Trainer Partnership Program and dedicated to the immortal Tony Peña.
Each team will play 12 regular phase matches, two will advance to the final, and the champion will represent that region in the final phase. Then the South will be played in Yaguate, San Cristóbal. It will be followed by the one in the East, in Tetelo Vargas, while the metropolitan area will be Guerra.
Henry González, MLB’s director of international operations, explained to DL that the goal is for young people to have an opportunity to be seen by listeners in a real game environment, with streaming, a page with real-time statistics, and links players to community activities.
“The hope is to find surprises, it is not the same to evaluate him in a showcase, that he faces loaded bases several times or gets nervous. That the teams can see how advanced a talent is that at an earlier age did not show so much potential,” Gonzalez said. “Looking further afield, it can serve as a futuristic platform for national teams.”
The platform will offer the teams advanced information beyond the eye of the scouts since it will have state-of-the-art technology such as Trackman and Synergy.
The MLB will pay for the entire assembly, from the props to the referees and scorers, in this league that, in its first year, will have a six-week calendar to draw a champion.
