Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Welcome to the Blue, Felix Osorio and Jhoan Calderon!

Today is the start of the MLB International Signing Period.  This is when some of the best teenage prospects throughout the world can sign professional MLB contracts.

Via Jesse Sanchez at MLB.com, this is how it works:
A 16-year-old international player is eligible to sign with a Major League team between July 2 through June 15 of next year if the prospect turns 17 before Sept. 1 of this year or by the completion of his first Minor League season. Additionally, any prospect who is already 17 or older and has not previously signed a Major or Minor League contract, resides outside the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and has not been enrolled in a high school or college in the U.S., Canada or Puerto Rico within the previous year is eligible to sign during the period.
Check out the rest of Jesse's story for more information about the dollars and cents.

Already, the Dodgers have signed up two kids to join the franchise.  They are Felix Osorio and Johan Calderon; both from the Dominican Republic.  I put together brief reports below on both of them, a fantasy Baseball card that I created and a running checklist of known cards available on the marketplace.

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In honor of Felix's recent signing I made the above fantasy Baseball card for him.  I used a photo grabbed from the Power-Showcase.com prospect page for Osorio and the vintage 1987 Topps Baseball card design.  According to Power-Showcase, Felix stands a tall and lean 6' 4" tall, is 200 lbs. and has some power.
He returns to PS classic after winning the 2012 DPL POWER SHOWCASE in DR. He dazzled the crowd with a total of 22-HR and 2-blast of more than 490ft that crossed the street outside of Temistocles Metz stadium in San Cristobal D.R. He hit 9 in the wood bat round and 13 in the aluminum round. 
Osorio is almost 18-years old (birth date: 11/16/1996), so he is older than some of the blue chip prospects receiving big dollars today.  Eric Stephen at True Blue LA has a brief report on him; including a video, and Eric Becker at Dodgers-Lowdown has his own report and additional video.

Osorio's signing was originally shared by MLB.com reporter Jesse Sanchez on twitter:


BTW, the kid already has a several Baseball cards available on the market.  Leaf has created several teenage prospect card sets and Osorio is in two of them: 2013 Leaf Power Showcase and 2013 Leaf Perfect Game.  See them all below.

The card directly below is actually of unknown origin to me.  It appears to be a base card to the 2013 Leaf Power Showcase set, but from what I understand that set did not come with base cards.  So, I do not know if they were put into actual packs, come from another product or were given away at Power-Showcase live events.  All of the remaining cards below were placed in their respective packs for collectors to buy.


2013 Leaf Power Showcase World Classic Base Card


2013 Leaf Power Showcase Base Autograph

#PSA-FO1 Felix Osorio

2013 Leaf Power Showcase Relic Auto's

#PA-FO1 Felic Osorio                           #JA-FO1 Felix Osorio
Patch Auto                                               Jersey Auto

2013 Leaf Perfect Game

#74 Felix Osorio                                     #FO1 Felix Osorio

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In honor of Johan's recent signing I made the above fantasy Baseball card for him.  I used a photo grabbed from the Eric's Dodgers-Lowdown blog and the vintage 1987 Topps Baseball card design.

From what I understand, Johan is an outfielder who played in the Dominican Prospect League.  He stands about 6' 3" and is 195 lbs.  According to Ben Badler at Baseball America, he received a $130,000 signing bonus from the Dodgers.  Check out Eric Stephen at True Blue LA who has a brief report on him; including a video, and Eric Becker at Dodgers-Lowdown has his own brief report. Also, there appears to be a slight discrepancy about Calderon's true first name.  A glance at the Dominican Prospect League website and the tweet shown below from Calderon's trainer appear to show his first name as Jhoan. UPDATE:  It's official.  His first name is Jhoan.

Here is a great photo of Calderon with his family, via trainer Franklin Ferreira on twitter:


BTW, Johan Calderon does not appear to have any Baseball card already made of him.  Boo!!!


* Please follow on twitter @ernestreyes *
* Dodgers Blue Heaven home page *

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