SportsonEarth.com piece on Xander

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""Now that you mention it, it's weird how I learned Spanish so quickly," Bogaerts says now."
 
 
I'm with Stevie1der on this one. This kid is going to be amazing.
 

mwonow

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Thanks for that. We see players as pieces on the field - it's great to get a glimpse of the path that they take there, and of the people they are and grew up with
 

Jaylach

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What actually stood out the most to me in that article was Xander's mother. According to the article, she had other teams coming up to her all the time offering more money, new deals, etc. But she stayed loyal to the Red Sox, letting everyone know she's happy with the Red Sox. She didn't try and get more money, she didn't try and get a better deal. She made a "promise" and stuck with it.
 
That feels so rare in today's age.
 

finnVT

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After watching the video, Shipley scrambled for his phone and texted Lord: "Oh shit. Don't leave the island. I'm coming down."
That's awesome.  The whole article is fantastic, it's going to be so much fun to root for him.
 

syoo8

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Thank you so much for this!
 
It reinforces something that I've been learning every day- even in the statistic-driven baseball world, human relationships are so important.
 
I hope Xander's mother whispers in his ear when the Sox try to extend him through his first couple of free-agent years.
 

Reverend

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Loved learning that the ice-in-the-veins player we saw in the World Series really is the guy that Captain America wants to be when he grows up.
 
Found it very interesting to learn more about the process, but I gotta admit, I was a bit creeped out by the idea that all these teams now have databases on all the 12-13 year old baseball players in these countries. The schmoozing aspect was a bit weird, too, but I guess that's life.
 

InsideTheParker

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Great article. From the only comment to the article, one can see that even though he'd dropped it, X may have had enough Spanish to prepare him for his total immersion in the DR. The schools sound better there than in many places here, alas.
 
As a fellow Aruban I would just like to say that stating that Xander did not speak Spanish is quite absurd. Spanish is taught to kids in fourth grade and on through the first three years of high school. Even so I really enjoyed your article Jorge.
 
M

MentalDisabldLst

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Great article.  I wonder if Lord's hiring was one of those entrepreneurial moves that showed the risks Theo was willing to take, and thus his departure suggests a concomitant failure to keep enterprising talent in the organization?  Or if, rather, there was nothing that could have kept a free spirit like Lord around much, and his presence and willingness to do that dirty work was just a happy coincidence for the Red Sox?
 
Reverend said:
The schmoozing aspect was a bit weird, too, but I guess that's life.
 
For your sake, I hope you never leave academia :)
 

Merkle's Boner

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Awesome article.  The Sox clearly got a great deal getting him for under half a mill.  Makes me wonder when they initiate long-term contract talks.  Longoria signed during his rookie year IIRC.
 

Savin Hillbilly

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The wrong side of the bridge....
What I loved about the piece is that at key points in the story, success happened because people (both Lord and Xander) were friendly and personable in addition to being capable at their jobs. It's quite literally a "nice guys finish first" story, and there are never enough of those.
 

Doctor G

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InsideTheParker said:
Great article. From the only comment to the article, one can see that even though he'd dropped it, X may have had enough Spanish to prepare him for his total immersion in the DR. The schools sound better there than in many places here, alas.
I know a few people who were educated in the Netherlands, most of them are fluent in three or four languages.
 

Beomoose

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Savin Hillbilly said:
What I loved about the piece is that at key points in the story, success happened because people (both Lord and Xander) were friendly and personable in addition to being capable at their jobs. It's quite literally a "nice guys finish first" story, and there are never enough of those.
My thoughts exactly. Another group of people might have cursed out the other scouts or intimidated the boys' family into submission. This is a great story about good people.
 

HriniakPosterChild

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Arubans speak Papiamento in their families as their mother tongue.
 
Kids generally start public school not speaking any Dutch, but that's the language of instruction from day 1. (My mom went through this with Ukrainian and English, and I worked with a guy once who had the same experience with Turkish and German. Kids can do this.)
 
Later in their schooling, they learn Spanish and English as "foreign" languages. English is economically important because of tourism.
 
Papiamento has some roots in Spanish.
 
(I've been to Aruba once for a few days 15 years ago, so I am an expert ;)
 

DJnVa

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Merkle's Boner said:
Awesome article.  The Sox clearly got a great deal getting him for under half a mill.  .
 
Well, I have a feeling that they wouldn't have been signing his brother at all without Xander so they greased the wheels a bit by giving him some cash as well.
 

LoweTek

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For some reason I can't cut and paste but I thought the money quote in the article was the one from the Pirates' scout about complimenting the competition and the appreciation of wanting to go up against the best in the business. Sig line quality.
 

mwonow

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There's an interesting parallel between this story and the one in the Grady thread. In both cases, the Sox investment outside of the clubhouses (international scout here, sports medicine specialist there) appears to have paid substantial dividends. It probably wouldn't be easy to define these kinds of investments and returns well enough to do a real ROI analysis, but at some level, the goal is to have the best 25 possible on the roster, and investing outside of bonuses/salaries/draft picks/FAs looks like it's paid off in helping to secure 2 of the current starting 9...
 

Merkle's Boner

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It's amazing to me that the other teams had scouts for Curaçao and never thought of going over to Aruba. They're right next to each other and I assume it's a pretty long/expensive trip to get to curaçao so you might as well bang out all the islands while you're there.
 

Jaylach

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LoweTek said:
For some reason I can't cut and paste but I thought the money quote in the article was the one from the Pirates' scout about complimenting the competition and the appreciation of wanting to go up against the best in the business. Sig line quality.
 
It really is a great quote. I love the "print it, because it's the truth" ending.
 
-- 
 
"We missed and did a bad job," Pittsburgh Pirates international scouting director Rene Gayo said. "Not good. He is from Aruba, a very small island. Though Curacao is covered well, Aruba is not. We now have our supervisor in Colombia covering Aruba and are working on getting a competent local scout…I am real proud of the Red Sox. That is what scouting is all about. I love to compete, and admire talent in my competitors. Why would you want to play against guys that are no good? If you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best. They out-scouted everyone on the player -- print it, because it's the truth."
 

MainerInExile

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BCsMightyJoeYoung said:
Joining the Canseco twins as another nail in the Nature over Nurture paradigm
 
[Replying to the Grey Eagles post mentioning Xander's twin brother Jair retiring]
The Bogaerts are fraternal twins.
 

Merkle's Boner

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Merkle's Boner said:
Awesome article.  The Sox clearly got a great deal getting him for under half a mill.  Makes me wonder when they initiate long-term contract talks.  Longoria signed during his rookie year IIRC.
So what gets it done?  8 yrs/$40mm?