MLB Pipeline<\/a>. He received the team\u2019s top signing bonus at $1.6 million, followed by 17-year-old outfielder Sebasti\u00e1n Romero ($1.5 million).<\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2019s a very fluid athlete,\u201d Keller said of Romero, who is from Guatire, Venezuela. \u201cAnother guy who has a good body, has a chance to defend the position, a premium position in center field, and consistently puts together good at-bats (and) makes contact.\u201d<\/p>\n
The list of outfielders also includes H\u00e9ctor Hern\u00e1ndez, a 16-year-old from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, and 17-year-old Stiwarts Valdez, who is 6-foot-4, 200 pounds and from La Vega, Dominican Republic).<\/p>\n
Keller noted Valdez had exit velocities that topped 109 mph and added, \u201cHe\u2019s someone who, every time that I have had the opportunity to watch him play in games or face live at-bats, he\u2019s hit a home run. So I think that means that I need to attend close to 20 DSL (Dominican Summer League) games this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two other catchers are 16-year-old Ronald Cardoso (Maracaibo, Venezuela) and Jos\u00e9 Su\u00e1rez, a 16-year old from San Felipe, Venezuela. The three shortstops are Carlos Vielma (16, from Bobures, Venezuela), F\u00e9lix LeBron (17, La Haina, Dominican Republic) and Samuel Luis (16, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic).<\/p>\n
Keller said the pitching group \u201chas a chance to be a real strength of this class for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have a group generally speaking that they\u2019re tall, they\u2019re long, they have the physical attributes that we look for,\u201d Keller said. \u201cThe majority of them are athletic and they move well with their deliveries. And then they have stuff. I think for the first time that I can remember, we\u2019re signing a group where the majority of them have already touched 90 miles an hour and there is still room to grow with each and every one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all bring something unique to the table and they all have traits that we think can be developed into valuable members of our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are four 17-year-old pitchers in Roderick Ram\u00edrez (Dajab\u00f3n, Dominican Republic), Franchel Cris\u00f3stomo (Las Matas de Farf\u00e1n, Dominican Republic), Ronald Kelly (Cartagena, Colombia) and Erlyn Lauriano (San Pedro de Macor\u00eds, Dominican Republic) and four 16-year-old pitchers in Yordany Mart\u00e9 (Bonao, Dominican Republic), Emmanuel Rodr\u00edguez (Punta Cana, Dominican Republic), Jefferson Timaure (Barquisimeto, Venezuela) and Beinel Ad\u00f3n (San Pedro de Macor\u00eds, Dominican Republic).<\/p>\n
The group also includes 18-year-old Ander Guzm\u00e1n, who is from Guanajuato, Mexico.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood players come from everywhere, it\u2019s our job to identify them,\u201d Keller said. \u201cOur scout who lives in Panama was able to see (Guzm\u00e1n) play in a showcase. He brought him to our attention. We made a concerted effort to get data on him. Ultimately when we saw him we liked what we saw.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a little bit older but talented nonetheless. I think 2017 was the last time that we signed a Mexican-born player. This allows us to raise our profile in places where talented players are coming from, and Mexico is one of those places.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Graterol is a catcher by trade. \u201cBut he\u2019s more athletic than most catchers,\u201d said Chicago White Sox…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,48169,69379,69378,4,69380,396,2562],"class_list":{"0":"post-522685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-white-sox","11":"tag-chicagowhitesox","12":"tag-david-keller","13":"tag-fernando-graterol","14":"tag-international-signing-period","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-sebastian-romero","17":"tag-white-sox","18":"tag-whitesox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115902287973449138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}