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Unraveling Like a Greek Tragedy

Edgy DC Feb 19 2009 02:01 PM

Stan Kasten, not happy. Leading Nationals prospect from DR faked age, name By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Sports Writer Feb 18, 9:22 pm EST AP - Feb 18, 6:25 pm EST MLB Gallery VIERA, Fla. (AP)—A top baseball prospect from the Dominican Republic who received a $1.4 million signing bonus from the Washington Nationals lied about his age and name in what team president Stan Kasten called “an elaborate scheme.” “I’m angry. I’m very angry. We’ve been defrauded,” Kasten said Wednesday. “And make no mistake: This wasn’t a college kid with a fake ID.” <img src="http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20090218/capt.7095e8c97ba4481296faa7a99383dea9.nationals_fake_age_name_baseball_ny165.jpg" align="right">“This was a deliberate, premeditated fraud” that involved bribes, along with falsified hospital and school records, Kasten said. In July 2006, to much fanfare, the Nationals signed a 16-year-old shortstop named Esmailyn “Smiley” Gonzalez and held a news conference at which general manager Jim Bowden compared the player to Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith. Still known as Gonzalez, he wound up leading the rookie-level Gulf Coast League with a .343 batting average in 2008 and was honored as the league’s MVP. But while the Nationals have been listing his date of birth as Sept. 21, 1989—which would make him 19 now—Kasten said Wednesday that a Major League Baseball investigation determined Gonzalez is actually Carlos David Alvarez Lugo, born in November 1985—meaning he is really 23. “This is going to have serious repercussions,” said Kasten, who spoke to reporters after SI.com first reported on Gonzalez/Lugo. “I have people examining all possible avenues of recourse, with regards to any legal and financial concerns.” While Kasten said there were “a number of people involved” in the hoax, he would not say whether anyone employed by the Nationals is suspected of playing a role. “I’m not going to say anything right now while the investigation continues,” Kasten said. As for the player, Kasten said: “This is a big difference between being a 16-year-old and a 20-year-old. Do I know what his future holds as a baseball player? I don’t. I would say clearly he remains a prospect—but I would say a very different kind of prospect—today. I’m not prepared to say what is going to happen in his career just yet.” He would be scheduled to report to Nationals minor league camp March 13. “I didn’t know anything about this. I never had any indication that he was anyone other than Esmailyn. I feel bad for the organization, and I feel bad for the kid,” the player’s agent, Stanley King, said in a telephone interview. King, who also represents Nationals starting shortstop Cristian Guzman, said he hadn’t spoken to Gonzalez since the story broke. “This thing is unraveling like a Greek tragedy,” King said. Jose Rijo, a special assistant to Bowden, was credited with spotting Gonzalez in the Dominican about two years before the Nationals signed him. “I loved him from the beginning,” Rijo said Wednesday in the home clubhouse at Space Coast Stadium, where the Nationals hold spring training. While New York-based agent Rob Plummer was responsible for negotiating on Gonzalez’s behalf with other major league teams in 2006, talks with the Nationals were done strictly by Basilio Vizcaino, a “buscon”—a middleman who often trains players in Latin America with the hope of getting a share of the money if the athletes sign with major league organizations. Plummer, who specializes in representing baseball players from the Dominican Republic, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he had heard about two years ago that Gonzalez used a fake age. “I found out that Gonzalez was four or five years older, but nobody asked me about it. By then, I was no longer involved,” Plummer said. Plummer and King—who began representing Gonzalez five or six months after he signed with the Nationals—both said neither the Nationals nor Major League Baseball contacted them in the course of the recent investigation. Kasten said MLB is responsible for checking the documents of Latin American prospects and that Gonzalez was given the OK—twice, both at the time of his signing and then again in 2007 after Kasten said he heard rumors of “irregularities … whether it was the amount of money or where the money wound up going or whatnot.” In recent years, several players in the majors and minors such as Miguel Tejada, Rafael Furcal and Bartolo Colon were found to be older than originally thought. Most of the discrepancies involved players from Latin American countries, and were discovered when visas, birth certificates and other documentation were checked more closely following the Sept. 11 attacks. “In the Dominican, you never know. You just never know anymore. That (stuff has) been going on for so long,” Rijo, the 1990 World Series MVP for the Cincinnati Reds, said of players lying about their ages. Asked whether he had ever seen Gonzalez’s documents, Rijo said: “You see a document, but you’re going to see a real or a fake one, anyway. It doesn’t matter. But you’ve got to go through Major League Baseball before you can get the kid to sign. “ Shortly after those comments, the Nationals announced that Kasten would be the only member of the organization, including Bowden, who would speak about the matter. Bowden met last year with FBI investigators looking into an alleged scam involving skimming signing bonuses for prospects from the Dominican Republic. Kasten credited MLB’s department of investigations—established after a recommendation in the Mitchell Report—with uncovering the hoax. “It was kind of amazing how we finally broke through and got someone to confess,” Kasten said, “and then the dominoes started falling.

Farmer Ted Feb 19 2009 03:15 PM

Where's Danny Almonte when you need a good quote?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Feb 19 2009 04:47 PM

Analogy time! WATER:ICE::JIM BOWDEN:______ A) ISAIAH THOMAS B) MATT MILLEN C) BRIAN SABEAN D) VINNY CERRATO E) WHATEVER GLORIOUS, TERRIBLE CREATURE COMES FROM GIVING AN ADMIXTURE OF THE ABOVE PERSONS’ BLOOD A CHOCOLATE SWIRLY, THEN IMPLANTING THAT IN THE DESSICATED, PRESERVED WOMB OF MARGE SCHOTT

Number 6 Feb 19 2009 08:43 PM

OK. Given that age is obviously a huge factor in an analysis of any player, and in setting expectations in player development, stuff like this is a huge deal. I've always felt that a team should have legal recourse to recover any money invested in prospects who falsify their ages, but I don't remember ever reading about this being done. Has it happened, and I've missed it?

Edgy DC Feb 19 2009 09:09 PM

But recover it from whom? The money has brobably been split a dozen ways, spent nine times over, and under the protection of a foreign jurisdiction. The players family may still have some of the bread, and that may be uncoverable (along with the possilbity of fingering some others) if the league threatens to blackball the player. But they're probably not the most culpable and likely the most vulnerable.

Number 6 Feb 20 2009 12:52 AM

Yeah, those are good points. With all that in mind, it's easy to see why it could be more trouble than it's worth to try and source back the money and collect. If that's not an option, though, I would think that a revelation like this should at least affect any further payment doled out under the existing contract. I'm completely speculating, of course... but with the number of times this has happened over the years, I would think that teams would put language in these contracts to protect themselves. Or that, even without the particular language, the team could legally declare the contract void, as it was signed under false pretenses. I know that the law doesn't always match up with justice, of course, but for all intents and purposes, the Nationals are now paying a completely different person than they signed. How could they be expected to honor that contract?

Frayed Knot Feb 20 2009 05:32 AM

="Number 6"]OK. Given that age is obviously a huge factor in an analysis of any player, and in setting expectations in player development, stuff like this is a huge deal. I've always felt that a team should have legal recourse to recover any money invested in prospects who falsify their ages, but I don't remember ever reading about this being done. Has it happened, and I've missed it? Not long after the success of El Duque, the Yanx decided that inking Cuban emigrees was a cost-efficient talent pipeline and signed a bunch of them. When one turned out to be not nearly the player they thought they were getting they suddenly "discovered" he was older than he claimed and took legal action as a way to get out of the multi-year deal they had given him. Kind of a slimy maneuver really after publicly ignoring the gap in Duque's real and supposed ages -- "We're shocked, SHOCKED to discover that there's age fudging going on around here"! -- but, of course, he started winning games for them almost immediately. IIRC they settled for something in between the full amount and whatever they had already paid they guy prior to getting buyer's remorse. Would be a bit tougher to recoup a one-time bonus check already issued (if that's what it is in this case) and, as I'm sure most lawyers would tell you, it's not very worthwhile to sue a poor person.

Edgy DC Feb 20 2009 05:33 AM

Because at this point in the contract, the player has all the cards. The bonus money has been spent, and he's currently got a lot more to give them --- a still young skilled player of some worth --- then they're giving him, which is a crappy minor league salary to puny to mention. So if I was the Nats and pulled out of the contract, I'd want to be certain that no other MLB team could cash him in, but that's collusion, and may not be legal.

Number 6 Feb 20 2009 03:33 PM

Maybe it's foolish, but if I represented the Nats I'd be inclined to release him anyway and refuse to pay the remainder of the contract, even if it is puny. The huge age difference transforms the player from "good prospect" to "fringe prospect," and there are enough of the latter lying around that cutting bait to make a point would be tempting. While I'm not sure that the point would accomplish much in the way of change, Bowden and staff were taken for an expensive ride by this guy and I'd have a hard time just leaving things the way they are.

Edgy DC Feb 20 2009 05:52 PM

I'm certain they don't intend to leave things the way they are. What I'm less certain about is what the next obvious course of action. Certainly washing their hands of him is a viable action, but they may do well to sleep on it and consider all their options. I imagine what they owe him is nothing. Minor leaguers have next to no rights. They get cut loose and they get maybe a ticket home.

Edgy DC Mar 02 2009 10:01 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Mar 04 2009 09:38 PM

Kat O'Brien gives us something I'd like to get used to --- investigative sports journalism from <i>Newsday</i> --- as she looks at exploitative Dominican agents, or <i>buscones</i>. She references a <i>Sports Illustrated</i> report that I had missed (as I get 90% of my baseball news here), noting that Jim Bowden and Jose Rijo are possilble targets of an FBI investigation into the Smiley Gonzalez affair. If the implication is that their pockets were lined in a transaction that they knew defrauded their own team, this could get butt ugly. <blockquote>Dominican baseball agents skim players' bonuses BY KAT O'BRIEN | <i><a href="mailto:kat.obrien@newsday.com">kat.obrien@newsday.com</a></i> March 2, 2009 <table align="right" cellspacing="5"><tr><td bgcolor="gray" align="center"><img src="http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/blog/obrien120.jpg"><br><font size="1">Kat O'Brien</td></tr></table>SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - "Why doesn't anybody do anything about the buscones? I get that steroids are a big problem, but the buscones are a much bigger problem here." That was the query of a Major League Baseball official in the Dominican Republic last week. Steroids, the ease with which they can be purchased and their prevalence in the Dominican Republic, snatch up all the headlines in the United States. But for many involved in baseball here, "buscones" (pronounced boos-CONE-ays) are a much bigger concern. The word has taken on a negative connotation, given that many buscones are considered hustlers. The Dominican Republic is not subject to MLB's amateur draft, and the only real rule is that players cannot sign until July 2 the year they turn 16. A buscon is an unofficial scout/agent who finds players before they are old enough to sign with major-league teams, then works out an agreement with the player's family to prepare him to sign in return for a portion of his signing bonus. He'll get the teenager tryouts, watch his development, and perhaps even buy him food and equipment. In theory, it's just exchanging services for money. In reality, though, many buscones take a huge cut of the player's bonus, perhaps 50 percent or more. Often, the player doesn't even know just how much money he should be receiving. "The buscones are brutal," said one major-league scout who has worked in the Dominican for decades. "There are only about two or three I know that are clean, and there are a thousand there. That's become a real problem. There are a lot of them that are slimy and under the table." The problem of skimming bonuses is finally attracting international attention, though not because of the buscones' actions. Instead, it is getting headlines because major-league executives and scouts are being investigated for stealing kids' bonuses. Sports Illustrated's Melissa Segura reported last week that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the actions of Jim Bowden, who resigned yesterday as the Nationals' general manager, and Jose Rijo, who was fired as Bowden's special assistant Thursday. SI had reported that the player the Nationals gave a club-record, $1.4-million signing bonus in 2006, Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo, who was 20, posed as a 16-year-old named Esmailyn Gonzalez. The Nationals closed their academy (owned by Rijo) in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, and will begin training today in Boca Chica, near the Santo Domingo airport. Major League Baseball is also investigating Bowden and Rijo. Bowden denied any wrongdoing yesterday at a quickly called news conference, but he resigned to avoid causing further distractions. In a release, he said: "I am disappointed by the media reports regarding investigations into any of my professional activities. There have been no charges made, and there has been no indication that parties have found any wrongdoing on my part." Bowden and Rijo are not the only team officials to have come under fire. The White Sox fired senior director of player personnel David Wilder and two Dominican-based scouts last year after allegations they had skimmed signing bonuses. The Yankees also fired two scouts. A longtime scout in the Dominican estimated that half the teams have similar problems. "There's a lot of shady doings - sign a player for $100,000 and $40,000 is going back to the scout who signed him," he said. "Stuff like that. All of that's been going on for years." The scout described scenarios in which a buscon might tell a player to sign with one team in exchange for a kickback from that club. He might never tell the player that another club had offered more money. Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano said most players fork over a huge portion of their bonus to their buscon. Cano lucked out in that he never used one. His father, who played briefly for the Astros, helped him get noticed. Buscones are plentiful at games, professional and amateur, in the Dominican. One such buscon, while wincing at the term, defended his work. Ezequiel Villabuena, who works with 14- to 17-year-olds in Santo Domingo, said: "I spend a year and a half, or more in some cases, investing in these kids. You reap what you sow. I put a lot of time and money into it. A lot of times the good players come from very bad conditions. Some buscones collect too much of the bonuses. I think 10 to 15, even 20 percent, is OK, but there are people who take in excess of that." The Dominican government says it does not have the resources to impose or enforce any law regarding the percentage of a signing bonus a buscon should receive. But the money on the line is growing. Baseball America lists the 10 largest international signing bonuses, and all are $2 million or above, with the Athletics giving 16-year-old Dominican pitcher Michel Inoa a $4.25-million contract last year. With the stakes rising, perhaps baseball will finally try to step in. Baseball in the Dominican Republic has come under the microscope since Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez said his cousin obtained over-the-counter steroids for him there and that he had engaged in steroid use from 2001-03. He tested positive in 2003. <i>Kat O'Brien, Newsday's Yankees beat writer, visited the Dominican Republic this week, and this is her report from the scene.</i></blockquote>

Number 6 Mar 04 2009 06:55 PM

[url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/melissa_segura/03/02/dr.investigators/index.html:1whqtou0]Here's another article[/url:1whqtou0], this time by Melissa Segura of SI. She talks some about how prevalent bribing can be, as the money goes quite far (paying off an entire town to frustrate investigators, for example). She also talks a little bit about how the investigations into possible fraud are conducted, which, unsurprisingly, could be classified as "poorly."