A Look Back at the 06 IFA draft

Mystery Men on dvd With the IFA signing period coming up July 2nd, I wanted to take a look back at a prior year to get a sense of how many of these guys ever get to see MLB action. Lets look at 2006. It’s a year that is already bearing fruit for the 06 Yankee draft with Joba Chamberlain (Supplemental) Ian Kennedy (1st round) Dave Robertson (17th round) and Mark Melancon (9th round) all having seen some action in the bigs.  IFA’s tend to be both younger and older than MLB draftees, with some older players coming from Cuba and others are 16 year old kids from the Dominican and Venezuela. 06 is the first year that I thought was fair to even look at, though some of these guys are still too young to draw any final conclusions about.

Here’s a complete list  of the 2006 IFAs-

Dominican Republic:
Angel Villalona, 3B, Giants, $2,100,000
Esmailyn Gonzalez, SS, Nationals, $1,400,000
Carlos Triunfel, SS, Mariners, $1,300,000
Francisco Pena, C, Mets, $750,000
Engel Beltre, OF, Red Sox, $600,000
Oscar Tejada, SS, Red Sox, $525,000
Manuel Solis, 3B, Rangers, $525,000

Carlos Martinez Urena, OF, Yankees, $350,000

Javier Rodriguez, OF, Mariners, $280,000
Damian Taveras, 2B, Yankees, $200,000
Rey Lebron, OF, Mariners, $200,000

Venezuela:
Jesus Montero, C, Yankees, $1,600,000
Larry Suarez, RHP, Cubs, $850,000
Balbino Fuenmayor, 3B, Blue Jays, $725,000
Mario Martinez, OF, Mariners, $600,000

Jose Pirela, SS, New York Yankees, $300,000
Ricardo Ferrer, P, Rockies, $250,000
Pedro Viloria, LHP, Padres, $160,000

Cuba:
Juan Miranda, 1B/OF, Yankees, $2,000,000
Yoslan Herrera, RHP, Pirates, $1,950,000
Yohannis Perez, SS, Brewers, $450,000
Serguey Linares, RHP, Pirates, $125,000
Duniesky Rodriguez, RHP, Braves, $100,000
Yunesky Sanchez, IF, Diamondbacks, $40,000

Australia:
Jason Smit, SS, Indians, $350,000
Josh Wells, RHP, Blue Jays, $200,000

Korea:
Young Il Jung, RHP, Angels, $1,000,000

Taiwan:
Tseng-Seung Wei, RHP, Indians, $350,000
Sheng-An Kuo, RHP, Rockies, $150-200,000

The Netherlands:
Kalian Sams, OF, Mariners, $75,000
Ramon Romeijn, P, Mariners, $92,000

The highly touted Angel Vollalona seems to be right on track at 18 years old, in A-Ball and performing well. Jose Pirela is showing some promise for the Yankees in Low-A this season, Yoslan Herrera has spent some time with the Pirates and appears ready to return, Yenesky Sanchez appears to be a solid signing for the D-Backs, Juan Miranda could play for a MLB team right now as a DH or part of a platoon. Outside of those 6, the rest have either not performed or are still playing at too low a level to take seriously.

But Jesus Montero appears to be the star of the class, reaching AA by age 19 and climbing to #38 overall according to Baseball America. One thing this recap shows is just how exceptional Jesus Montero is, and how good the Yankee scouts did in recognizing his talent at such an early age.  Also, of the 6 who are still noteworthy three years later, 3 are Yankees. Kudos to their international scouting for such a high rate of success.