Nice bit of research. Also interesting, the biggest success story of the bunch is from Colombia, not Venezuela or the DR where most of the big-namers are from.

Very interesting. Thanks for the post. It is high stakes lottery.

MLBprospect guide.com lists the following as amateur free agent signings in 2007. Note this includes players from Cuba, Japan, and Canada

Kelvin De Leon OF $1,100,000 2007 D.R.

Young Il-Jung RHP $1,000,000 2007 Korea

Julio Teheran RHP $850,000 2007 Colombia

Martin Perez LHP $580,000 2007 Venezuela

Jefry Marte 3B $550,000 2007 D.R.

Dae-Eun Rhee RHP $525,000 2007 Korea

Cesar Puello OF $400,000 2007 D.R.

Rymer Liriano OF $300,000 2007 D.R.

Esmailin Caridad RHP $175,000 2007 D.R.

Tomas Telis C $130,000 2007 Venezuela

Roman Mendez RHP $125,000 2007 D.R.

Wilfredo Boscan RHP $15,000 2007 Venezuela

Enrique Burgos RHP 2007 Panama

Arodys Vizcaino RHP 2007 D.R.

Dimasther Delgado LHP 2007 Panama

Chris Jakubauskas RHP 2007 amateur free agent

Michael Almanzar 3B 2007 D.R.

Hideki Okajima LHP 2007 Japan

Che-Hsuan Lin OF 2007 Taiwan

Junior Lake SS 2007 D.R.

Kosuke Fukudome CF 2007 Japan

Larry Suarez RHP 2007 Venezuela

Alexei Ramirez SS 2007 Cuba

CJ Retherford 3B 2007 NDFA

Juan Duran OF 2007 D.R.

Mariekson Gregorius SS 2007 Netherlands

Jason Smit SS 2007 Austrailia

Alexander Perez RHP 2007 D.R.

Gustavo Nunez SS 2007 D.R.

Avisail Garcia OF 2007 Venezuela

Yuniesky Betancourt SS 2007 Cuba

Tim Collins LHP 2007 NDFA

Jean Segura 2B 2007 D.R.

Manny Correa RHP 2007 D.R.

Fabio Martinez RHP 2007 D.R.

Alexi Amarista SS 2007 Venezuela

Pedro Baez 3B 2007 D.R.

Hiroki Kuroda RHP 2007 Japan

Santos Arias RHP 2007 D.R.

Adrian Salcedo RHP 2007 D.R.

Daniel Santana SS 2007 D.R.

Scott Diamond LHP 2007 NDFA

Oswaldo Arcia OF 2007 Venezuela

Jenrry Mejia RHP 2007 D.R.

Jordany Valdespin 2B 2007 D.R.

Jeurys Familia RHP 2007 D.R.

Francisco Pena C 2007 D.R.

Wilmer Flores SS 2007 Venezuela

Jose Ramirez RHP 2007 D.R.

Arnold Leon RHP 2007 Mexico

Leandro Castro OF 2007 D.R.

Starling Marte OF 2007 D.R.

Masahide Kobayashi RHP 2007 amateur free agent

Yasuhiko Yabuta RHP 2007 amateur free agent

Jonathan Galvez SS 2007 D.R.

Edinson Rincon 3B 2007 D.R.

Gabriel Noriega SS 2007 Venezuela

Jorge Bucardo RHP 2007 Nicaragua

Richard Castillo RHP 2007 Venezuela

Alexander Colome RHP 2007 D.R.

Wilking Rodriguez RHP 2007 Venezuela

Leury Garcia SS 2007 D.R.

Manny Solis 3B 2007 D.R.

Eury Perez OF 2007 D.R.

Marcos Frias RHP 2007 D.R.

I basically tried to make the same point on Twitter tonight. For one, the Yankees haven't exactly been world beaters when it comes to the IFA market anyway. But this strategy is going to prove costly in my opinion. Luckily for them, cost is no issue. This certainly isn't going to turn their farm into anything special. They'd have been better off to take all the preps that fell in the draft and forfeit draft picks.