Twins/Phillies Open Dominican Academies

[Seth Stohs]

Dave St. Peter and Andy MacPhail stood with many people from the Dominican baseball leagues and MLB to unveil their new baseball academy in Boca Chica.

 

We had head from Darren Wolfson that Thad Levine was also there, along with the likes of Ervin Santana, Danny Santana and Jorge Polanco.  

 

Here is the press release followed by a tweet showing how cool and well down the academy is.

 

Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies Debut
Dominican Republic Baseball Academy

The Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies announced today the completion of their new shared baseball academy in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, with a grand opening celebration held at the site.  The $18 million, 85,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility is housed on 45 acres.  Prospects for both teams will reside and train at the academy, participate in an education program and take part in a cultural development program.

 

Attendees at today’s celebration included Danilo Diaz (Minister of Sports); Ricardo Noboa (Commissioner of Dominican Baseball); Juan Francisco Puello Herrera (President of Caribbean Baseball Federation); Orlando Diaz (President of Dominican Summer League); Leonardo Matos Berrido (President of Dominican Winter League); Winston Llenas (President of Aguilas Baseball Club); Kim Ng (Senior Vice President, Baseball Operations, Major League Baseball); Rafael Perez (Director of Dominican Republic Operations, Major League Baseball) and executive leadership from both the Twins and Phillies. The event was emceed by Yancen Pujols (Sports Editor, Periodico El Caribe).

 

“The Minnesota Twins are proud to be in partnership with the Philadelphia Phillies organization on the development of this state-of-the-art player complex in the Dominican Republic,” Twins President & CEO Dave St. Peter said.  “We are grateful to so many dedicated staff and partners who have helped make this academy a reality.  The vision for this facility is rooted in the personal and physical development of our players.  Clearly, the Dominican Republic is a vital source for talent and a community of great importance to our respective organizations.”

 

“Today is an exciting day for the Phillies and the Twins and for the future of our respective franchises,” said Phillies President Andy MacPhail.  “This new facility allows both teams to provide on-field training and development, off-the-field cultural development and educational advancement, all of which are vital to becoming a successful baseball player in the United States.”

 

Each side of the academy includes three full-sized fields, bullpen mounds, agility field, covered batting cages, dormitory space for up to 78 prospects, dining hall, weight room, training room, video coaching room and three classrooms for English language and Spanish instruction in multiple high school level topics.  Additionally, the Twins and Phillies will share a kitchen facility, an auditorium consisting of 98 theater-style seats and a maintenance building.

As an added element to the unveiling of the joint academy, the Twins and Phillies have made a financial contribution to show their commitment and thanks to the great neighboring community.  These funds will purchase “team kits” that will be given to local under-resourced teams from “Fundacion ENED.”  Pitch In For Baseball has assisted in purchasing, packaging and shipping all the kits to the DR.

 

 

https://twitter.com/Twins/status/821381516588617730 

[Thrylos]

Nice.  Looks a lot like what the Twins have down in Fort Myers (other that Hammond Stadium of course.) 

[bird]

It's somewhat ironic that Andy MacPhail is touting this major accomplishment on behalf of the Phillies. He was successful way back when (with a great deal of help from Billy Smith and the support and influence of Jim Pohlad) in finally convincing Carl Pohlad to open the pursestrings to establish a competitive budget devoted to building the international infrastructure. This new facility is the culmination of efforts that started a long time ago, and should put a seed of doubt in anyone's mind who is convinced that the Twins lack a commitment regarding building via IFA. This new facility should have a more noticeable impact than perhaps a lot of the other critical components of their buildup of capacity (scouting personnel and relationship-building in the DR most importantly).

[goulik]

Very cool! My church has been on mission trips to help Dominican Churches. My wife and I have both gone along and have a special passion for the DR. It is amazing how much they love baseball down there. These baseball facilities and the MLB investments seem to us to be a very good thing as most of those young prospects never leave the island. The education down there is not free for everyone so the High School classes and English language classes are very beneficial even if they don't make it in baseball.

[cmoss84]

Working at that facility as an educator would be my dream job. My wife has family in Haiti/The D R and we just got back from a trip-was fantastic. I'm a teacher and ex-ball player so this job would be a blast. Looks like a great place to train and learn for these prospects. 

[Seth Stohs]

Dustin Morse took a couple of pictures from the site:

 

 

 

Good to see that Miguel Sano was there:

 

 

[DocBauer]

I wouldn't even pretend to know what other ML clubs do as far as facilities here and around the globe, except for when I hear or read a particular news release. But the TWINS have always struck me as a team that did things very well from Ft Myers to Venezuela, Puerto Rico and now this complex. There seems to have been long standing efforts to really take care of prospects, their development and education and overall quality of life experience once a part of the organization. Which also frustrates me at times when I feel they lack coaches and instructors at the ML and milb levels at times that have a Latin background to continue to assist and develop said young men. Or the embracing of information and metrics...of which I am not always the strongest proponent of but still see value...within the scouting department.

 

I think this is an example of an organization that wants to continue and grow. And I do believe further changes are forthcoming with our new administration. If you aren't a top market, wealthy team, it only makes sense to be aggressive and forward thinking in other areas of finding, signing and developing prospects.

[Thrylos]

 

I wouldn't even pretend to know what other ML clubs do as far as facilities here and around the globe, except for when I hear or read a particular news release. But the TWINS have always struck me as a team that did things very well from Ft Myers to Venezuela, Puerto Rico and now this complex. 

 

 

This is really state of the art.  You can actually see most of the other facilities and academies in DR.  

 

Here.

 

Click on aerial view and zoom in and out.  Then zoom out and move a bit to the west and north and then over to the east.  Zoom in the things that look like baseball diamonds from the sky.  You can see pretty much all of the current facilities.  Compare what you see then with the picture in the Twins tweet above in the OP.  Night and day. 

 

 

 

[diehardtwinsfan]

I've spent my last two vacations in the DR.  You wear a Twins hat there and the locals notice. I found that very amusing... 

[DocBauer]

I've spent my last two vacations in the DR.  You wear a Twins hat there and the locals notice. I found that very amusing...

 

Thanks for your comment as well as the share from you, Thrylos. All of this leads me back to my previous comments, and comments I have made in previous posts on TD.

 

I love the Twins, heaven help me, lol, and have been a devoted fan for 45 years. (51yo if you are counting) I've been with them through thick and thin. While never having time or patience to examine the modern day metrics others embrace, I have followed the ML club and milb clubs and drafts, etc, with passion and detail. And the past few years, I've been very proud of the global moves they have made in regard to scouting and signings. They have been, IMO, borderline cutting edge in regards to such, and the building of facilities such as this, along with the amazing complex at Ft Myers.

 

What has driven me crazy the past couple of years though, is the feeling that the organization, as a whole, is bi-polar. I wholly applaud this latest endeavor and complex. I think it's amazing people in the DR recognize and applaud the Twins there. The Twins have made great inroads abroad, including what they do in Ft Myers. But the feeling I have, is they seem to stop at that point. Is there some rule that states you can't have multiple milb roving instructors? The new Twins should be concentrating on what other teams don't do. They should have, at every level, including the ML level, a Latin background coach, or at the least, a roving instructors, pitching, batting, catching, etc, who is Latin. Do what nobody else does. Be on the cutting edge.

[Thrylos]

 

Thanks for your comment as well as the share from you, Thrylos. All of this leads me back to my previous comments, and comments I have made in previous posts on TD.

I love the Twins, heaven help me, lol, and have been a devoted fan for 45 years. (51yo if you are counting) I've been with them through thick and thin. While never having time or patience to examine the modern day metrics others embrace, I have followed the ML club and milb clubs and drafts, etc, with passion and detail. And the past few years, I've been very proud of the global moves they have made in regard to scouting and signings. They have been, IMO, borderline cutting edge in regards to such, and the building of facilities such as this, along with the amazing complex at Ft Myers.

What has driven me crazy the past couple of years though, is the feeling that the organization, as a whole, is bi-polar. I wholly applaud this latest endeavor and complex. I think it's amazing people in the DR recognize and applaud the Twins there. The Twins have made great inroads abroad, including what they do in Ft Myers. But the feeling I have, is they seem to stop at that point. Is there some rule that states you can't have multiple milb roving instructors? The new Twins should be concentrating on what other teams don't do. They should have, at every level, including the ML level, a Latin background coach, or at the least, a roving instructors, pitching, batting, catching, etc, who is Latin. Do what nobody else does. Be on the cutting edge.

 

Agreed.  Latinos are under represented in the field and front office staff in the organization.   Based on what I have seen from Falvey & Levine, 2017 looks like a full assessment season with 2018 starting the real rebuild.   I hope that it happens then.

[crapforks]

There seems to be ~50 parking spots there. 

[Doomtints]

 

finally convincing Carl Pohlad to open the pursestrings to establish a competitive budget devoted to building the international infrastructure.

 

Once you get outside of the touristy areas, the poverty in DR has to be seen to be understood. Building this facility probably cost the organization very little, particularly since they are splitting the cost with another team. They probably spent about as much to build this as it would have cost to hire one or two employees in the front office. I don't see much called out by St. Peter or MacPhail about the conditions in DR in their speeches, which is surprising.

 

A cynic would call this exploitation. But I'm holding out hope that the Twins mission here is to truly help the youth on the island who have few options available to them, to foster good citizenship rather than be used solely as a factory for talent. I hope the Twins take advantage of this opportunity to to a great thing.

 

This gives the Twins a great avenue for sending staff and players from the MLB club to the DR once a year or so to do community projects. Building houses, immunization campaigns, digging wells, teaching a class, whatever. There is a lot of help that is needed. It also gives the local youth who might not be future baseball stars the avenue to contribute to building the infrastructure of their own country.

[drjim]

Concur on the DR poverty and the hope that it allows for some outreach opportunities. Or at the very least, plenty of organizations go through, should be an opportunity for partnership.

[bird]

 

Once you get outside of the touristy areas, the poverty in DR has to be seen to be understood. Building this facility probably cost the organization very little, particularly since they are splitting the cost with another team. They probably spent about as much to build this as it would have cost to hire one or two employees in the front office. I don't see much called out by St. Peter or MacPhail about the conditions in DR in their speeches, which is surprising.

 

A cynic would call this exploitation. But I'm holding out hope that the Twins mission here is to truly help the youth on the island who have few options available to them, to foster good citizenship rather than be used solely as a factory for talent. I hope the Twins take advantage of this opportunity to to a great thing.

 

This gives the Twins a great avenue for sending staff and players from the MLB club to the DR once a year or so to do community projects. Building houses, immunization campaigns, digging wells, teaching a class, whatever. There is a lot of help that is needed. It also gives the local youth who might not be future baseball stars the avenue to contribute to building the infrastructure of their own country.

 

 

Very good point to bring up. The greed involved in MLB takes so much of the luster away for me. The fans screaming for their team to shell out tens of millions for a single player. The filthy-rich agents and players, who often appear less appreciative than we'd like. And of course, the never-satiated organizations.

 

I don't have a clue what the annual operating costs of the facility will be, but probably not that much more than the cumulative salaries of the Dominican-born players in the Twins system. What would be really gratifying in my view would be a high-profile, MLB player-led effort to improve conditions in the DR, one that includes bona fide efforts on their part, with the help of their agencies, to fund-raise, not just cut an occasional check. After all, they represent about what, 20% of team rosters? They'd ake a difference awareness-wise for sure.

[bird]

 

There seems to be ~50 parking spots there. 

 

And still, no one's double-parked.

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

Concur on the DR poverty and the hope that it allows for some outreach opportunities. Or at the very least, plenty of organizations go through, should be an opportunity for partnership.

 

yeah, poverty there is pretty rough.  Even in the so called vacation areas, you don't have to go far to see it.  It's even worse on the other side of the island.

 

But that said, just building the facility is a good thing from that side of things. It will keep people employed... I guarantee you though that it was likely very inexpensive to build.

[drjim]

 

yeah, poverty there is pretty rough.  Even in the so called vacation areas, you don't have to go far to see it.  It's even worse on the other side of the island.

 

But that said, just building the facility is a good thing from that side of things. It will keep people employed... I guarantee you though that it was likely very inexpensive to build.

 

I never had a chance to see the resort side, spent my time up in the hills or next to the sugar fields with Haitian refugees. Now that is poverty.

 

It was certainly cheap to build and it will be cheap to keep staffed. So on the plus side it will create some local jobs.