With the signing of Amaurys Minier, this is timely. Amazing how that can work...Passan has some excellent reporting and gives background on recruiting in the Dominican Republic, the conditions that Sano grew up in and a mini review of the documentary “Ballplayer: Pelotero.” There are some good nuggets on the back story of how the Pirates lost him and how the Twins swooped in. I am looking forward to seeing this documentary and from what I read Dominican Youth Baseball is run as a mafia cartel. This movie and reporting like this looks to shine some light on the corruption and shady practices that are happening there. I hope it has the same impact as <em>The Jungle </em>had on the meat packing industry. It also shows just how desperate these families are to get out of the sickening poverty that is their reality.

"Everything the movie says is true," Sano said. "That's how it happened. They took me to New York to watch it on a big screen. I was surprised. Everything was the same. Everything we went through."

Also it says that TR wants Sano to stop gaining weight. So he is eating shrimp and veggies. Happy to hear that Sano seems to be a good kid who is working hard. Hope he keeps hitting. He had another HR yesterday for 18 on the year and had a double today. Maybe now that movie is out he can just focus on baseball. Its possible this was a distraction that helped contribute to his slump that he is just now breaking out of.

Direct Link:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/story-of-miguel-sano-chronicles-ugly--sleazy-side-of-baseball-s-dominican-talent-pipeline.html;_ylt=AjK3mdKHLTadGOxR5nSZWn05nYcB