Thread: Juan Carlos Oviedo suspended

From article:

Oviedo was caught playing under the fake name of Leo Nunez and spent the offseason in the Dominican Republic clearing up his immigration status. He said Friday he had received a visa from the U.S. government and would be in Florida on Monday.

Now 30, a year older than previously listed, he played as Nunez for seven major league seasons and had 36 saves and a 4.06 ERA in 68 games for the Marlins in 2011.

full article - http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/79...weeks-id-fraud

Roberto Hernandez, a.k.a. Fausto Carmona, is also trying to receive a pardon from the Dominican and get his visa back.

Dominican started background checking these guys this year. Wouldn't surprise me if there are others, who stole identities to show that they were younger than they actually were.

The guy named in the thread I started is only 1 year older than the fake name/age he was using. I wonder if there is more to it than the age difference, as I can not see where 1 year older would make a difference.

Originally Posted by Denver Native (Carol)

The guy named in the thread I started is only 1 year older than the fake name/age he was using. I wonder if there is more to it than the age difference, as I can not see where 1 year older would make a difference.

The Royals signed Nunez at "16" to a fat contract, which is typical, because rules say they have to wait until they are 16. If he had been 17, the money would have been less. Even just the one year. The name is that of a close friend of his, who was younger.

Carmona is actually three years older.

This is the first year MLB has restricted how much money can be sent on contracts of players from Latin America, and then the Dominican started checking identities. They are trying to cut back on the shady goings on with baseball and Latin America in the past.

Ruben Sierra played for years, and there's always been speculation he was much older than he was listed. He played into his 40s, but he looked older.

A study I just uncovered after reading Rany Jazayerli's recent Royals draft column. He's a founder of Baseball Prospectus and a Royals fan. The article is from the Economist about this year's No. 1 pick Correa. Within it is a link to Jazayerli's initial article on BP two years ago about the importance of how young a top prospect is, as it relates to the draft. I would imagine the same principle applies to Latin America as well.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gamet...-amateur-draft