I wonder how much consideration AA gave to the cultural aspect of the off-season moves. Adding 3 more DR players to the field...and Izturius is Venezualen. Our batting order starts with 4 DR players now. We now have 10 in total mostly skewed to the top of the depth chart. The tigers come second in DR representation with 7 and those players aren't nearly as vital to their team as ours. There's a couple more teams with 6. But no other team comes close to having 4 DR players at the top of their batting order. If Boni ends up playing second base we'll have 5 DR bats in our starting lineup. Has that ever even happened before?

You can see how the Raptors have intended to cash in on recruiting/signing/drafting European players. I think there's some of the same things in both cases. For one, there's always going to be some American-born players that simply don't want to move to Canada. European basketball players and West Indian baseball players are ALREADY leaving their home country. So it can even out an inherited disadvantage that Toronto has in competing in US dominated leagues. And with our city having so many different communities in it....there's individual cases where it can become an advantage for us in negotiating for non-US players. It's a valid strategy for a Canadian team and the Jays did the same thing in the 80's.

It also has the potential of creating a sense of identity on the team. And that can become a re-inforcing advantage....If the Jays have success....it might become enticing for other DR players to want to play here. Cheaper contracts and cooperative agents. We could end up being the DR all-star team. There's also the consideration that players from the same baseball culture will have better chemistry on the field....comeraderie...team spirit.

Can't wait for the season. And good on ya Heinz for mentioning Dickey and Melky as possibilities before we got em.