When talking about Ugandan baseball, you can't leave out that Uganda has made the Little League World Series twice in 2012 and 2015! Matoma wasn't old enough to be on either team but Uganda still has probably the most established grounds for playing baseball in Africa
BY FAR the biggest thing holding Uganda back is funding; there are many teenagers in the country throwing around 90 mph without professional coaching (Matoma himself added about 10 mph after getting this), and most of them will never get seen because despite qualifying for World Cup tournaments at different age levels, they can never afford to travel.
He mentions him a few times though 😅 He talked about how he didn’t have a sustained run and how it would be cool to see Matoma stay around long enough to be a star !
Just for some more background on Juan Valera, He’s shot up to No. 24 on soxprospects (Best and most up to date Boston prospect rankings imo) this month after starting the year outside of the top 60. A few guys above him will definitely graduate early next year or are rule 5 eligible so I could see him continuing to rise fast.
I just went to a shorebirds game last week, and saw Juan Valera pitch against us, dude has some great stuff and was basically untouchable for all 4 innings he pitched. Only one walk and 8 strikeouts. Crazy he’s not viewed as highly as he should be rn
love alan roden. traded for him in ootp, was a serviceable corner OFer, unfortunately he experienced a season ending leg injury in a home plate collision, hopefully his career doesnt follow that lol
Always awesome to see recognition for prospects from more obscure international countries! Matoma of course, the Pirates should be fast tracking him through the minors since they're just wasting bullets at this point. Emil Morales getting covered is awesome, dude's a stud... would not be shocked to see him playing at the next WBCQ for Spain despite his age. Also if you look at the DSL HR leaderboards: #10 Alessander De La Cruz is actually German!
They still think theres a chance of him starting. I remember when he signed and he was 16, 140 pounds, and throwing 100. From what I've heard, the slider has been good and the change has been average.
@@john670 Yeah idk I feel like with how they've re-tooled (fixed?) their pitching development in the minors they could have had him working on things in Single-A at this point.
@@jacobbyers7914 Yea I would have moved him to A ball after the FCL ended, but hes still only 18. If he moves up 1 level per year he'll be debuting at 22/23, and pitchers reach their peak later than hitters. They probably want his slider to be consistent before the move to A ball, and then work on his changeup. Tbh, I might mess around and send him to the arizona fall league, or dominican winter ball
Guys like roden are one reason the jays have some hope. They have a lot of mlb ready young guys who’ve had great results between triple an and the mlb. Should be interesting as a new era of jays baseball
@@sergeynazaro1768 they’ll need to trade some of their prospects in the upper minors for mlb ready help. They have too many guys who could be in the mlb next year for the amount of roster spots
FWIW Tayler Scott has quietly been an excellent reliever for the Astros this year. Obviously he's an Afrikaner and that comes with some baggage (to put it mildly) but he's been very vocal about wanting to help grow the game back in South Africa. From what I can tell the game is kind of not been doing so hot down there as of late (neither has the country tbf). In 2017-2019 there were like five prospects from SA in the minors and now there's one afaik (Mitch Neunborn).
something this thumbnail made me realize is that, between a weird Uganda connection and an even weirder Bhutan connection, baseball is setting up its global future as a major sport for the countries with the coolest flags. Up next: ... Nepal? Seychelles?? Isle of Man???
You should look into Tigers RHP prospect Jaden Hamm, he was ranked 23rd in the system at the beginning of the season and has risen up to 7th on MLB pipeline. Just a solid arm
There’s gonna be many many more. Africans are strong and now that they are getting a fair chance to get access to coaching and mechanics . Scary times ahead
Blue jays keep prospects in the minors wayyyyyyy too long. Guerrero, Bichette, Spencer H, Nathan Lukes, even biggio were all called up too late. When guys are consisntly hitting 350 plus in AAA ball call them up
