Baseball's Dominican investigation

The investigation into Bowden and others stems from a tip MLB received several months ago alleging that then-White Sox senior personnel director Dave Wilder and two of his scouts were skimming bonus money paid to Dominican signees, according to the MLB source. Wilder was stopped while trying to re-enter the United States with roughly $40,000 in cash after a trip to the Dominican Republic, a source told ESPN, sparking a broader inquiry. Wilder could not be reached for comment.

In mid-May, Wilder and scouts Victor Mateo and Domingo Toribio were fired by the White Sox, who revealed that federal authorities also were looking into the matter.

After MLB received its tip in March, its investigations department launched a wide-ranging examination of signing practices in the Dominican -- a probe that has led to allegations involving employees of several clubs, including Bowden and other Nationals employees, sources said.

Anyone implicated could face felony fraud charges, sources familiar with the investigation said.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3483972

 

The MLB investigations unit is "looking at everything, A to Z, speaking to players, scouts, people that run the academies," the source said. The unit also is delving into the issue of access to, and distribution of, steroids to ballplayers in the Dominican.

 

Does the investigation center on Gonzalez or is he the last, most visible straw before MLB said enough?

 

I'm far from being a fan of Jim Bowden but this seems like deflection to me. It is the White Sox who should be getting all the heat - not the Nationals. It was their Director of Scouting - Dave Wilder - and two of his scouts who have been fired already for skimming money. Why is this a Nationals scandal? Because the FBI spoke to Bowden and Rios? The FBI was probably asking them about Dave Wilder.

Oh and while I'm talking about Dave Wilder - he got caught because he was trying to re-enter the US with $40,000 in cash. Why didn't he just say he won the money at one of the casinos on the Dominican?

 

Of the investigation into the Nats, perhaps. But the ESPN story (citing other stories that have been done, as well) makes clear that every team is being investigated regarding bonus skimming.

 

I don't understand how they're skimming the money.

 

Armchair - say some kid is really a 4th round pick quality but you pump him up as a scout to be a the equivalent of a second rounder with the agreement that you somehow split the difference between a 4th round bonus money and the 2nd round bonus money - that's one way to skim. It's the team that loses out. That's why the rich teams like the Red Sox and Yankees who have lots invested in Caribbean scouting would be less likely to fall victim to such scams because they check and recheck a players worth. Teams with fewer resources don't have the ability to have such granular information. When you have the guy in charge of scouting participating in the scam (like with the White Sox) - then probably the only way it gets caught is if someone talks or someone makes a dumbass mistake (like trying to bring back lots of cash from a drug smuggling mecca).

 

So the kid from the Nats could be lying about receiving everything he was guaranteed then.