This is really tricky. I'm not "in" the loop here, as I don't have any direct contacts in the D.R. or other Latin American countries but I do have names I've heard or read that have yet to sign. I may have missed the signings as well as many of these don't get a lot of attention. In other words, this is a work in progress and always will be. Nothing with International talent is transparent.

1. Yoennis Cespedes, OF. The Cuban defector has a couple hoops he needs to jump through before being decalred a free agent and able to sign, but he could be within a couple weeks or a couple months. There is a lot of red tape here. When he signs, he shouldn't need more than some time to acclimate to the U.S. before making his MLB debut. He could be treated similar to Leonys Martin last season.

2. Jorge Soler, OF. A younger version of Cespedes is going through a similar situation. I might prefer his potential to Cespedes but he would probably begin in Low-A or maybe High A ball as a 19 year old. A cautious team may even place him in their complex level team in the Gulf Coast or Arizona league before sending him to a full season league next year. Timing will also be a large part of this. Whoever signs him will need some patience.

After that there is a drop off. There is a talented Dominican named Helsin Martinez who I was impressed by but no one has signed him and I haven't heard anything about him lately. Not sure what's happening with him now, but I'd place him 3rd here based on talent. After that, none of the pre-July 2nd guys are big names that you should get very excited about.

I wrote about some of the signings from this season here as well.

After the jump is a list of player I believe to be international free agents as well as some July 2nd names. I haven't done my due diligence on them yet but I will have a report about them prior to J2.

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Some Intriguing Grade C Prospects to Follow in 2012.

I wrote a piece yesterday about Jorge Posada, pointing out that the retired Yankees star was just a Grade C/C+ prospect in the minor leagues. I want to expand that theme today by looking at some Grade C prospects in the upcoming 2012 Baseball Prospect Book, who in my opinion have a chance to get beyond that and surprise us.

First, here is how I define a Grade C prospect:

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MLB.com released their version of the Top 100 Prospects list for 2012 today. Here are some of my thoughts about it and it is a great topic for discussion.

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Prospect Retrospective: Jorge Posada

As you are no doubt aware, Yankees catcher Jorge Posada announced his retirement a few days ago. This seems like a good idea to take a look at what Posada was like as a prospect, and how his career ranks in context.

Posada was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 24^th round in 1990 from high school in Puerto Rico. He was a draft-and-follow choice, not signing right away and attending Calhoun Community College in Alabama, where he played shortstop.

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With the organization ranking list done, my next "long term" projects are an integrated Top 100 list and beginning my 2012 draft coverage. The Top 100 list will come out in mid-to-late February, and the draft stuff takes time to research. I haven't focused on the draft yet. Matt will be posting quite a bit about it but I need to do my own research as well.

In the meantime, I am working on ideas for additional features. I have some things in mind suggested by readers. In no particular order, I am planning

*Anthony Gose vs. Starling Marte Smackdown
*Cheslor Cuthbert vs. Miguel Sano Smackdown
*Prospect Retros/Historical Prospects (make some suggestions)
*Front office interviews
*My favorite Grade C prospects

Feel free to suggest more ideas.

As you have probably noticed, we have a lot going on here at Minor League Ball right now. The 2012 Baseball Prospect Book comes out next week. I recently posted organization rankings, ranking the 30 baseball farm systems in order. That got a big response.

The other big news is the addition of Matt Garrioch and his draft expertise to the Minor League Ball roster. Matt had done great work at MLB Bonus Baby covering the draft. I have long wanted to expand draft coverage, and it made perfect sense to merge Bonus Baby into Minor League Ball.

Matt is extremely knowledgeable, his work deserves a wider audience, and he will make Minor League Ball an even cooler place. I will still be writing my own draft material, including the Shadow Draft, but you can expect to see Matt's work more and more frequently as we move into draft season.

There are other changes in the works for 2012. Nothing that you like about Minor League Ball will change, but we plan on adding more features. Our goal is to make Minor League Ball your one-stop shopping center for all your prospect needs.

I have good news and bad news about the 2012 Baseball Prospect Book.

The good news is that thanks to the response last week, we ordered some extra copies and everyone who has ordered the paper copy up to now will definitely get one. That won't be true for long, so if you want to be guaranteed a paper copy, order now!

More good news is that, barring any sort of technical glitch, this weekend we will be sending out the electronic .pdf version to everyone who ordered the electronic copy. Watch your emails!

More good news: we sent out the 50/50 list last night to all orders that gave us a valid email and will be sending that list to all orders within 24 hours of their receipt.

The bad news: we had planned on shipping the paper copies of the book starting Saturday, January 28th. However, there was a problem at the printing company, and they can't deliver the books to us until next Tuesday, January 31st, at the earliest. This means that the book will start shipping to customers on Wednesday, February 1st, at the earliest.

Technically this isn't late, since we had been advertising a February 1st shipping date all along. However, we had told some customers that we would start shipping the book on Saturday. It is disappointing that we can't do this, and please accept our apologizes.

This year's college crop is a little thin. The top has a sure fire SS that can hit, a solid back stop, several power arms and a couple power hitting outfielders but none of them project as sure fire stars. This list is slanted towards the players I have seen more and this list will be fluid up to the draft when I post my final big board prior to the draft.

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