US Investors Look to Latin Baseball Futures

The NYTimes ran an interesting article yesterday revealing the new investment of some big players in Domincan Republic youngsters. The idea is that the investors and hedge funds front money now for young baseball prospects in the DR with the hope of receiving a big payday when the youngster gets signed to the MLB. These investors furnish trainers with facilities and resources to train boys in their young teens. When the player is then signed to a MLB team, the investors receive 50% of the player's bonuses (while an agent only gets 15%).

Sounds interesting, but is it exploitation of these desperate young teens? Many of the boys forgo formal schooling for this baseball training and are rumored to possibly being intertwined in steroid use. Moreover, the facilities vary between the camps, from state-of-the-art to cramped quarters resembling a prison with barbed wire.

The bottom line is that there is no regulation of investment in Latin baseball futures as there are in other investments. With this investment, boys are encouraged to forego schooling and other opportunities to make US investors a profit. Money is money and as usual it seems to put our priorities a bit out of whack.