Sandy Rosario, now a top scout in the country for the Blue Jays, used to make the 2 1/2-hour drive every morning from his home in the capital city to this southern part of the island, searching for teenage prospects while with the Mets. Sometimes, he would take his buddy Guillermo "Penaco" Valdes with him to keep him company.
"I remember being in Barahona for five hours looking for players one day, and I didn't find one single prospect," Rosario recalled. "It was a really bad day, just a wasted day, and Penaco says to me, 'There's a baby-faced kid that you have to see.