Last week, the world baseball community was abuzz about the news that one of Cuba’s top young pitchers, Aroldis Chapman, defected from the Cuban national team and was roaming around somewhere in Europe.  Fantasy baseball players immediately jotted his name down, baseball columnists were wondering what team he would be signed by, and I was trying to figure out which agency would get the rights to represent the Cuban defector.

I thought maybe it would be my Twitter buddy, Joe Kehoskie.  He is an established agent who, on his LinkedIN profile, claims to specialize in the representation of Cuban baseball defectors.  He has represented more Cuban defectors than any other active baseball agent and ranks in the top three historically.  I am not sure if Kehoskie was actively recruiting Chapman, but Chapman ended up going with a different agency: Athletes Premier International.

API is a young agency.  Three Co-Partners founded API in 2006, and they decided to elect Edwin Leonel Mejia as the CEO.  The website, which is less than a week old, does not list any client names and only has one press release.  That press release is the announcement of Chapman signing with the company.

API is also on Twitter.  Exactly a week ago, CEO Edwin Mejia wrote,

WATCH OUT Scott Boras there is a new kid on the block and we coming for that number 1 SPOT!!! www.athletespremier.com

A day later,

paparazzi are no joke!!! Gotta be real careful from now on! The Bomb almost got DROPPED!!!! Stay tuned… www.athletespremier.com

And then on Friday,

Ok this is just friggin crazy! Dudes are just out right trying to buy us now! Even the juggernauts of this game are getting worried! API

I sense a little excitement.