Almost every day for the past year, Dominican right-handed pitching prospect Rafael DePaula worked out with little hope that he would ever sign with a major league team. Last January, DePaula -- considered one of the top amateur pitchers in Latin America -- was suspended for one year when Major League Baseball determined he had lied about his age. DePaula, despite being saddened by the situation, never quit. And he continues to insist that his given birthdate -- April 1,1992 -- is correct. He claims to be empowered by what he emphatically says is the truth, despite what anybody --including MLB -- says.

"What he's had to go through is beyond what any typical kid has to go through," DePaula's agent Ulises Cabrera said. "His mental makeup is off the charts. He had to just suck it up and work."