Originally Posted by Ken Gurnick, MLB.com

Who's the wealthiest Dodger?

Jason Schmidt? Jeff Kent? Frank McCourt?

It could be Matt White.

Who?

White is a 29-year-old left-handed journeyman pitcher in camp on a Minor League contract who's pitched a total of 9 2/3 Major League innings in nine professional seasons and he's sitting on a gold mine.

Actually, it's a rock quarry.

Four years ago, White bought a 50-acre piece of property in Massachusetts from his ailing Aunt Josephine, who was going into a nursing home. He planned to build a house on the property, but discovered it to be absolutely covered with rock. A geologist determined the property was loaded with mica schist, a slate-like shiny metamorphic stone used for patio decks and other construction.

"I never built the house and instead started selling the rock," said White, whose father runs the business. "It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The geologist said I've got 24 million tons of it and it sells for $100 a ton."

So, according to White's math, he's sitting on a $2.4 billion mountain of rock. That's billion, with a "B." The property cost him $50,000.

He could parlay the fortunate real estate play into buying, say, a baseball club. It's been known to happen. So, why still bother with baseball on the player end, especially with the likelihood of cracking the Dodgers' deep Major League pitching staff no better than remote?

"This is fun," said White, who has played with Boston, Seattle and Washington. "I wouldn't retire. What else am I going to do?"

A teammate of Billy Koch and Kris Benson at Clemson, White was originally drafted by Cleveland and was twice taken in the Rule 5 draft. He spent the 2006 season at Philadelphia's Triple-A affiliate at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he was 7-9 with a 3.58 ERA, and played winter ball in Venezuela.

Originally Posted by SackAttack (Post 1397139)

Dola,

Or that she's still around, since she was 'ailing' at the time of the sale.

Originally Posted by Lathum (Post 1397144)

I would imagine the shock of her poor real estate skills probably finished her off.

Originally Posted by SackAttack (Post 1397147)

Am I going to hell for laughing at that?

Originally Posted by Vinatieri for Prez (Post 1397178)

I wonder if he has factored in the cost of digging it up? Is that $100/ton profit after he excavates it, or is that what he charges for someone else to enter the land and excavate it themselves. I wonder if his hope of profit is anywhere near the $2.4 billion. I know in the oil business there are a number of oil fields that are not (and may never) be drilled because the cost of drilling and refining the oil outweighs its sale price. White does say that it "sells" for $100/ton. I imagine he has some costs so I doubt he is looking at $2.4 billion. Factoring in the time value of money for his $50,000 and the revenue that will not come in for years if not decades, I imagine his return is well below 48,000%. And if the cost of the rock ever goes down, his return is even less.

Originally Posted by SackAttack (Post 1397574)

No. This guy signed with the Indians out of Clemson.

Originally Posted by SackAttack (Post 1397130)

With apologies to Charlie Brown:



Let's see here. He paid $50,000 for 50 acres of land. $1000/acre, say.

24 million tons of mica schist on that land, works out to 480,000 tons/acre.

$100/ton * 480,000 tons/acre = $48,000,000 worth of rock on each acre of that boy's land. That means each acre he owns, by itself, returns 48,000% on his investment.

I wonder what his property taxes look like?

Originally Posted by dangarion (Post 1397787)

Anyone that is making fun of or questioning any of the math is just jealous because they don't have anywhere near to as much money as he'll have after selling even a small portion of the shit.