BA's Ben Badler on the Orioles' International Efforts

[Jordan Tuwiner]

http://orioles-nation.com/2011/05/03/baseball-americas-ben-badler-on-the-orioles-international-efforts/

I recently had an email exchange with Ben Badler, who writes about the minors and international prospects for Baseball America. I focused my questions towards the Orioles' international efforts as this is one of the most heavily debated topics among O's fans and an area the Orioles need to improve significantly. Ben provided some excellent insight on the Orioles' overall international presence, the hesitation with foreign ballplayers, and more.

Jordan Tuwiner: To start off, can you summarize the Orioles' international efforts? Have they improved in this area over the past few years? If not, are they at least looking to further improve?

Ben Badler: The Orioles have not emphasized the international market in recent years, which is why they have developed so few international players and have only a handful of international prospects in their farm system. They seem to be trying to make inroads internationally, but they're still among the bottom 20 percent of teams when it comes to international spending.

[Don]

I just do not know the foundation for success with international ranks. I am more on the boat in finding guys from other parts of the world, but to me the DR is still the wild, wild west. Even with the new sanctions, there are always questions about age, background, legality, etc...

Schoop is from Curacao, Cleofa is from the Antillies, Roderick Bernadina is from Curacao, Eduardo Rodriguez is from Valencia Venezula. Veloz and Juan Guzman are the only two promising players from the Dominican Rep.

The Orioles are making in roads, but maybe last season was the start of something in trust. If they took a chance on Veloz, maybe they start to take bigger risks with higher profile players from the Dominican. I would like to see a better effort in Venezula as well.

[Jordan Tuwiner]

The Orioles don't need to focus on one country, but maybe expand their horizons a bit.

It is nice to see Schoop out of Curacao, where I don't think many other teams are active. Leonora is from Curacao as well.