39 ways to balk

[GarthB]

First of all, many of our players are overlooked by your scouts because they are NOT PITCHERS. Why offer a big contract to an Australian kid to travel halfway around the world and play in a position that you can get an American, Mexican of Venezualan kid to play almost as well - maybe even at half the price? And if our positional players just aren't getting those big sign-up offers, how will the owners ever know what they're capable of achieving through contact with the pressure-cooker US farm system?


Exactly.

Most foreign players that come from farther away than the Dominican Republic are premium standouts. Why go to Australia or Japan for that matter for a mediocre position player or utility man or pine rider. Those are available locally en masse and no need to keep a recruiter on the road for that. But that doesn't mean that they don't exist in other countries.

What will eventually happen, I predict, in baseball is what is happening in basketball. Aussie prospects (and others from around the globe) who have a serious chance at the pros, will attend college here in the state so that they can not only get exposure, but frequent exposure.