[champain2002]

Quote

Major League Baseball is pleased to announce that the 2009 MLB European Academy will take place at the Italian Olympic Training Center in Tirrenia from August 11 - 29. The Academy will once again bring together the best young players in Europe and Africa to work for three-weeks with top Major League coaches and instructors. Previous editions of the Academy have been very successful - with 28 players signed to professional contracts - and the 2009 Academy will look to continue that excellence.

As in previous years, Major League Baseball will hold try-outs for 15 - 18 year olds who are considered strong candidates for the Academy. The sessions, run by MLB staff and scouts from the MLB Scouting Bureau, will offer players a chance to demonstrate their skills in front of professional evaluators. They will be limited in size and open only to national team players who have been nominated by their federations.

Sessions will run from April 26 - May 7 at seven locations around Europe:

- April 26, 13:00 - Stockholm Baseball Club (Stockholm, Sweden)*

- April 29, 15:00 - Rouen Huskies Baseball Club (Rouen, France)

- April 30, 15:00 - Italian Olympic Training Center (Tirrenia, Italy)

- May 2, 12:00 - Montjuic Olympic Training Centre (Barcelona, Spain)

- May 5, 13:00 & 16:00 - Krc Altron Baseball Club (Prague, Czech Republic)

- May 6, 15:00 - Amsterdam Pirates Baseball Stadium (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

- May 7, 16:00 - Bad Homburg Hornets Baseball Club (Bad Homburg, Germany)

* The session in Stockholm will be run by MLB Europe staff without members of the MLB Scouting Bureau.

2009 MLB European Academy tryouts

This post has been edited by champain2002: 02 May 2009 - 04:13 PM

[champain2002]

It's going to take a while, but I intend to provide a tour through Europe profiling each country's efforts to grow baseball, their organized leagues, and best prospects where I can find them. I'll be providing links to websites for each country in "Europe" where you can follow the teams. To start off, I give you a major organizing body the Confederation of European Baseball, and prospects who were signed out of MLB's European Baseball Academy from the BR Bullpen.

Quote

The Major League Baseball International European Baseball Academy was created to provide training for European and African baseball prospects by former major leaguers. It also provides a central scouting location during the weeks it is open and over two dozen Academy alumni have signed contracts with MLB teams. Instructors have included Barry Larkin, Lee Smith and Bruce Hurst.

Through October 2009, the following Academy alumni had been signed by MLB organizations:

Player - Years Attended - Country - MLB Organization - Top Level reached through 2008

• Alex Liddi - 2005 - Italy - Seattle Mariners - A
  
• Alessandro Maestri - 2005 - Italy - Chicago Cubs - AA
  
• Kalian Sams - 2005 - Netherlands - Seattle Mariners - A
  
• Jakub Toufar - 2005 - Czech Republic - Minnesota Twins - Rookie
  
• Jakub Hajtmar - 2005/2006 - Czech Republic - Minnesota Twins - Rookie
  
• Rodney Gessmann - 2005/2006 - Germany - Minnesota Twins - Rookie
  
• Tom Stuifbergen - 2005/2006 - Netherlands - Minnesota Twins - Rookie
  
• Petr Čech - 2006 - Czech Republic - Cincinnati Reds - Rookie
  
• Mauro Schiavoni - 2005/2006 - Italy - Cincinnati Reds - Rookie
  
• Ramon Romeijn - 2006 - Netherlands - Seattle Mariners - Rookie
  
• Matěj Hejma‎ - 2006 - Czech Republic - Minnesota Twins - N/A
  
• Joris Bert - 2005/2006 - France - Los Angeles Dodgers - Rookie
  
• Donald Lutz - 2006/2007 - Germany - Cincinnati Reds - Rookie
  
• Frédéric Hanvi - 2006/2007 - France - Minnesota Twins - Rookie
  
• Jennel Hudson - 2007 - Germany - Boston Red Sox - Rookie
  
• Ludwig Glaser - 2006/2007 - Germany - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - Rookie
  
• Dwayne Kemp - 2006/2007 - Netherlands - Chicago Cubs - A
  
• Andrea Lucati - 2006/2007 - Italy - Houston Astros - Rookie
  
• Frederik Terkelsen - 2006/2007 - Denmark - Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - N/A
  
• Tjerk Hogervorst - 2007 - Netherlands - New York Mets - N/A
  
• Jan Baldee - 2007 - Netherlands - Houston Astros - Rookie
  
• Matteo Pizziconi - 2007 - Italy - Cincinnati Reds - Rookie
  
• Luca Panerati - 2007 - Italy - Cincinnati Reds - Rookie
  
• Thomas De Wolf - 200 - Belgium - New York Mets - N/A
  
• Mpho Ngoepe - 2007/2008 - South Africa - Pittsburgh Pirates - N/A
  
• Martin Červenka - 2008 - Czech Republic - Cleveland Indians - N/A
  
• Tomas Sykora - 2008 - Czech Republic - Cincinnati Reds - N/A
  
• Hein Robb - 2008 - South Africa - Minnesota Twins - N/A

Other Selected Alumni

• Simone Albanese - Italy
  
• Benedikt Antwi - Germany
  
• Kyle Botha - South Africa
  
• Shannon Ekermans - South Africa
  
• Jason Halman - Netherlands
  
• Christopher Howard - Germany
  
• Šimon Kudernatsch - Czech Republic
  
• Edvardas Matusevičius - Lithuania
  
• Nicklas Melin - Sweden
  
• Daniel Sánchez - Spain
  
• Michael Stephan - Germany

Please feel free to provide any info or questions you may have.

This post has been edited by champain2002: 02 May 2009 - 08:20 PM

[inoffensiv philosophy]

Great idea for a thread -- I'll be following.

As a British fan of baseball, I enjoy hearing about the game's development "on the margins" of its current world. I once did some research as part of a roster set project for the game Out of the Park Baseball, and I was happy to discover in the process that many European leagues (especially the Italian and German competitions) have fantastically well-maintained websites with an incredible depth of information.

With the Red Sox acquiring Jennel Hudson from the Bundesliga in 2007, maybe The Good Guys are beginning to take notice of the European talent pool. They're not Europeans obviously, but the progress of the Moanaroa brothers is of great interest to me this year -- you never know where the next 5 WAR regular might come from.

This post has been edited by inoffensiv philosophy: 03 May 2009 - 09:01 AM

[TheYellowDart5]

Not to toot my own horn (and come off like a dork in the process), but I wrote a long article for my college newspaper about one of our baseball alums playing in Belgium this season and about Belgian professional baseball in general.

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/04/3...career-overseas

Also, if you're looking for a good resource on the history of European baseball, Josh Chetwynd's "Baseball in Europe" is a great book to use.

[GradyWilliams]

champain2002, on May 2 2009, 09:19 PM, said:

It's going to take a while, but I intend to provide a tour through Europe profiling each country's efforts to grow baseball, their organized leagues, and best prospects where I can find them. I'll be providing links to websites for each country in "Europe" where you can follow the teams. To start off, I give you a major organizing body the Confederation of European Baseball, and prospects who were signed out of MLB's European Baseball Academy from the BR Bullpen.



Please feel free to provide any info or questions you may have.

Thanks for doing this champain2002, it is much appreciated. I have wondered when MLB was going to make a push for this since the first WBC. As a fan of all things baseball ( I wake up to watch live streams of Japanese baseball early in the AM) I am intrigued by baseball expanding their efforts thru out the globe. I wil also be following this thread!

[LTF]

Definitely a great idea for a thread. Will be following this intently.

One of our own played ball in France for a bit and kept a well-written record of his time over there. I hope he doesn't mind I'm posting the link: Have Bat Will Travel.

[Orel Miraculous]

Mister Baseball bills itself as "the European baseball site". It doesn't have a lot of depth to it, but they do have expansive news coverage of every league and a neat rankings system for all the European clubs (only 6 of the top 10 clubs come from Netherlands/Italy, progress in European baseball???).

[Toe Nash]

Great idea for a thread. I'm curious if there is any evidence the WBC has helped improve baseball's stature in Europe. You'd think the success of the Netherlands team may have had some effect, but not many of those players were actually from the mainland Netherlands. Are countries who haven't played (France / Britain) hoping to somehow qualify for the next tournament?

[champain2002]

As I continue to correspond with my favorite IRS penpals, and traverse the great state of North Carolina in a vain attempt to satisfy my native wife's family and friend obligations, I'll post a link to the stats and results from the April 8th-11th MLB Europe Academies tournament held in Toulouse, France. The tournament fielded both the Rouen and Toulouse academies, the Swedish, and the British Academies. There were no standings published, and the final day was rained out.

No need to worry about tooting horns here. As a matter of fact, let me chime in for some of you that I am glad to see back. I could not find the thread but several of you posted in an excellent thread a while back here at sosh about baseball in europe. If someone has a link could you please post it here.

Will post more soon.

[champain2002]

Orel Miraculous, on May 4 2009, 11:39 AM, said:

Mister Baseball bills itself as "the European baseball site". It doesn't have a lot of depth to it, but they do have expansive news coverage of every league and a neat rankings system for all the European clubs (only 6 of the top 10 clubs come from Netherlands/Italy, progress in European baseball???).

"Mr. Baseball's" Twittering

[mabrowndog]

TheYellowDart5, on May 3 2009, 12:25 PM, said:

Not to toot my own horn (and come off like a dork in the process), but I wrote a long article for my college newspaper about one of our baseball alums playing in Belgium this season and about Belgian professional baseball in general.

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/04/3...career-overseas

Also, if you're looking for a good resource on the history of European baseball, Josh Chetwynd's "Baseball in Europe" is a great book to use.

Jon, that's a nice piece of work. Oh, and you need to clean out your inbox.

[TheYellowDart5]

mabrowndog, on May 5 2009, 01:41 PM, said:

Jon, that's a nice piece of work. Oh, and you need to clean out your inbox.

Thanks for the kind words, Mark. Inbox cleared.

[Orel Miraculous]

Toe Nash, on May 4 2009, 05:26 PM, said:

Great idea for a thread. I'm curious if there is any evidence the WBC has helped improve baseball's stature in Europe. You'd think the success of the Netherlands team may have had some effect, but not many of those players were actually from the mainland Netherlands. Are countries who haven't played (France / Britain) hoping to somehow qualify for the next tournament?

This claim (and I'm not calling you out, a lot people make it) is greatly exaggerated. Of the 29 players on the Dutch team, 14 were born on the mainland and another player was born in Canada but played professionally in the Dutch league. Of the remaining 14 players who are "Caribbean-Dutch" several honed their skills in the Dutch league as opposed to the North American minor league system. Of course baseball is more popular in Curacao, but there are plenty of people who grow up playing it on the mainland too, its basically the second most popular team sport there.

[champain2002]

TheYellowDart5, on May 5 2009, 03:11 PM, said:

Thanks for the kind words, Mark. Inbox cleared.

Jon,
Let me add my appreciation. Really nicely done! I look forward to your input. I'll try to pick up the book you suggested at the next opportunity.

[cannonball 1729]

Don't forget, we've got a small collection of info on foreign baseball in the Wiki.

[champain2002]

Orel Miraculous, on May 5 2009, 05:50 PM, said:

This claim (and I'm not calling you out, a lot people make it) is greatly exaggerated. Of the 29 players on the Dutch team, 14 were born on the mainland and another player was born in Canada but played professionally in the Dutch league. Of the remaining 14 players who are "Caribbean-Dutch" several honed their skills in the Dutch league as opposed to the North American minor league system. Of course baseball is more popular in Curacao, but there are plenty of people who grow up playing it on the mainland too, its basically the second most popular team sport there.

Leon Boyd (BR Bullpen MILB.com), was the WBC closer for the Netherlands, and now is a closer with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (AA Toronto). His blog, Canadutch Baseball Experience, covers his experiences from Netherlands to AA. His mother was born in the Netherlands where she met his father, Sean Boyd, a Canadian who was there to play hockey. I believe Leon was born outside of Vancouver and played at Armstrong Atlantic State U. And yes I'm profiling the Netherlands first. You should see this later on in the week, with your input welcome.

[champain2002]

champain2002, on May 5 2009, 04:41 AM, said:

No need to worry about tooting horns here. As a matter of fact, let me chime in for some of you that I am glad to see back. I could not find the thread but several of you posted in an excellent thread a while back here at sosh about baseball in europe. If someone has a link could you please post it here. Will post more soon.

Apparently what I saw late one night/early one morning was this thread Red Sox sign German Free Agent. Had some pretty good information, posted by Inoffensiv Philosophy, on Jennel Hudson, signed out of Cologne.


Edit: Clarified quotation attribution

This post has been edited by champain2002: 19 May 2009 - 11:16 AM

[champain2002]

Interest continues to grow across Europe

Some of the points that are reflective of the growth of baseball in Europe include:
* Over 40 players from no less than nine European countries (England, Portugal, Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and France) are currently playing in the North American major and minor leagues - the highest number ever.
* Initial reports from Little League baseball, working with the European Baseball Confederation (CEB), are showing an increase in enrollment of over 10% for boys and girls playing Little League baseball across the continent.
* Major League Baseball recently completed its European Academy tryouts in six countries, and will be working with the CEB and IBAF to conduct coaching and player clinics in ten countries (Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) throughout the rest of the summer and early fall and into 2010.
* The not-for-profit group Pitch in for Baseball recently completed its first-ever equipment giveaway and clinic in Iraq, and plans extensive equipment programs throughout Europe into the fall.
* The IBAF unveiled the first two of a series of country-specific baseball websites, www.baseballgermany.com and www.baseball-france.com, geared to provide all information regarding baseball in the respective countries, with additional sites coming in the next few weeks.

This article is from the Confederation European Baseball website and lists some of the growth in advance of the finals of the World Cup to be held in Italy starting September 27th.
The schedule for the prelims is something like this:

With regard to the World Cup, tickets for the World Cup sites in the Czech Republic and Sweden will be on sale by May 20, with other sites to follow soon. Barcelona, the city where baseball debuted as an Olympic medal sport in 1992, will play host to games between Spain, South Africa, Puerto Rico, and Cuba during the first round from 10-12 September. Other first round games will be held in Regensberg, Germany; Moscow; Prague; and Sundyberg ( Stockholm), Sweden from 9-12 September. The second round will be split between Italy and the Netherlands, while the final round will be in Italy on 27 September. In total, 22 nations will compete for the coveted world championship.

[champain2002]

Russian baseball player Viacheslav Vasilyev has signed a professional baseball contract with the Rockford RiverHawks of the Frontier Professional Baseball League located in the United States of America. Vasilyev (6’3” & 195lbs. / 190.5cm & 88.5kg) is a 24 year old right-handed pitcher, and is a native of Moscow, Russia. Vasilyev has also been a top right-handed hitter as an outfielder, and a top pitcher for the Russian National Baseball Team as well as with the Russian club team MGPU. Vasilyev won the Russian Baseball League’s Most Valuable Player award in 2007,

Vasilyev is best known internationally for his performance with the Russian National Team versus Team USA on July 30, 2007 in Cary, North Carolina (USA) where he threw 6 1/3 innings while striking out 3 batters and giving up zero earned runs. In 2008 Vasilyev was uncovered by senior scout Manny Estrada of the Los Angeles Dodgers (MLB club). Both sides agreed in principle to a contract, but the contract was never signed nor finalized after pending university studies were going to force Vasilyev back to Moscow during much of the 2008 USA summer season. Vasilyev's fastball, is clocked in the low 90's. Vasilyev joins Andrei Lobanov of the Minnesota Twins (MLB club) minor league system as the only two Russians currently playing professional baseball in the United States. CEB

[champain2002]

Great idea for a thread. I'm curious if there is any evidence the WBC has helped improve baseball's stature in Europe. You'd think the success of the Netherlands team may have had some effect, but not many of those players were actually from the mainland Netherlands. Are countries who haven't played (France / Britain) hoping to somehow qualify for the next tournament?

The general manager of the Netherlands team, Robert Eenhoorn, one of eight Dutch-born players (and five since 1900) to reach the Major Leagues and still the only to have hit a home run, is encouraged by the direction of the sport in the country, and in the prospects for the national team – now ranked sixth in the IBAF World Rankings – and its players on the international level.

Eenhoorn recently took some time to discuss the state of Dutch baseball today, Marlins pitcher Rick VandenHurk and Eenhoorn's own experiences in baseball.

BD: What has the success of the National Team at the World Baseball Classic meant to the sport in the Netherlands?
RE: We received more publicity and recognition through these results. We just signed a three-year deal with Reebok as an outcome and have many people motivated to to continue to grow our level.

BD: Have you seen a change over the past few years in the numbers of kids playing baseball? What is the youth league structure there?
RE: We just found out that we have a 50% increase of new kids than normal around this time. We have a club system where kids can go to and play organized baseball. If they are good enough they will be invited to play in one of the six academies we have to develop the best talent.

IBAF

This post has been edited by champain2002: 16 May 2009 - 01:54 AM