Monday,
October 26, 2009
Twins Are
International Player
“We want to be aggressive. We
want to get good players internationally.”
Those are the words of Twins
General Manager Bill Smith in an interview
with TwinsCentric last week. Smith agreed to an
interview with TwinsCentric
for an appendix to the Offseason GM
Handbook, which is currently available at TwinsCentric.com.
In a 30-minute, 14-page transcribed interview, he revealed several details
about offseason planning and the Twins future, including:
·
That
Smith is very comfortable going into spring training without Joe Mauer
signed to a long-term extension, provided he feels like Mauer
would like to stay long-term. Nick
Nelson talks more about this at www.NicksTwinsBlog.com.
·
The
Twins finished their organizational meetings in Ft. Myers last week, and if you
think the 137 page TwinsCentric
Offseason GM Handbook is full of information on the Twins offseason,
imagine how much information that Twins themselves have. John Bonnes discusses this even more at www.TwinsGeek.com.
(Just an quick point for those of you who have already purchased
the pdf of the Handbook: we are sending out the new
version with the appendix attached. And for those of you who have received the
free one-third book, we’re sending you a new version too, with a subset of the
interview included. That’s also the version available at TwinsCentric.com right now
as a FREE download.)
It has been a tremendous year
for the Twins as it relates to international signings. First, the Twins signed
16 year old German Max Kepler, generally considered the top player to come out
of Europe, arguably ever, to an $800,000 signing bonus. Secondly, the Twins
spent another $750,000 on Jorge Polanco, a 16 year old shortstop from the Dominican
Republic. Finally, during the final week of the regular season, the Twins were
able to sign the top player from the Dominican Republic, Miguel Angel Sano, to a $3.15 million bonus. The 16 year old SS is
already 6-3 and over 200 pounds and frequently compared to the likes of Hanley Ramirez, or even Alex Rodriguez.
“We have tried to become more
aggressive internationally. It has been a ten-year initiative. There’s a lot
you have to build up. You have to build up your staff. You have to get your
staff ready to be making evaluations. We have worked very hard to get more
aggressive internationally And this was a big year for
us.”
But how does a team become more
competitive scouting, specifically internationally? The first
step? According to Smith, “ownership has been wonderfully supportive of
these efforts, and being more competitive in the international market.”
The owners have to give
approval to spend more money on scouts, facilities, equipments, camps and more.
There has to be patience. Ten years makes a lot of sense. The Twins now have a
presence all over the globe. As we know, the Twins have strong ties in
Australia. A look at the GCL Twins roster showed players from the United
States, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Curacao, Russia, Czech
Republic, France, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia. The Twins also have
players in the organization from Aruba, Brazil, Canada, The Netherlands, Saint
Maarten and South Africa.
In January, 2007, I have a Q&A with Mike
Radcliff, the Twins Director of Player Personnel (he was the Twins
Director of Scouting at the time). I asked if there were any untapped areas
that the Twins were looking at. He said, “The untapped market many teams are
looking at is China. With the next Olympic Games in Beijing, the development of
the game is going to progress rapidly in that country. We are establishing
ourselves now in preparation for a future plethora of talent in China.”
Signing top talent will require
a lot of work, and potentially a lot of dollars. “If we can find them cheap, we’ll
find them cheap, but we want to get good players on the international market.”
The signings of Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco
and Miguel Sano are big for the
Twins now, and could prove to be even bigger in years to come. In signing this
type of talent, the Twins have done several things that can have long-term
ramifications:
1.)
Player
Acquisitions – Obviously the key to player development is signing good players.
2.)
Credibility –
Signing top talent in various markets is noticed by future top players and
their agents. Hopefully these signings can lead to more signings of top players
in international markets.
3.)
Fan Perception –
Although the Twins will never (and should never) be in the running for the top
free agents at the major league level, Twins fans should appreciate the
organization’s willingness to spend significant money in player acquisitions in
this market.
If you have any feedback,
comments, opinions or suggestions, please feel free to Send me an e-mail, or leave
your questions or comments here.