Recruiting south of the border for baseball...

why don't we sign baseball players from the endless gold mine of Caribbean, Central & South American countries? I'm not talking MLB drafted players. Is it a not a big enough recruiting budget issue? Players can't afford 1/3rd tuition fees, not academically eligible issue? We can't find 10 players outta millions? Not buying that. There's also talent in the Netherlands, Canada, Europe and Asia. Someone needs to start the trend of recruiting outside USA for talent in college baseball and it might as well be us. If our women's tennis team can sign players from Romania we can find some baseball players in Puerto Rico.

No- it's because most of them aren't able to get into an American college academically. And then most of the ones like Rey Riviera who was a commit to MSU form Puerto Rico are more interested in playing pro ball than college ball. Most of the baseball players "from" the Netherlands are from the Netherlands Antilles so it's pretty much the same situation. We have a player from Canada committed- Eric Cerentola and of course we had Robson. Not really a lot of talent in Canada relatively speaking. Baseball is largely underdeveloped in Europe. Asia- maybe. I could see that and I don't know if anyone has really tried but very few of their players have shown interest in playing college baseball in America and they do have their own collegiate league I believe.

While there is certainly talent from around the world, America is by far the best at baseball and has the largest talent pool. For example- look at the World Baseball Classic. We won despite not having some of our very best on the team- Harper, Kershaw, Trout, etc. All of the other countries pretty much had their very best and while they were certainly competitive and could beat our Team USA that we sent to the WBC they also have very obvious depth issues and holes. The runner up Puerto Rico was throwing AAA guys and players that were washed up out of the bullpen. If we sent our very best players there, we would dominate it every year no question. But before 2017 we decided to go with guys like R A Dickey and Jeremy Guthrie.

Shortest thread ever

To add Todd's post, which I agree with, international players are eligible to sign at 16 years old and most any Latin player with a pulse signs then and is thus ineligible to ever play college baseball.

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Originally Posted by Dawg61

why don't we sign baseball players from the endless gold mine of Caribbean, Central & South American countries? I'm not talking MLB drafted players. Is it a not a big enough recruiting budget issue? Players can't afford 1/3rd tuition fees, not academically eligible issue? We can't find 10 players outta millions? Not buying that. There's also talent in the Netherlands, Canada, Europe and Asia. Someone needs to start the trend of recruiting outside USA for talent in college baseball and it might as well be us. If our women's tennis team can sign players from Romania we can find some baseball players in Puerto Rico.

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61, ED must pay u some good bonus money. How in the world would Msu be able to fund the budget recruiting players across the world? Baseball doesn't have the money that football or basketball has for their budget. I think you are reaching on this topic and I probably shouldn't be involved.

The Netherlands has college baseball talent you say? Hell I bet Mississippi has way more talent than the Netherlands and probably Asia!

Please take a long coffee break. The Netherlands you say? USA USA USA USA

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Originally Posted by basedog

61, ED must pay u some good bonus money. How in the world would Msu be able to fund the budget recruiting players across the world? Baseball doesn't have the money that football or basketball has for their budget. I think you are reaching on this topic and I probably shouldn't be involved.

The Netherlands has college baseball talent you say? Hell I bet Mississippi has way more talent than the Netherlands and probably Asia!

Please take a long coffee break. The Netherlands you say? USA USA USA USA

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Lol Todd is probably right it's the Netherland Antilles I am thinking of but one of the two countries frequently makes a decent showing in international play. Obviously you don't roam the countryside of Puerto Rico looking for diamonds you go to a league/school and make connections with the coaches. All I am saying is if the women's tennis team can sign globally the baseball team can too. Women's tennis doesn't have much of a recruiting budget yet they manage to field a team of 75% international players.

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Originally Posted by Dawg61

Lol Todd is probably right it's the Netherland Antilles I am thinking of but one of the two countries frequently makes a decent showing in international play. Obviously you don't roam the countryside of Puerto Rico looking for diamonds you go to a league/school and make connections with the coaches. All I am saying is if the women's tennis team can sign globally the baseball team can too. Women's tennis doesn't have much of a recruiting budget yet they manage to field a team of 75% international players.

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Tennis is way more International than baseball. Also you gotta factor in in a lot of the south border countries, if they could qualify. Your suggestion just ain't or want work for many reason for college baseball. The U S A is loaded with talent and you know what you are getting instead of dealing with scouts cough cough at foreign countries.

Naw man, give me U S A all day everyday and twice on Sunday when dealing with potential college baseball players.

Will Clark approves my message****