DUGOUT: The globalization of the national pastime

Teams without an adequate international game plan struggle to compete with teams that have mastered the art of the worldwide market.

Last Wednesday, I said that the best way a team could spend money was through the draft. Signing international players is another wise allotment of funds that many teams overlook. Instead of spending millions of dollars for an aging free agent with a big name, many teams should instead throw five-figure signing bonuses at the best 16-year olds on the global stage, hoping that a few stick.

Instead of signing Aubrey Huff to a two-year, $22 million deal, for example, the San Francisco Giants could have scooped up a dozen of the best international prospects. If one of them turned into the next Pedro Martinez or Vladimir Guerrero, they would be competitive for the next 15 years.

In Latin American countries like the Dominican Republic, teams begin hunting for the next superstar at extremely young ages.

Each of baseball's 30 franchises have scouting academies in the Dominican Republic. The government welcomes the sport with open arms, choosing not to levy taxes on imported bats, balls and gloves. Teams start paying attention to Latin American players when they are about 14 years old, and start talking to them about signing contracts. When they reach 16, they are eligible to play in the MLB. But that's just the first step in a long process.

Major League Baseball holds winter leagues in the Dominican Republic, which is considered one step below Single-A ball on the minor-league spectrum. Young boys from all over the globe often leave their families and spend a year or two in the country to learn from their team's scouting and development team. A few will get a promotion to the United States, where four or five more years of minor-league training awaits.

Of the tens of thousands of baseball players in Latin American countries, a handful may eventually reach the professional level.

The process of adding Japanese players to MLB teams isn't nearly as simple, and is often much more expensive. Unlike Latin American countries, the Japanese have their own lucrative professional baseball league. To prevent their high-profile players from voiding their contracts in order to play for MLB teams, a "posting system" was created in 1998.

When a Nippon Professional Baseball player is "posted," the 30 MLB teams hold a silent auction to determine who is granted exclusive rights to negotiate a contract with the player. If a contract is reached within 30 days, the winning team's silent auction bid is given to the Japanese team as a transfer fee.

Ichiro Suzuki was one of the first players to be successfully posted, and the Seattle Mariners paid a little more than $13 million for the right to negotiate a contract - an investment that has paid off exponentially, given Ichiro's global popularity. The Boston Red Sox made one of the biggest blunders in their history by paying the Seibu Lions more than $51 million for the right to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is now one of the least effective starting pitchers in baseball.

Over the last several years, professional baseball teams in this country have grown increasingly reliant on foreign-born players to play pivotal roles in their organization. Baseball talent can be found everywhere, and in the ultra-competitive MLB, teams are combing the far reaches of the globe to find the best players.

akneeland@gvnews.com, 547-9732