Road to Atlanta, Ep. 11: International prospects and the international market with Ben Badler

While the MLB draft may have more traditional fanfare and exposure in mainstream sports media, the international free agent market has shaped the composition and success for a lot of teams for many years now and the Braves are no different. While baseball started as a distinctly American sport, its reach has expanded throughout the globe....in particular in Latin America and Japan. As a result, we are seeing increases across the board in representation on rosters by foreign-born players. In the Braves case, beyond the obvious example of Andruw Jones as an IFA guy who made an impact, four of the players that made top 100 prospects lists this year (Ronald Acuna, Kevin Maitan, Luiz Gohara, and Ozzie Albies) were all international signees.

However, the international free agent market is an entirely different animal than traditional free agency or the draft with many of its top players barely able to legally drive in the US in addition to have restrictions and rules in place that are unusual to the casual observer. To help us sort it all out, Baseball America’s Ben Badler came on the show where we talked all things international baseball. You want to know what the scouting reports on Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna when they first signed? We’ve got you. Are you curious which prospects from the 2016 class (non-Maitan division) Ben likes the most? Got it. Do you need more Maitan in your life? Yep. We have all of that and a whole lot more in this episode as we went deep on the international market. Enjoy!