Canada flavor

[madtownbrew]

What are we to make of all of these Canadians drafted in the past couple of years. I realize that Ash and Melvin are both native Canadians, but should we really be drafting this many guys from north of the border? Even a number of the guys we drafted from the juco ranks are native canadians. Are Ash and Melvin trying to show loyalty to their country, or are all of these guys really legit prospects? I have faith in both of these guys, but I'm just a little surprsied that we are focusing so much on guys from a country that isn't known for baseball. Curious to hear others opinions on this?

[madbad2000]

Well I believe a lot of it was that Canada is an underscouted area. So this is a way for the Brewers to hopefully get in and snag some very good talent cheap. With Ash and Melvin from there I'm sure that was an influence but not the deciding factor. I think it could be a good idea. Have to wait and see how the Canucks pan out.

[batman]

I love it, and I think if anything the Brewers should concentrate even more heavily on Canucks. One of the best ways to improve the quality of your scouting efforts is to concentrate them on a single area... the Braves do it with the Southeast, for example, and some of the "saber" teams do it with the NCAA. Canada has been severely underscouted in the past and the Brewers have Dick Groch (super-scout) in charge of their Canadian efforts, so they've got a chance to really dig into the country's draft eligible players and uncover lots of nuggets that other teams just don't have the (wo)manpower to scout.

 

I don't think it's loyalty that motivates the decision, although I'm sure comfort does. Melvin, Ash, Groch, et. al. are probably very well connected in Canadian baseball circles and so they know all the coaches and scouts and batting cage operators and peanut vendors and can mine them for information and leads.

 

It will be interesting to look back in five or ten years and see how the Canadian emphasis pans out.

 

~Bill

[madtownbrew]

By my count, it looks like we drafted 8 native canadians this year. I would suspect that might be a little more than last year's draft. I too hope that this scouting up north works out for us. It would be nice to discover the next Larry Walker, Morneau, or Gagne.

[plowjockey]

Can any Canadians sign this year, or are all of the visas used up for 2005? There was some legislation to expand the work visas proposed, what was that outcome?

[Jim Goulart]

Canadians drafted:

 

By team: Milwaukee 8, Toronto 4, Minnesota 3, San Diego 3, Los Angeles 3, Florida 3, Cincinnati 2, Kansas City 2, Seattle 2, San Francisco 2, Washington 1, Arizona 1, Atlanta 1, Cleveland 1, Detroit 1, Houston 1, St. Louis 1, Yankees 1, Mets 1, Tampa Bay 1.

 

Link:

 

slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Baseba..._2005.html

[colbyjack]

The Brewers should be scouring Canada, they have a pretty healthy list of Canadian scouts employed. Although several of them are natives Canadians playing in the states, so I'm sure several of them are getting referred by guys that had the opportunity to watch them before their college and JC careers.

[dadofandrew]

Also, the weather and outdoor recreation opportunities make it likely a Canadian would find Milwaukee to be an attractive place to make it a career.

[DHonks]

Al said it right. With more stars from Canada today than in the past, we want to find the top talent along with the TOP talent that wants to be in Milwaukee

[jackalope02ca]

As a Canadian Brewer Fan i love it. There is a lot of talent up here. True Baseball is light years behind hockey in popularity and the likes of Koskie and Walker only got serious about it after their hockey careers ended.

 

I describe a lot of the talent up here as raw. Not much scouting done though. B.C and Southern Ontario's climate aren't much different than Milwaukee and that is where most of the guys we are taking are from.

 

Besides worse case scenario is some of our guys in the minors will get to experience real beer.

 

As to signable. I here you guys are issuing more limited work visas which would allow some of these guys who sign quickly to play this year.