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John Stockstill, the Orioles Director of International Scouting, gave me some numbers to shed more light on this topic.

He picked a random day from the middle of last August and examined every Major League roster for that day; and he found these numbers of players from countries around the world on big league rosters that day.

102 - Dominican Republic
64 - Venezuela
29 - Puerto Rico
13 - Mexico
12 - Japan
12 - Canada

The Orioles have been trying, but without much success so far, to produce their own Dominican star. They had just two players on this year's team that were Dominican-born and originally signed by the O's in Radhames Liz and Daniel Cabrera.

They are adding players to their Minor League system that they hope can one day make it. Of the 200 players listed as Minor Leaguers in the back of the O's media guide for 2008, 54 are from the Dominican and were signed by the Orioles.

Players from that nation are not eligible for the June First-Year Player Draft and must be signed as "non-drafted free agents." They can be signed when they turn 16 and most players are signed at that age.

A player may spend 2-3 years in the Dominican Summer League before heading for the American Minor Leagues. That player could spend another 3-5 years there before he's ready for the Majors. A Dominican player signed at 16 in 2008 may not make the Majors before 2014.

"We've been in our academy there since about April," Stockstill said. "We've signed about 15 players this year. The problem is those players have about a one and a half percent chance to get there (the Majors) by numbers. And if they do, it could be 2015 when they are there. It's a long-term market. We are potentially going to add some scouts there. It's an ongoing and long-term process. Andy (MacPhail) has brought it a long way."

While the Orioles have five scouts that work the Dominican, Carlos Bernhardt is the only full-time scout there. Felipe Alou Jr. runs the team's academy located in Boca Chica. There are five other clubs right near the O's complex. All of the Dominican players the O's have were signed by either Bernhardt or the O's Director of Player Development David Stockstill.

"We just need to update our scouting there," John Stockstill said. "It's volume there, the number of players that you put in the system with tools. So we need to add to the quality players we're signing and that takes more scouts. We've already got the facility. It holds 35 players for the team that we have. Some clubs have two teams there."

A recent Baseball America story reported that the Yankees signed six international players this year to six figure bonuses, and Tampa signed four. The O's, who have put out some big money in recent amateur drafts, did not sign any foreign-born player to a six-figure bonus.

"It's not a money thing in the Dominican. There are clubs out there spending 2,3,4 million on players and the numbers will tell you that's not been the result. That doesn't always get the result you want," Stockstill said. "The numbers tell you that the players that are good players in the big leagues are not the players who got the big bonuses. That doesn't mean it won't change, so you have to be ahead of the curve. We do know there is a history of a player getting a certain amount as becoming a much better player than a player getting a lot of money."

Stockstill realizes it is hard to project years ahead when signing a Dominican player at 16. That's like signing an American kid as a freshman or sophomore in high school.

Stockstill said the O's can find the top players in the Dominican.

"Carlos (Bernhardt) knows where the players are. If a club isolates itself to where they have to follow agents to find players, they're in trouble. You need to find players that the agents haven't already found. We've got enough infrastructure in there that we are finding a pretty good caliber of player. In nine months, the totality of the effort has taken us from near the bottom (because our facility wasn't that good) to about the top 15 now and headed forward. You need to improve that by 2 or 3 notches every year because the people that are way ahead are way ahead of you."

Stockstill said a Dominican Summer League team made up of 16 to 18-year-old players will probably have three to five potential prospects on its roster, not unlike any American Minor League club.

While the O's are feeling better these days about their Dominican effort, they have a ways to go in Venezuela.

"We have not been that active in Venezuela in about two and half years," Stockstill said. "We've cleaned out an issue we had there. We plan and hope to start getting heavily involved there over the next few months and moving forward. That's a long term thing."

Stockstill would not say what "issue" the club had there, only that it is being resolved.

While the O's have five scouts in the Dominican they are not currently as well staffed in Venezuela. Jesus Alfaro does some scouting work there. Stockstill seems confident the O's are set to add some scouts and possibly shuffle duties for some they already have to better cover certain areas around the world.

"We had to clean up some issues; now we are ready to move forward in Venezuela again. We need to add scouts there. Jesus Alfaro has seen some players there for us. But we haven't signed players there in about two years. But we will now make a targeted effort to get more players in Venezuela. We'll make a more active effort there going forward.

"Some countries we've been in, we've assessed, and we won't spend any money there. I won't name them," Stockstill said. "As we extend our efforts world wide, we really need to figure out what countries to target the most. Andy is going to be very smart about how and where he spends his money."

Asked to name the top five countries to scout, Stockstill said he would volunteer only three, listed in order, the Dominican, Venezuela and Japan.

"Andy believes in grass roots scouting, being prepared for anything that happens. We need to have the right scouts in the right places. If you look at Andy's time in Chicago, when he got there we had a scouting structure that was out of whack. Within three or four years we had a large number of scouts and we were covering most places.

"By 1996 he established some international scouting and by '97 that was going strong. Look at Zambrano, Cedeno, he added good international players. Some people think he goes slowly, I don't see it that way. He is sure of his moves. The worst thing you can do is go too hard and put scouts in the wrong areas. We need to be sure of each move as we go forward.

"We have to extend our scouting there (in the Dominican and Venezuela). We think we know what markets we should go toward and which ones we should go at harder than others. Now you need to get the people physically in there. Anyone can go in and watch the top players. The clubs with scouts there find players others don't."