Tough day for the game, but excited about a project coming soon here

The fans of baseball have been here before. Been dealing with the emotional roller coaster which watching players and owners try to divide up a very big pie and fail to do so, can produce.

The last 24 hours or so saw it appear the sides were about to produce a new collective bargaining agreement in the early morning hours of Tuesday, only to see that not happen by much later that afternoon.

There is plenty of money to go around, they just can't seem to divide it up to make everyone happy. That this comes at a time when some in the game's fanbase have lost jobs and/or seen family members and others hurting during a pandemic just seems wrong to me.

I can't help but feel bad now for those that count on the game as a second or third job. Or first job in many cases. Those that love to go to the ballpark to get away from the day's problems. Those who don't enjoy the pleasures that big money can provide for a player or owner. It feels like the game is taking a large group of people for granted here and could lose some of this group.

I love almost everything about baseball. Almost everything. Right now I don't know how good people with good intentions could have let it get to this point. Again.

But speaking about something much more fun than that: No real easy segue here except to just say what I intend to say. Which is that I've been working on a series of stories about Orioles international prospects that I will begin to roll out in this space likely beginning tomorrow.

I've been working on this project for a while and am excited to take my shot at ranking some of the club's top international prospects. At a time when it seems almost everyone has a top prospects list for the game or a specific team, nowhere have I seen such a list about international prospects. Until now.

There are no right or wrong answers in ranking prospects at anytime, especially when they are teenagers and just starting out in pro ball or maybe have yet to play a single game! Or have yet to play a game in the United States.

I find the international market fascinating and fun to cover. Just not easy. There are no press guides or preprepared bios on these players and you have to put in the time to find out about them and what clubs like about them.

I talked to several in the game that I won't cite here as most gave some very extensive and extremely helpful opinions knowing they were speaking under a condition of anonymity. Just like when we talk to a scout, as I may have for these upcoming stories. They provide great information and opinons without attaching their names to something.

For years international scouts have told me that in their marketplace some top talent, and even stars, can be produced by players who signed for small dollar amounts. It is not easy to project the future for a baseball player, especially one that is 16 or 17 and never played college ball. One that you don't exactly have a bunch of TrackMan data on. One that you had to start scouting at age 14 to sign at 16.

But with international talent producing somewhere around 30 percent of the players we find in major league clubhouses, it's a marketplace all teams have to play in. The Orioles for years had that rare international talent find - players like Jonathan Schoop and Eduardo Rodriguez come to mind - but they only dabbled in this market, at best and they really needed to jump into the deep end of the pool. That is where they would have found members of the front offices in places like New York, Boston, Tampa Bay and Toronto. Not to mention just about everywhere else in the game.

The Orioles have a goal with their rebuilding efforts. And that is to win big at the MLB level. If they do, or even get back to some consistent playoff contention, they will start picking much lower in the draft. Then the international market will really be big. Not only to produce consistent depth and talent throughout the system, but maybe where they find their next big star. The next Adley Rutschman and/or Grayson Rodriguez.

In three international classes under executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and senior director of international scouting Koby Perez the team has come a long way.

In the last two classes they have signed the Baltimore Orioles first three seven figure, international amateur players. In the class from January of 2021 they signed eight players to bonuses of $300,000 or more. In the class for 2022 just announced a few weeks ago, they added five players for bonuses of $400,000 or more and four for $600,000 or more.

The Orioles, beyond the renewed commitment of signing international amateur players, have a new academy coming in the next year and have beefed up international scouting. This year they will again fill two rosters in the Dominican Summer League and no doubt have another strong international presence in the rookie level Florida Complex League. For the first time the low Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds could have a dozen or more international prospects. The full season clubs will finally begin to be impacted by the club's renewed international efforts.

This is all so very important to building the elite talent pipeline.

So after several interviews with several people, I'm about to roll out my own top 20 O's international prospects list. I'll provide some scouting reports and bonus information. You'll read no doubt about some players you have already heard a lot about but also a few you may have never heard a single thing about. There will be players on this list that signed for very low bonus amounts in addition to those that recently signed for a million or more.

It's been fun to compile the information and now I begin to roll out some stories and scouting reports. It might, even for a short time, take your mind off other matters surrounding the game right now.

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