Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star has a nice little article today about Team Canada’s new manager, Terry Puhl and the strides that Canadian baseball has made over the years. It’s worth a look.
Canadian Baseball Has Come A Long Way
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Pretty standard fare but interesting none the less. Is it just me, or would Canada have a large percentage of Star to Scrubs ratio when it comes to major league talent. If so, then that would point to under-development of the countries youth (IMO).
What do ya think? Could be an interesting article topic.
Indeed. I also think that as far as development goes, BC has the upper hand. Just to name a few: Morneau, Francis, Harden, Loewen and of course Larry Walker. Not much to speak of from the prairies or the maritimes, save Matt Stairs of NB. Considering Ontario’s population you would think all of the studs would come from there.
It probably is linked to the Baseball Academy’s out in Western Canada. One would assume that the Greater Toronto Area would produce more MLB talent, considering that about 15% of the country’s population resides in the area. Maybe hockey’s getting the nod, I’m not sure. One thing I am sure of is the GTA high school baseball needs to be run a little better. CityTV occasionally has scores, but the ball should be pushed as a big deal, which would bring in better athletes. Worst case scenario, the Jays local scouts should be all over the games, signing up some of the untapped talent that most likely resides in the GTA.
Reasonable or just blowin’ smoke?
The Baseball Academy in Montreal was disbanded in the 1990s and alot of the Canadian talent in baseball now would have been kids that chose baseball over hockey when the Jays and Expos were popular in the late 80s early 90s. I think that the crest of baseball studs from Canada are in the ML’s right now.
Just eliminated the e-mail portion from the comment section and I’m trying it out.
Anyways, I remember Elliot going on and on about the BC Camps/Academy’s in his Northern Game book.
I personally question the depth of scouting throughtout Canada. The ratio of stars to scrubs is most likely so high that we’re leaving plenty of decent athletes “on the table” so to speak.