Global gathering
GCL Twins' roster lists players from 11 countries
By David Dorsey
Fort Myers News Press
Amanda Inscore/news-press.com
Members of the Gulf Coast League Twins watch a recent game from their dugout. The team has a diverse roster that includes players from Taiwan, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Australia, Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Canada and the United States.
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Baseball’s global growth has reached its highest point for the Minnesota Twins.
A franchise-record 11 nationalities are represented on the Gulf Coast League Twins’ roster of 30 players. The lowest level of rookie ball has a team that trains and plays at the Lee County Sports Complex throughout the summer.
The internationalization of this team can be found in one player who personifies it more than any other.
Rodney Gessmann’s mother, Wakako, is Japanese. His father, Rainer, is German.
Rodney Gessmann, a 20-year-old, right-handed relief pitcher, was born in Hawaii, lived the first four years of his life in Japan and then grew up in Germany. That gives him citizenship in three nations, and he’s fluent in Japanese, German and English. Gessmann has two passports — one from the United States and the other from Germany.
The Minnesota Twins discovered Gessmann and almost all of the other European players at the annual European championship youth tournament.
Twins scout Howard Norsetter covers Australia, Europe and Asia, and the Twins have part-time scouts who cover Italy and the rest of Europe.
“I’m trying to learn a little Spanish,” Gessmann said. “My father travels a lot to Cuba.
“At home, my mom speaks Japanese. So I’ll talk to her in German, and she’ll answer back in Japanese. If someone else were there, they wouldn’t know what was going on.”
Learning Spanish would come in handy, as Gessmann has six teammates and two coaches, including bilingual manager Nelson Prada, from Venezuela. Gessmann has three other teammates from the Dominican Republic and another from Puerto Rico.
Nine Americans — 10 if you count Gessmann twice — are on the Gulf Coast Twins.
Three Australians are on the team.
Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and Taiwan are represented by one player each.
“No question,” Twins director of baseball operations and contracts Rob Antony said when asked if 11 nationalities on one team equaled a franchise record. “It is for us. I don’t know if anyone else has that much diversity. We’ve made an effort to try to globalize a little more.
“We’ve spent a lot more time in Europe.”
Gessmann’s background reminded Antony of another former international player, one who advanced to the major leagues.
“We had Michael Nakamura,” Antony said. “He was born in Japan, lived in Australia and went to college in south Alabama. And he pitched in the big leagues for us.”
GAINING GROUND
The number of nationalities might grow by one more next summer.
“We’ve got a player from Korea who just got released from the army,” Antony said. “He had to do his military service. He’s going to play in an Australian summer league. We’ve got one from the Czech Republic and four from Australia also in that league.”
Of the players who were signed as free agents and not drafted by the Twins, the team can keep their rights for up to seven years. They make $1,100 a month at the Gulf Coast League level.
They have last names such as Waltenbury (Canada), Stuifbergen (the Netherlands), Arias (Dominican Republic) and Acosta (Venezuela).
They come from near (catcher David Hernandez hails from Miami). They come from far (outfielder Wang-Wei Lin is in his first professional baseball season out of Taiwan).
Some come from countries known for baseball (catcher Miguel Barrientos grew up in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico). Others come from countries where baseball is in its infancy (pitcher Nick Lobanov is his rookie year out of Moscow, Russia, and pitcher Tom Stuifbergen has arrived from Haarlem, the Netherlands).
Some of them endure some culture shock. Relief pitcher Jakub Toufar of the Czech Republic grew up eating fresh-made food.
“In Czech, everybody makes food,” he said. “They take one or two hours to make a meal. It’s not like over here, with fast food and microwaves.”
MOLDING THE TEAM
Prada, the team manager and a Barquisimeto, Venezuela, resident, somehow will mold all of these youngsters from different cultures, languages and backgrounds into future Class A Fort Myers Miracle players. Some, if they are lucky enough and talented enough, could reach the major leagues.
“They all speak baseball,” Prada said. “When you get them all out on the field, it’s all the same. They all love what they do.
“No one wants to go home. They all want to stay here and play. We’ve got a good group. They all get along together well.”
The European players have to catch up to their Latin American and American counterparts, Prada said.
Most of the Latin players compete for three years in the Twins’ organization at its baseball academies in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, so they are ahead in terms of practice time and quality of coaching, Prada said.
“Acosta is going to be a little bit more ready than Toufar,” Prada said in comparing pitchers Jose Acosta of Venezuela and Toufar. “But they’re all here because they can compete.”
Antony does not expect all, or even many, of these players to reach the major leagues. He described the Twins’ efforts as a work in progress.
“It’s kind of one of those deals where you’re trying to unearth anybody anywhere,” Antony said.
LESS FINANCIAL RISK
Because European and Latin American players are not subject to the Major League Baseball Draft, they usually can be signed cheaper than their drafted counterparts, which makes the risk in signing a player from so far away worthwhile.
“It depends on ability and demands, and what other teams are offering them,” Antony said of the signing-bonus money needed to land foreign players. “Some guys get $10,000. Some guys get $70,000. Some guys get $100,000. Some guys get $1,000.
“Some guys understand that it’s an opportunity.”
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
Nick Lobanov, 18, of Moscow, Russia, was throwing in the bullpen at age 15 at the European National Championship tournament when a Twins’ scout noticed and approached him.
Lobanov harbors a strong desire to reach the majors. His brother, 13-year-old Nikita, plays for the Russian 18-and-under national team, which competed in a tournament in Fort Myers last week.
“I respect my family,” Nick Lobanov said. “All I do is for my family. They did so much for me.”
Antony cited Loek Van Mil as a perfect example of a foreign success story, at least so far. The Twins signed the 7-foot-1 pitcher from the Netherlands. At the time of his signing, he threw 85 miles an hour. Now, he’s throwing 95 miles an hour, having been promoted from last year’s Gulf Coast Twins to the Elizabethton (Tenn.) Twins in low-Class A.
“It’s going to cost you less,” Antony said of bringing in European and other foreign players. “Maybe they don’t make it. But you never know.
“This is our bread and butter. We have to have players that we develop on our own.
“We can’t afford the big free agents. When we lose somebody, we have to fill it internally.”
Antony enjoys watching the prospects get better and advance through the minor leagues.
“It’s easy to sign them and put them at the lowest rookie level. It’s another thing for all of these players from all corners of the world to make it to the big leagues.”
If they do make it to the majors, Antony said, “it would be great for the game. They’d be an instant rock star back home.”
THE GULF COAST LEAGUE TWINS’ ROSTER
Australia: LHP Jarrad Eacott, RHP Liam Hendriks, INF James Beresford
Canada: 1B Jon Waltenbury
Czech Republic: RHP Jakub Toufar
Dominican Republic: RHP Santos Arias, INF Juan Richardson, C Alexander Soto
Germany: RHP Rodney Gessmann
Netherlands: RHP Tom Stuifbergen
Puerto Rico: C Miguel Barrientos
Russia: LHP Nick Lobanov
Taiwan: OF Wang-Wei Lin
United States: RHP Daniel Berlind, RHP Michael McCardell, RHP Thomas Wright, C David Hernandez, C Dan Rohlfing, 1B Nick Biagini, OF Andrew Schmiesing, OF Kevin Harrington, SS Paul Kelly, OF Ben Revere, RHP Lee Martin
Venezuela: RHP Jose Acosta, LHP Winston Marquez, RHP Danny Rondon, INF Jeanfred Brito, INF Yangervis Solarte, SS Ramoncito Santana
Webposted July 2, 2007
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GCL Twins