Talking Chop

From a Baseballworld article on the Braves Academy in Tenerife:

Although the weight is on the Spanish players, this year there are youngsters from different European countries present since the first concentration. Four of the players in the roster are Russian, two Italian and one is a Dutchman. This aperture adds interest for both the Major League franchise and the Spanish because there is a direct comparison between elite players from different countries. In the near future, you can expect to see more nationalities around the Tenerife ballpark.

We're still in the early days of the Braves European Academy on the Spanish island of Tenerife, and it hasn't produced any talent yet, but being on the cutting edge of player development like this will eventually pay dividends in the form of a prospect for the Major Leagues. I love this paragraph above because it shows that we're pulling baseball talent from every possible country. We all know how well the Braves have done in Latin America in recent years with Christian Bethancourt, Julio Teheran, and Edward Salcedo, but the Braves scouts are everywhere!

On the Braves opening day roster these are the countries represented:

United States
Curacao
Japan
Australia
Cuba
Venezuela
Dominican Republic

And if you include their minor league teams you can probably double that number of countries.