France's Bastien Dagneau - photo by Christophe Elise
The 5th annual 2012 MLB Academies Tournament will be played in Regensburg, Germany from March 31 to April 6 – the third consecutive year the event will be held at Armin Wolf Arena. The teams on hand will be Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Sweden, Italy, Czech Republic and Austria.
heinnews talked to the coaches in charge of the teams to get a run-down on what international baseball fans can expect from the tournament – and the future.
France coach Sylvain Virey’s description of his team:
Looking over your roster, who do you see as some of your top players and maybe you can tell me a bit about those players and how high can they go in professional baseball
Bastien Dagneau has the tools to be a good power hitter and will probably interest the scouts during the camp. He’s a good athlete with a hard work mentality. Leo Cepesdes, already known by the European MLB organization, will be followed as well to see his improvements.
Looking at this class(es) of players, where does it rank in past classes? Is this a particularly good or bad year for the system?
We developed our player development program in 2011 with two more academies (one in Montpellier and one in Bordeaux).
Another player coming from Rouen Academy just signed with the Mariners.
We can say that we are still improving and progressing with the same momentum of the last past four years and with those type of players, we hope to continue the same way.
What players from your system would normally be here but are not and for what reason?
Alexandre Roy was supposed to come but he just signed with the Mariners. He’ll go to Phoenix to his new pro organization and come back to the academy several times during the season. This will force him to miss school and he had to make some choices in his schedule. He still has to pass his exams this and next year before graduating and going to the Mariners organization in 2013.
What do you think about this MLB Academy tournament and others like it? What are the biggest benefits for the players?
This the best event for our academies. Organising a tournament between European Academies is a great idea, and we thank MLB very much for this invitation. We also are pleased to come back to Regensburg with such good facilities. It is the best chance to develop our players and see where they are compared to the European level. The goal is different compared to the European championship. The priority is to develop the players. It allows us to give a chance to other players. It’s also a good moment for our players to be seen by scouts and to receive good feedback from MLB coaches as well. We hope that this type of event will be developed in the future. We can even imagine a European MLB championship with those national academies.
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Roster as of 21 March 2012
| NR | Last | First | Academy | Date of Birth (dd-mm-yy) |
Bats (R/ L / S) |
Throws (R / L) |
Height (cm) |
Weight (kg) |
Position | |
| 8 | BRELLE | Théo | ROUEN | 24.05.1994 | R | R | 175 | 63 | C/OF | |
| 11 | BILLAU | Clément | ROUEN | 28.05.1995 | R | R | 183 | 67 | P | |
| 25 | CESPEDES | Léo | TOULOUSE | 14.01.1994 | R | R | 180 | 72 | P/OF | |
| 98 | DAGNEAU | Bastien | ROUEN | 29.03.1995 | R | R | 190 | 90 | IF/OF | |
| 31 | DAVID | Yann | ROUEN | 22.08.1994 | R | R | 175 | 72 | P | |
| 33 | DEBOVE | Vicent | ROUEN | 20.03.1995 | R | R | 188 | 70 | P/OF | |
| 24 | GLEESON | Dylan | ROUEN | 16.02.1995 | R | R | 176 | 67 | C/IF | |
| 13 | GUILLOU | Loick | ROUEN | 16.08.1994 | R | R | 176 | 62 | IF/OF | |
| 9 | JOLYDESGOUILLES | Matthieu | TOULOUSE | 18.04.1995 | R | R | 176 | 61 | IF | |
| 16 | LEGER | Jonathan | TOULOUSE | 07.05.1995 | R | R | 179 | 57 | P | |
| 34 | MAYEUX | Dylan | ROUEN | 30.09.1995 | R | R | 180 | 70 | IF/P | |
| 23 | MOTTAY | Jonathan | TOULOUSE | 05.08.1994 | R | R | 176 | 56 | P | |
| 35 | NAHAS | Antoine | ROUEN | 04.06.1994 | R | R | 178 | 69 | P | |
| 14 | PARADINAS | Victor | TOULOUSE | 06.02.1995 | R | R | 165 | 50 | IF | |
| 37 | RIERA | Benoit | TOULOUSE | 15.09.1995 | L | L | 182 | 75 | P | |
| 36 | RODRIGUEZ | Benjamin | TOULOUSE | 26.08.1994 | R | R | 180 | 75 | IF | |
| 38 | ROY | Alexandre | ROUEN | 28.07.1995 | L | L | 186 | 74 | P | Scratch |
| 48 | TOULEMONDE | Antoine | TOULOUSE | 08.01.1994 | R | R | 180 | 73 | OF | |
| 10 | TURETTE | Pierre | TOULOUSE | 16.05.1995 | R | R | 178 | 68 | P/OF | |
| 2 | VALLON | Minh | ROUEN | 16.10.1995 | R | S | 183 | 69 | IF/OF | |
| 3 | VAUGELADE | Yoann | ROUEN | 06.09.1995 | R | R | 184 | 65 | IF/OF |
1 Comment
MLB would love to hire a player from France! Between 1980-1991, Steve Jeltz was the first French-Born player hired by MLB. Joris Bert was hired in 2007 and Chad Gaudin was signed by the Miami Marlins in late March. Not bad for a player from France who played for 3 different teams before moving to Miami.