PHILIPPINES – Major League Baseball envoy Rick Dell recently paid a visit to the Philippines to evaluate 15 players aged 16-18 years old in hopes of possibly recruiting a prospect who is capable of eventually playing in the United States.

It was the first time that Dell performed an evaluation of a group of players that are competing in Baseball Philippines and the UAAP although he has made a visit to the country on numerous occasions.

During the workouts, Dell asked the players in attendance to do drills that are done in professional standards such as a 60-yard dash, some fielding situations and batting practices.

Dell, a former US NCAA Division III coach, believes that Filipinos have a chance of eventually making the MLB ranks because of their potential.

If a player or two passes Dell’s evaluation, they will be invited to an MLB training camp in either Australia or China. And, Dell hopes to come back to the country and do more evaluations.

Dell spent 27 years as the coach of The College of New Jersey where he complied 708 victories during his tenure.

In 2007, he resigned as the school’s head coach to accept the MLB envoy role in China. Dell has been visiting around th Southeast Asia reigion with trips to Indonesia and Cambodia.

Baseball Philippines Set Two Player Tryout Dates

Baseball Philippines Tryouts will conduct two open tryouts in February for the upcoming Baseball Philippines Series V & VI. The first Tryouts will be at 1 PM on Feb. 7 at the historic Rizal Memorial Baseball Stadium in Manila. The final tryout slated for Feb. 21 will begin at 9 AM at the same venue.

It is the current policy of Baseball Philippines to ensure that all players listed on a team’s roster must have gone through Baseball Philippines tryouts (exception to this rule would be to lift this rule and allow a team limited slots for Direct Hires). Direct hires are players who do not need to go through any Baseball Philippines sanctioned tryouts or draft (this opportunity is given to all teams in the event it is implemented).

All players who attend tryouts but are not chosen by any team during the draft will be considered Free Agents and may be picked up by any team within Series V or VI during the allowed period specified by the Baseball Philippines Technical Committee.

Players who cannot afford to travel may send their bio-data (include statistics of your most recent league and/or tournaments) with referral contacts of the leagues/tournaments participated in or coaches/managers who have witnessed you play. Documents may be sent via email to the following:

EMAIL
info@baseballphilippines.com

FAX
(632) 892-1768

MAIL
Community Sports Inc.
5th Floor Pilgrim Building, 111 Aguirre Street,
Legaspi Village, Makati City

Visit www.baseballphilippines.com for more Philippines baseball news

BP Journal is a BaseballdeWorld regular feature that is published every Tuesday.

Tags: BP Journal, Philippines