Brazil by Craig Calcaterra December 5, 2008 The Rays are expanding to Brazil: On Thursday, the Rays announced they have built a partnership with the city of Marilia, Brazil, that will include construction of a training facility beginning in the first quarter of 2009, which will be the first baseball academy in Brazil run by a Major League organization. “It’s [a project] that is obviously a long-term initiative,” said Andrew Friedman, the Rays’ executive vice president of baseball operations. “We don’t think it’s something that’s going to pay dividends in a year from now, necessarily.” Very true, I’d gather, as there isn’t a heck of a lot of baseball played in Brazil. To get talent out of there, one would assume that you’d need years and years of developing kids who are now of little league age or younger. You have to teach the game and immerse them in the game. More importantly, you have to gather an immense amount of data. Obtain every bit of available knowledge you can about the players in the area, their strengths, their weaknesses, everything. I guess what I’m saying is that, just as much as a talent development system, it would have to be one of information retrieval. Dear Lord, I need the baseball season to start again.