Are the Twins Australia's favorite franchise?

[Hawkeye12]

With two Aussies on the current roster I was curious how many players from there have made the majors.  Turns out only 32 have made it, and 9 have actually played for the Twins at least one game. 

 

Grant Balfour has been the most successful with the Twins, but they've also had Liam Hendriks, Glenn Williams, Luke Hughes, James Beresford, Justin Huber, and Brad Thomas.  

 

In addition Michael Nakamura was really from Australia, but born in Japan so doesn't quite fit this list.  Trent Oeltjen was signed by the Twins and made it to AAA before leaving and making it elsewhere.  And Ryan Rowland-Smith was the Twins' Rule V pick in 2004, but was returned to the Mariners and eventually made the bigs. 

 

Also, Joe Quinn was the only Australian born player prior to 1986, playing 17 seasons (still the record for an Australian) from 1884-1901 and played his final year as a Washington Senator.  So maybe it was destiny a century ago that the eventual Twins would tap into the outback.

 

The Brewers did have Dave Nillson and Graeme Lloyd years back at the same time, so they probably have quality over quantity compared to the Twins.

[rdehring]

Great question, that I suspect the answer is going to be no. Seth can confirm this, but I suspect our focus on searching Australia for the next big leaguer is less today than say five years ago.

 

Howie Norsetter (former Madison West grad) had been the Twins Director of International Scouting. He spent a lot of time working the Australia circuit with numerous signings that you mentioned above. As the new FO made changes, Howie is gone and now working for the Phillies. I am not certain who is now responsible for SE Asia and Australia, but would expect us to see fewer Aussies entering the organization than when Howie was in charge.