The Dodgers selected Joris BERT in the 18th round of the 2007 draft. The 20-year-old center fielder is considered as one of the best European prospects in Baseball. Alan SCHWARZ of the New York Times labelled him as the crown jewel of the European Baseball Academy in a article on their website:
Dodgers’ Bert Is Crown Jewel of the European Academy
VERO BEACH, Fla. – No. 62 leaned forward on the makeshift aluminium bench, hands folded on his knees, and gazed east toward center field. If only his eyes were better, he could see over the trees, beyond the Atlantic Ocean and all the way to his homeland, France.
The player, Joris Bert, is one of more than 100 men in the Dodgers’ minor league system, but the only one who started playing baseball only because he missed a soccer game in Louviers. A dozen years later, Bert has found himself in the United States happily nicknamed Frenchie, with his eyes fixed on the more immediate horizon of the major leagues. “I’m not very good, but I know I have good potential,” said Bert, a center fielder who last June became the first Frenchman selected in the major league draft. “I don’t have enough experience in baseball to be good.”
The Dodgers want to give it to him, and also disagree with that “not very good” assessment. They consider Bert potentially a Brett Butler-type of leadoff man, a slap hitter who forces action with his speed. Although draft picks are occasionally fanciful – spent on Heisman
Trophy winners and once a general manager’s daughter – the Dodgers chose Bert in the quite legitimate 19th round.
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