Hak-ju Lee is the focal point of an article, which, I’m linking from the Ethopian Times, but is originally a Wall Street Journal piece. The article is called Foreign Talent Loads the Bases in Minor Leagues. Clever.

The piece talks about how international MLB is becoming. We all knew that, but I have to admit I didn’t exactly realize why, and to what extent….

Recent changes in U.S. immigration law and growing competition in baseball for raw talent have allowed the minor-league farm system to flourish with imported players. It has been a home run for globalization, but bad news for U.S.-born players, who suddenly have much more competition. Across the minor and major leagues, the total number of foreign-born players is growing fast, to almost 3,500 of the 8,532 players under contract this summer, from 2,964 three years ago.

The piece gets into the economics of the signings, again revealing some surprising numbers…

This summer, major-league teams spent over $70 million signing nondraft free agents from outside the country. That is up from $54 million last year, and just under $30 million in 2006, the last year before the Compete Act.

Economics plays a huge role. U.S.-born players drafted out of high school rarely sign a contract to turn pro without a cash bonus, most in excess of $100,000. This summer, the Cubs have forked out more than $6 million in signing bonuses to 26 U.S. prospects, an average of nearly a quarter million apiece.

I’ll also mention that Lee got a nod from one of my favorite prospect gurus, John Sickles, who had him listed at #5 on his preseason Top 20 Cubs prospects. Sickles is going through all his lists and updating the progress of each player. I’ll just quote this blurb in its entirety.

5) Hak-Ju Lee, SS, Grade B-: Hitting .314/.385/.417 with 21 steals in the Northwest League. Doing well so far, looks like a very intriguing player.

Sickles is a notoriously hard grader, so a B- is actually pretty good by his scale.