Down in Florida, where the Gulf Coast League (rookie) just kicked off last week, the Twins are rocking a starting lineup featuring no less than three Koreans — catcher Jang Jae-Hyung, infielder Choi Hyeong-rok and outfielder Choi Hyun-wook. I have to admit I haven’t seen any of these players myself — the two Chois were signed last year and Jang was signed in 2006.

The Chois are from Gunsan Commercial High School (which is in North Jeolla province) and were signed by International Scout David Kim. According to this article in the Korea Times the Chois were the 34th and 35th Korean players signed by major league teams. Jang is from Seoul and is listed at 5 ft. 11 in and 191 lbs.

The season is just three games old and the players will be rotated in and out of the starting lineup. The MILB.com GCL Twins page is here. This site also offers in depth coverage of the team with lengthy game reports and photos.

But the international theme doesn’t end in Korea. According to Taylor’s Twins Talk the team also features outfielder Wang-Wei Lin from Taiwan and Czech Jakub Hajtmar, an infielder. Perhaps even more fascinating is the fact that the winning pitcher of the Twins June 20 game was Andrei Lobanov, a Russian. A second Lobanov, though unrelated, named Nick, is also on the team. For an excellent post about baseball in Russia check out this post from The Austrian Baseball Blog.