Whether it is spring training or a minor league game or an international tournament, you will see a lot of players that you may never hear from again or they may someday get a shot in the big leagues. Sad to say, most people don't know about players who have made their mark elsewhere in the world, guys who never played in the US or never got known here.

I follow the international scene closely and I'm familiar with a lot of great players that most people don't know about. I call them some of the best players you've never heard of.

I give you four of them. Three of them will be in Beijing in August, one has a good chance to make it to the majors.

Stubby Clapp:
If you're a die-hard Cardinals fan, you may have heard of the man I call "the heart and soul" of Canadian baseball. Forget guys like Larry Walker and Justin Morneau. Stubby Clapp is the real deal as far as I'm concerned when it comes to baseball north of the border. Even his name brings the image of a tough and gritty infielder, one who isn't afraid to get his uniform dirty, a guy you want to have as your team captain.

Clapp, a 36th round pick by the Cardinals out of Texas Tech in '96, had a 23 game cup of coffee with them in 2001, going 0 1 .200. He's also spent time in the Atlanta and Toronto systems, but it's in red and white (not the St. Louis red and white, mind you) that Clapp has made his mark. Since '91, from playing in the World Juniors, the Pan Am Games, the Olympics, the IBAF World Cup and the World Baseball Classic, Clapp has BEEN baseball in Canada, representing them in a total of ten international tournaments.

Stubby retired as a player after the 2006 season, but he has been busy as the hitting coach of the Lexington Legends, the Class A farm club of the Astros. Bad news for the Legends…they'll have to have somebody sub for Clapp in August as he'll come out of retirement for one more shot to play for an Olympic Medal. Clapp took part in the Final Qualifier in March, leading Canada to a 1st place finish in the tournament and a slot in Beijing.

Beijing will be his final appearance as a player, but I will bet we will not see the last of Stubby in a Canadian uniform. The man has "manager" written all over him and I will not be surprised to see him as Canada's manager someday. Heck, I won't be surprised to eventually see him as a manager in the majors, either.

Come to think of it, Stubby Clapp IS the perfect name for a manager.

Kai Gronauer:
Gronauer, a catcher, is one of the rising stars of Germany, a nation you don't really associate with baseball. He's played for the Solingen Alligators and for the German team in the European Championships, the 2007 IBAF World Cup and the Final Olympic Qualifier. He's turned down contracts from the Pirates and Twins, but the Mets recently made him an offer he couldn't refuse and he's currently in extended Spring Training over in Port St. Lucie.

What makes Gronauer unique? He's full German. You'd think that a German playing baseball would be playing because his dad was an Army guy or that he moved here as a kid and picked up the game that way, but decided to go back to Germany to play.

Nope.

Gronauer learned the game in Germany; never played for any teams on this side of the pond. He had offers from some schools to come here but turned them down to stay and play for Solingen until the Mets won him over.

German coach Greg Frady (an American who is also the head coach at Georgia State) has called Gronauer the best player in Germany and one of the five best catchers in the world today. That would mean he's in the company of guys like Jason Varitek and Cuba's Ariel Pestano and believe me, that isn't bad company.

There's only one Johnny Bench. But it won't be a reach to say that Kai Gronauer could possibly be the German Johnny Bench.

Alfredo Despaigne:
If you watch the Olympics this year, you will become aware of this kid from Cuba.

The thing about Cuban baseball is the mystique of it; just compare it to the Soviet hockey teams of the 70s and 80s. They lose a player to retirement or defection, no problem; they just plug another player in. Despaigne is another player that will be part of the Cuban baseball machine and given their recent sub-par (non-gold medal) performances, Cuba will go all out in Beijing to get back to the top.

Despaigne will be on the world stage and if his performance at last year's ENECO World Port Tournament in Rotterdam, The Netherlands is any indication, this kid has just begun. He led everybody with a .448 BA, along with 3 HR (2nd) and 8 RBI (also good for 2nd). In last year's World Cup, he batted .250 with 5 RBI, but two of them came in the gold medal game against the USA, knocking in two of the three runs Cuba scored in a losing cause.

If this was a perfect world, Alfredo Despaigne would be playing CF in the bigs right now. You can bet the scouts in Beijing will be drooling when they see this kid play. I know I will be watching closely.

Dirk van't Klooster:
You could call Dirk van't Klooster the iron man of The Netherlands. He's the all time leader in international games played for The Orange, dating back to 1994. He'll continue the string in Beijing.

He can also swing a bat, too. To me he's the last guy to hit over .400 in a season (sorry, Mr. Williams), leading the Hoofdklaase (The Dutch Major League) with a .403 average in 2005. His other crown came in 2002 with a .376 mark. Since then, he's only been out of the Top 10 only once.

In international play, van't Klooster has shone. He's always been one of the leaders in every offensive category. Batting average, RBI, extra-base hits, you'll always see van't Klooster's name in the Top Five.

He shows no signs of slowing down and like Kai Gronauer above, he's never played for any teams based here. No doubt van't Klooster will go down as the best player The Netherlands has produced. Sure the Dutch can field a team with guys from the Antilles such as Andruw Jones, Wlademier Balentien and Sidney Ponson. But the guys from the mainland can play pretty well, too, Dirk van't Klooster is one great example of that.

Besides, you know, I had to include somebody from The Netherlands on this list, right?