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US baseball Olympians set for Sydney
LOS ANGELES, Aug 23 (AFP) - Ernie Young and Sean Burroughs, top prospects for Major League Baseball clubs, were among the players named to the United States Olympic baseball team here on Wednesday. A 25-man squad of elite US minor leaguers will compete at Sydney against major league talent from South Korea and Japan as well as reigning champion Cuba, a tough Australian squad plus Italy, the Dutch and South Africa. Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda will guide the US team that opens against Japan on September 17 at Homebush Bay in Sydney. Burroughs, a third baseman who will be 20 when the Olympics start, was the ninth overall selection of the San Diego Padres in the 1998 free agent draft. He is batting .291 with two homeruns and 42 runs batted in for a Class AA club two steps below the major leagues. Young led Long Beach, California to the 1992 and 1993 Little League World Series championships. In 1993 he was named the youth tournament's Most Valuable Player after batting .600 and pitching two 16-strikeout no hitters. The 31-year-old Young, an outfielder, is currently having one of the top seasons in the minor leagues, batting .263 with 35 homers and 97 RBI for the Memphis Redbirds of Class AAA, one step below the majors. Young has appeared in 280 major league games with the Oakland Athletics, Kansas City Royals and Arizona Diamondbacks. Other familiar names to baseball fans comprise the 29-man roster, including catchers Marcus Jensen (Minnesota), Pat Borders (Tampa Bay) and Mike Kinkade (Baltimore) and first basemen Mark Johnson (New York Mets) and Doug Mientkiewicz (Minnesota) The other infielders are Brent Abernathy (Tampa Bay), Brent Butler (Colorado), Adam Everett (Houston), Travis Dawkins (Cincinnati) and Mike Coolbaugh (New York Yankees). The outfielders are Shawn Gilbert (Los Angeles), Mike Neill (Seattle), Anthony Sanders (Seattle) and Brad Wilkerson (Montreal). On the pitching staff are righthanders Ben Sheets (Baltimore), Jon Rauch (Chicago White Sox), Roy Oswalt (Houston), Kurt Ainsworth (San Francisco), C.C. Sabathia (Cleveland), Matt Ginter (White Sox), Shane Heams (Detroit), Todd Williams (Seattle) and Ryan Franklin (Seattle). The lefthanded hurlers are Rick Krivda (Baltimore), Bobby Seay (White Sox), Tim Young (Boston) and Chris George (Kansas City). Olympic teams will face each other once in round-robin play with the top four advancing to the semifinals on September 26. The semifinal winners will meet for the gold medal on September 27.
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