Things are just different for the Atlanta Braves when scouting for amateur talent in Venezuela.

“We’ve had an edge with Venezuelans,” admitted Braves Latin American scouting director Jonathan Cruz to the media on Tuesday.

And the reason? Ronald Acuña Jr.

Acuña, who signed with Atlanta in July of 2014, is a legend in Venezuela. And yeah, it gives the Braves an advantage when scouting for talent in the South American country.

“Are we calling Acuña and telling him ‘hey, help us out with these guys’? No. (But) we don’t have to ask for help. Every one of these kids dreams about being on the same field as him.”

And while Cruz admitted that the signing bonus ($5M) may have been the bigger factor behind Atlanta’s signing of top international prospect Jose Perdomo, a shortstop, it wasn’t the only factor that brought Perdomo into the fold.

“Alex (Anthopoulos, Braves GM and president of baseball operations) is pretty passionate about international free agents. […] There were other teams involved early in the mix (but) when Alex wants the top guy, he’s going to get the top guy. We felt tremendous support from him. He was well involved and that’s how we landed our guy.”

And Atlanta’s comfortable with the potential of Perdomo, as much as you can be about a player at this stage of their career.

“Obviously these kids are very young,” reminded Cruz, before discussing what they saw from a scouting perspective. “We think the hardest thing to teach, if you can teach it at all, is to hit. And that’s his calling card.”

Atlanta scouted Perdomo early, starting at the age of twelve, when he actually competed in domestic youth baseball showcases here in the United States.