14 triple-A players named to U.S. Olympic baseball team

The 24-man team the United States will take to Beijing for what could be the final Olympic baseball tournament will be long on experience, with 14 of the players selected today currently playing at the triple-A level, the highest level of minor league play.

The roster also includes seven double-A players, one single-A minor leaguer and a collegian. Among them are Dodger minor leaguers Terry Tiffee, an infielder, and Mike Koplove, a pitcher, and the Angels’ Kevin Jepsen, a pitcher, and Matt Brown, an infielder. All are former major leaguers now playing in the triple-A Pacific Coast League.

The team will be managed by former Dodger skipper Davey Johnson.

“We knew we wanted to build a veteran club, a team of players who have been battle-tested, so to speak,” said Bob Watson, USA Baseball’s general manager of professional teams. “But we wanted younger prospects as well, players who have the fire to go out and showcase their talents on the international stage.”

The pitching staff will be headed by San Diego State junior right-hander Stephen Strasburg, 19, who struck out 23 batters in a game against Utah in April. He had two victories for a team of U.S. college all-stars, which won the gold medal at the Haarlam Baseball Week tournament in the Netherlands on Sunday.

That team registered two victories over the powerful Cuban national team.

The offense will be led by Cleveland Indians prospect Matt LaPorta, who was recently traded by the Milwaukee Brewers in the CC Sabathia deal. Baseball America magazine ranks the outfielder, a member of the 2005 U.S. national team, as the top prospect in his new organization.

Nine players are from California, including Jepsen (Anaheim), Strasburg (San Diego), right-hander Trevor Cahill (Oceanside) and infielders Brandon Knight (Oxnard) and Mike Hessman (Fountain Valley).

Players on a major league team’s 25-man roster were not eligible for selection to the Olympic team. The Beijing Games will make the ninth time Team USA has used professional players internationally, dating to the 1999 Pan American Games. During that time the U.S. has captured one Olympic gold – at Sydney in 2000. The U.S. did not qualify for the baseball competition at 2004 Athens Games.

The U.S. begins play in the Olympic Games on Aug. 13 against Korea and will meet Cuba two days later in its third game of the eight-team tournament.

 kevin.baxter@latimes.com