<div><p>Stepan Havlicek, a 16-year-old pitching prodigy from the Czech Republic, has signed a minor-league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays, the US Major League Baseball club announced Wednesday.</p><p>Havlicek pitched for the Czech junior national team and struck out 13 batters in 11 1/3 scoreless innings during the European Junior Championships last August in Bonn, Germany.</p><p>The Rays said Havlicek would likely attend some portion of spring training, which begins in late February, and would play in Major League Baseball's Australia Academy later this year.</p><p>The training would help determine at what level of the minor-league developmental system Havlicek might start in his quest to someday reach the roster of the Rays, who lost to Philadelphia in the 2008 World Series.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67385966&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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