The Angels have elected to not renew the contract of international scouting director Marc Russo, Baseball America has learned. 

After working for the organization since 2001 as an East Coast crosschecker and then a major league scout, Russo took over international scouting responsibilities in November 2010. The Angels had fired their previous international director, Clay Daniel, shortly before July 2 in 2009, cleaned house of their international scouting department and essentially went dormant overseas for a year until Russo took over.

Other international directors around the game praised Russo for his work ethic in trying to rebuild the organization's international program from the ground up while working with minimal resources—the Angels ranked 24th in estimated international amateur spending last year and ranked 28th in 2010—and trying to build an international scouting staff from scratch.

Venezuelan shortstop Jose Rondon and Dominican righthander Arjenis Fernandez both drew attention this year in the Rookie-level Arizona League, while righthander Alfonso Alcantara signed touching 92-93 mph last year and ran his fastball up to 100 mph this year in the Dominican Summer League. The Angels reached the DSL championship series this year after winning the title in 2011.

It's not yet known who the Angels will hire to replace Russo in general manager Jerry Dipoto's first hire for the position.