Friday, May 31, 2013

SUGAR LAND LOSES THIRD PLAYER; RICE, NUNO, CHRISTIAN IN THE NEWS

 

It almost had to happen that the Sugar Land (TX) Skeeters would pay a price for their great start in the Atlantic League.  The Skeeters have lost three players to major league organizations--13 in their first two seasons--with the latest being infielder Chase Lambin, who joined Kansas City's top farm club in Omaha.

Lambin’s signing should encourage others who are hoping to get fresh opportunities well into their 30s. He has a lot of Triple-A experience, but has not been in the majors and turns 34 in early July.
Sugar Land sold RHP Sean Gallagher to Colorado and OF Dustin Martin to Arizona earlier this season.

THE INDEPENDENT ROLE IN METS’ SWEEP OF YANKEES

Fourteen-year minor leaguer and major league rookie Scott Rice continues to draw attention, including yesterday’s Independent Baseball Insider column where we pointed out he leads the majors in appearances (now 31 in 51 New York Mets games) and last night when he picked up the last two outs (one on a strikeout) in the eighth inning of the shocking four-game Mets sweep of the New York Yankees.

His ability to get ground balls was praised by Mets Manager Terry Collins as well as by Manager Mark Mason of York, PA, who was Rice’s pitching coach when he was with the Revolution in 2011.
“None of that 95 (MPH) stuff,” Collins said to The Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger earlier this week. “He just makes pitches. He’s certainly been a huge, huge savior for us. The hits he’s given up that have perhaps given up runs have been groundball singles. So you got to like that option.”

In talking to me about why so many Independent Baseball hurlers make it as relievers in the major leagues, Mason said Rice “throws downhill so much.” He described it this way: If a ball is rolled across a flat dining room table it can be easy to hit, but now if that table is slanted down it becomes so much tougher to make contact. “And you don’t have to throw hard,” Mason added.

The Star-Ledger attributed a statistic to FanGraphs this week, saying 69.4 per cent of batted balls off Rice have been on the ground. This ranked as the second best percentage among major league relievers. No. 1? That would be Arizona’s Brad Ziegler, another former Independent leaguer (Schaumburg, IL., then in the Northern League).

The strong start of Independent grad Vidal Nuno (Washington, PA, Frontier League) went to waste for the Yankees in their 3-1 defeat Thursday. The rookie lefty only allowed three hits and two runs in six innings, but one blow was a two-run homer by Marlon Byrd.

CHRISTIAN’S STRONG MAY

The way the St. Louis Cardinals have been playing it may be difficult for a player like veteran Justin Christian to get back to the major leagues, but the outfielder is doing what he can at Triple-A Memphis. Christian, 33, had a 10-game hitting streak end Thursday, but he still is at a .303 clip for May.

Christian, who started his professional career in the Frontier League (River City) and eventually played in the Atlantic League (Southern Maryland), is hitting .275 for the season with three homers, 20 RBI and six steals in 52 games.
 
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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

OKLAHOMA FAMILY WAS SAFE, BUT NEWS WAS NOT FAST ENOUGH; THIELBAR MAKES EARLY DEBUT

 

Tragedies such as the horrendous tornado that struck Moore, OK Monday always hit home for so many who live or have lived or have family members in the devastated area.  This goes for baseball players, too, who cannot always be with their loved ones.

Two members of Atlantic League teams in Pennsylvania felt the Moore tragedy in this manner, and there no doubt are others in similar situations.

Will Savage, who was scheduled to start Monday night’s game for Lancaster, heard from his wife that a tornado was in the area. “It was pretty stressful for awhile (after that), because the cell-phone service wasn’t working,” he told The York Dispatch. “And then they were finally able to get ahold of me once they (his wife and one-year-old son) got out to my mother-in-law’s house”, but that was only about 15 minutes before he was to start his pre-game warmup routine.

No doubt more relaxed, the right-hander worked six innings, although he took a 4-3 loss.

York’s Brian Burgamy, a native of Lawton, OK (90 minutes southwest of Moore), found out from his mother that everyone they knew was okay.

THIELBAR DID NOT WASTE ANY TIME

The newest major leaguer out of the Independent ranks, Minnesota Twins lefty Caleb Thielbar, did not get to Atlanta to join the team until shortly after Monday’s game had started. He found himself in the game in the seventh and eighth innings, blanking the Braves on one hit and collecting three strikeouts in the 5-1 Minnesota defeat.

Thielbar is the first player from the neighboring St. Paul Saints (American Association) to play for the Twins. His contract was purchased August 18, 2011 by the Twins, then he worked his way all through the farm system in 21 months to become the 19th Saints player to reach the major leagues.
 
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Friday, May 17, 2013

PLAYERS EARN PROMOTIONS AND A YOUNG UMPIRE GETS HIS CHANCE

Several former Independent players have been given nice promotions in recent days in the affiliated minor leagues.  These include:


–RHP Lance Day, who started his pro career at Grand Prairie, TX (American Association), from Class A to AAA by Houston.

–RHP Shaun Ellis (New Jersey, Can-Am League; El Paso, TX, American Association; Gateway, Frontier League), who was signed before spring training, from A to AA by Cincinnati.

–C Jeff Howell (Lincoln, NE, American Association) from A to AAA by Washington.

–RHP Chris Martin, another who started in the Indy game at Grand Prairie, from AA to AAA by Boston.

–LHP David Quinowski (Lincoln and Gary, IN, American Association; Somerset, NJ, Atlantic League) from A to AA by Baltimore.

–INF Vance Albitz (Lincoln) from AA to AAA by St. Louis.

NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUNG UMPIRE

Anthony Sheets is a 22-year-old who has been umpiring, mostly at the high school level, for six years. He went to Shreveport, LA to audition for professional leagues this winter, The Portsmouth (VA) Daily Times reported recently, and the American Association signed him.

“Watching the game of baseball is fun but being in the game of baseball is a whole different level,” the Wheelersburg High School graduate told the newspaper. “I hope that this can be a career path that I can spend 30 years in but only God knows where this leads me.”

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Saturday, May 11, 2013

TIGERS RELEASE JOHN LINDSEY; GREG SMITH, PEDRO GUERRERO HAVE NEW OPPORTUNITIES

 
The end may have come–at least in the affiliated ranks–for John Lindsey, one of the prominent players to come out of the Can-Am League.

The powerful right-handed hitter now 36 was one of a few intriguing former Independent Baseball players released in recent days. Lindsey was let go in his second season with Detroit’s top farm club in Toledo at a time when he was hitting only .200 (16-for-80, 22 games) although he had four home runs (seven RBI).

Lindsey, who played for the New Jersey Jackals (Little Falls), only reached the major leagues once. He got into 11 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers late in 2010, getting one hit in 12 at-bats.

OTHER RELEASES, SIGNINGS

One surprising release was that of Juan Cedeno (Rio Grande Valley, North American League) from the New York Yankees’ top farm club in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA. Not only is he a southpaw, but he was an invitee to the major league spring training camp and he allowed only one earned run in 11 innings spread over 10 appearances in the regular season. He was the SWB team’s All-Star Game representative last season.

The Chicago White Sox cut outfielder Billy Rice from their Class A farm club in Winston-Salem, NC. He formerly played for Camden, NJ of the Atlantic League.

Southpaw Greg Smith, who made six starts for Grand Prairie, TX (American Association) in 2011, one year after spending time with the Colorado Rockies, has a new affiliated opportunity. Philadelphia signed the 29-year-old and assigned him to Double-A Reading, PA.

PEDRO GUERRERO TO MANAGE

Pedro Guerrero had 15 years in the major leagues between St. Louis and the Dodgers and was co-MVP of the 1981 World Series, but he seemed overjoyed when he was announced as manager of the Vallejo (CA) Admirals of the newly-formed Pacific Association (California, Hawaii, Japan) this week. “When (General Manager) Joe (Fontana) called, I was excited; I am still excited,” the 56-year-old Guerrero told The Vallejo Times-Herald. Longtime Dodgers teammate Mike Marshall, the commissioner of the new league, had offered Guerrero’s name among a list of possible managerial candidates.
 
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Sunday, May 05, 2013

CATCHING UP WITH KAZMIR, WILLIAMS, RECENT RELEASED PLAYERS AND A KENTUCKY DERBY OFFER

 

How great it had to feel to Scott Kazmir to get his first major league victory since 2010–number 67 in his career–and he did it in style Saturday, limiting Minnesota to two runs and five hits while striking out seven in six innings during Cleveland’s 7-3 triumph. Remember, the lefty, still only 29, was pitching for the Sugar Land (TX) Skeeters in the Atlantic League last year at this time.

Another former Atlantic Leaguer, Jerome Williams, gets a start today for the Los Angeles Angels. The 2011 Lancaster (PA) Barnstormer has been in the bullpen for quite a while, but those six sterling relief innings he gave the Angels recently helped give him this opportunity to quiet Baltimore.

FIGUEROA, BILLY RICE RELEASED

Nelson Figueroa’s time with Arizona’s top farm club in Reno, NV has come to an end with the onetime Long Island (NY) Ducks righty being released. Outfielder Billy Rice (Camden, NJ, Atlantic) was released out of Class A by the Chicago White Sox.

DERBY HORSE EARNS TWO-FOR-ONE DEAL FOR YORK FANS

Because of the similarity in names, the York (PA) Revolution are giving fans who attended Saturday night’s Atlantic League game the opportunity to turn in their ticket stub for a two-for-one deal to attend any remaining weekday home game all because the horse Revolutionary finished third in the Kentucky Derby. Rewards would have been greater had Calvin Borel gotten his mount to finish first or second.

MOVING UP

Chris Patterson has quite a resume, pitching at North Dakota State and in three Independent leagues, playing in Germany, France, Italy and Australia, working in various pay-to-play winter leagues and earning Manager of the Year honors in both the Continental and Pecos leagues.

His newest opportunity is to manage Rio Grande Valley (Harlingen, TX) in the re-minted United League. Patterson already has three former Texas Longhorns on the WhiteWings roster.

THE LATEST ON MARK PRIOR

We noted in last week’s Independent Baseball Insider column that veteran major leaguer Mark Prior, who pitched for a time at Orange County (Fullerton, CA) when the Golden League was in operation, had been idle for some time with Cincinnati’s Triple-A farm club in Louisville. He now has gone onto the disabled list although it is only required players be inactive for seven days.
 
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