HOW ABOUT THIS IRONY: SCOTT RICHMOND SET TO FACE HIS OWN TORONTO MATES FOR TEAM CANADA

It is not often in spring training when a certain game can be spotlighted. That is not the case for Tuesday's contest in Dunedin, FL when the Toronto Blue Jays host Team Canada.

The starting pitcher for Canada is scheduled to be Scott Richmond. Yes, the same Scott Richmond who is one of the favorites to start the season in the Blue Jays' rotation.

The right-hander, who started his professional career at Edmonton, Alberta, Canada before the Cracker-Cats left the Northern League for the Golden League and could be the No. 1 story for Independent Baseball in the new year, is considered by many the ace of Team Canada.

Guess what? His day to pitch is Tuesday in the exhibition which helps Canada get ready for the World Baseball Classic.

Richmond, with only five previous major league appearances, did not hurt his chances of being the No. 4 or 5 starter for Toronto in his spring training debut. He threw two hitless innings at the World Champion Phillies Thursday, including a strikeout of hulking Ryan Howard.

Richmond doesn't lack for confidence, either. "I feel like I still haven't peaked," he told MLB.com.

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ATLANTIC, NORTHERN AND CAN-AM LEAGUES HAVE SIZEABLE IMPACT ON WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC ROSTERS

The Atlantic League, Northern League and Can-Am League have plenty of reason to be interested in the second World Baseball Classic.

Twenty of the 31 players with experience in Independent leagues who were on the provisional rosters made the final cut for the March competition with the Atlantic League able to claim nine of its “alums”. The Northern League has seven participants and the Can-Am four. Counting overlap because some players were in more than one league, the Frontier League is represented by three players and the American Association one. Four Indy leagues no longer playing also have players in the competition.

(Editor's note: I originally had the Independent list at 21 players, but Jason Deans of the Can-Am and American Association office alertly pointed out Adam Blackley did not make the Australian team. It was another player with the same last name who is in the WBC competition. All corresponding numbers have been adjusted.)

The biggest name might be Toronto Blue Jays starting candidate Scott Richmond since he started his professional career at Edmonton when that city was in the Northern League. The Cracker-Cats are now part of the Golden League.

Eyes also will be on New York Yankees reliever Edwar Ramirez in that he has had tendonitis early in spring training. The Yankees have said he will miss at least three days, but potential injuries are one reason major league teams will be holding their breath during the WBC competition. Ramirez is scheduled to pitch for the Dominican Republic.

Canada’s roster has the most Independent players. It has six, two more than Australia. Italy, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico and South Africa have two apiece. The United States and the Dominican Republic each have one. Oakland reliever Brad Ziegler is on Team USA.

The Independent players on final WBC rosters with the country they represent and their Independent affiliations:

PITCHERS (15)—Craig Anderson, Australia (Brockton, MA, Can-Am League); Barry Armitage, South Africa (Atlantic City, NJ, Newark, NJ and Lancaster, PA, Atlantic League); Chris Begg, Canada (Johnstown, PA, Frontier League; Albany, NY, Northeast League; St. Paul, MN, Northern League; Quebec, Can-Am); Mark DiFelice, Italy (Somerset and Camden, NJ, Atlantic), Bryan Dumesnil, Canada (Quebec, Can-Am); Nelson Figueroa, Puerto Rico (Long Island, NY, Atlantic); Donavon Hendricks, South Africa (Brockton and Atlantic City, Can-Am, and El Paso, American Association); Mike Johnson, Canada (Somerset, Atlantic); Josue Matos, Puerto Rico (North Shore, Lynn, MA, Can-Am, and Alexandria, LA, United League); Damian Moss, Australia (Long Island, Atlantic, and Macon, GA, South Coast League); Chris Oxspring, Australia (Cook County, Crestwood, IL, Frontier); Vince Perkins, Canada (Joliet, IL, Northern, and Camden, Atlantic); Edwar Ramirez, Dominican Republic (Pensacola, FL, Central League, and Edinburg, TX, United League); *Scott Richmond, Canada (Edmonton, Northern); Brad Ziegler, United States (Schaumburg, Northern).

INFIELDERS(5)—Sharnol Adriana, 1B, Netherlands (Newark, Atlantic, and Calgary, Northern); Stubby Clapp, SS, Canada (Edmonton, Northern); Ben Risinger, 1B, Australia (Gary, IN, Northern, and Springfield, IL, Frontier); Jack Santora, 2B-SS-3B, Italy (Newark and Lancaster, Atlantic); Randall Simon, 1B, Netherlands (Newark, Atlantic).

WITHDRAWING OR ELIMINATED FROM PROVISIONAL ROSTERS (10)—Edgardo Alfonzo, Federico Baez, Eric Cyr, Tony Fiore, Wayne Lundgren, Brian Mazone, Juan Padilla, George Sherrill, Mike Spidale, R. J. Swindle.

*Started career in Independent Baseball

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ONE TRYOUT INVOLVES TEAMS FROM THREE INDEPENDENT LEAGUES

A few rambling thoughts as I work on today's subscriber-driven Independent Baseball Insider column...

It is great to see the cooperation among teams from various Independent leagues. A recent example is the April 4 tryout camp in York, PA which will be run by the host Revolution of the Atlantic League, but also will include the Washington (PA) Wild Things of the Frontier League and the American Defenders of New Hampshire, the Can-Am League team formerly known as the Nashua Pride.

Players with a military background get one more opportunity via the 8 a.m. signup at Sovereign Bank Stadium. The American Defenders' operations team also will be looking for highly-skilled players for its traveling U.S. Military All-Stars.

14 CAMDEN PLAYERS NOW IN MAJOR LEAGUE ORGANIZATIONS

If any Independent team is looking for a challenge, try matching what the Camden (NJ) Riversharks have accomplished. With three more announced signings, 14 players from last year's Atlantic League team have garnered opportunities with major league organizations.

All of them would no doubt like to join former Camden players Arizona shortstop Stephen Drew and Milwaukee pitcher Mark DiFelice with major league contracts.

MORE FORMER INDY CITIES JOINING COLLEGIATE LEAGUES

We wrote some time back on the subject of cities too small for success in Independent leagues taking a look at collegiate baseball where the budget is a fraction of any pro team. Two more additions, at least for now, are Macon, GA and Anderson, SC, both joining the Great South (collegiate) League. They were part of the professional South Coast League which played only one season.

Speaking of former Independent teams, Matt McDermott, who is both an enterprising marketer on his own (see www.IndependentMinorLeagueBaseball.com) and a front office devotee with the Dallas Aviators (formerly McKinney Blue Thunder) of the Continental League, shared a list he compiled of teams that have come and gone since the Indy engine started up in 1993. Would you believe the list included 171 names, although some teams have changed nicknames from time to time without moving from one venue to another.

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FORGET A-ROD AND CHEER FOR THE 56 INDEPENDENT GRADS IN MAJOR LEAGUE CAMPS

Everyone will be pointing to Alex Rodriguez and to a lesser extent to Miguel Tejada as having big targets on their back when spring training gets into high gear in the next few days. This corner looks forward a great deal more to paying attention to a different type of player.

Virtually all of the 32 former Independent Baseball players we now can identify as non-roster invitees to the 30 major league camps have had to struggle to get where they are. Their God-given talent may not rank as abundant, but their grit more than makes up. So, I urge every fan--especially those disgruntled because of the problems created for the sport because of illegal substances--to turn their energy to pulling for this group, most of whom will not open the regular season in the majors. Some never will make it. Let them have their day in the sun.

The same can be said for a decent number of the 24 former Indy players who are on the more coveted 40-man major league rosters.

Mr. Independent Baseball, Kevin Millar, Charlie Zink and Brendan Donnelly are the latest additions we know of to the non-roster contingent. Millar, who came out of Lamar College and went straight to the St. Paul (MN) Saints in 1993, may feel somewhat out of sync as a non-roster player with Toronto in that he has been a major leaguer steadily (except for a brief rehab appearance) since 2000. A betting man would expect to see the 37-year-old back in the American League come April where he would extend the career that has already seen him collect 1,225 major league hits.

Zink also started his career in Indy baseball, playing for Yuma, AZ when it was in the now departed Western League. The Yuma Scorpions currently call the Golden League home. Donnelly has needed two tuneups in Independent leagues during his career, which is about to go into its 18th year.

The entire list of non-roster players, updated since we first revealed it in our January 22 Independent Baseball Insider column, including current major league affiliation plus the Independent teams and leagues in parenthesis:

PITCHERS (18)—Bobby Brownlie, Washington (Newark, NJ, Atlantic League); Alberto Castillo, Baltimore (Schaumburg, IL, Northern League, and Camden, NJ, Newark and Road Warriors, Atlantic); Jason Childers, Tampa Bay (Richmond, IN, Frontier League); *Gabe DeHoyos, San Diego (Schaumburg, Northern); Brendan Donnelly, Texas (Ohio Valley, Frontier, and Nashua, NH, Atlantic); Seth Etherton, Arizona (Long Beach, CA, Golden League); Nelson Figueroa, New York-NL (Long Island, NY, Atlantic); Aaron Fultz, Cincinnati (Somerset, NJ, Atlantic); Danny Graves, Houston (Long Island, Atlantic); Lindsay Gulin, Milwaukee (St. Paul, MN and Lincoln, NE, American Association); *Chris Jakubauskas, Seattle (Lincoln, American Association; Fullerton, CA, Golden; Florence, KY and Ohio Valley, Frontier); Tom Martin, New York-NL (Long Island, Atlantic); Brian Mazone, Los Angeles-NL (Joliet, IL, Northern, and +Zion, St. George, UT, Western League; Adam Pettyjohn, Cincinnati (Long Beach, Golden); *Matt Wilhite, Los Angeles-AL (Kenosha, WI, Frontier); Jerome Williams, Oakland (Long Beach, Golden); Randy Williams, Chicago-AL (Edinburg, TX, Central League); *+Charlie Zink, Boston (Yuma, AZ, Western).

CATCHERS (3)—Eliezer Alfonzo, San Diego (+St. Paul, Northern); Cody Clark, Kansas City (San Diego, CA, Golden); Michel Hernandez, Tampa Bay (Somerset, Atlantic).

INFIELDERS (6)— *Tagg Bozied, 1B, Oakland (+Sioux Falls, SD, Northern); *Mike Cervenak, 1B-3B, Philadelphia (Chillicothe, OH, Frontier); John Lindsey, 1B, Florida (New Jersey, Can-Am League); *Kevin Millar, 1B, Toronto (St. Paul, Northern); *Brian Myrow, 1B-3B, Chicago-AL (Winnipeg, Northern); Corey Smith, 3B, Kansas City (Newark, Atlantic).

OUTFIELDERS (5)—*Justin Christian, Baltimore (River City, Frontier); Jay Gibbons, Florida (Long Island, Atlantic); Mike Ryan, Florida (Somerset, Atlantic); Chris Walker, Philadelphia (Camden, Atlantic); Jon Weber, Tampa Bay (Canton, OH, Frontier, and Fargo, ND, Northern).

*Started career in Independent Baseball
+Yuma and St. George now play in the Golden League, St. Paul and Sioux Falls in the American Association

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FORMER N. L. ALL-STAR CAN THANK ATLANTIC LEAGUE; NORTHERN LEAGUE'S DE HOYOS GETS MAJOR LEAGUE OPPORTUNITY

After a week in which there were major developments off the field for Independent Baseball, the attention is turning back to the diamond early in this week when pitchers and catchers start reporting in droves to major league spring training camps.

Edgardo Alfonzo should be giving the Atlantic League a deep bow of gratitude because he pumped life into his fading career by playing every infield position--especially shortstop--for the Long Island (NY) Ducks, and now has signed to play for the famed Yomiuri Giants where a Japanese contract should be well above anything the 35-year-old could earn in the minor leagues in this country.

It will be interesting to see how the former National League All-Star fares in Japan. Although he has a .284 career batting average for 1,506 major league games, Alfonzo has not been in the majors since 2006 and has not hit his weight since '05 with San Francisco.

Alfonzo, who now makes his home on Long Island (Little Neck), hit a robust .329 with eight homers and 27 runs batted in in 59 games for the Ducks last season. He hit .280 in 55 games in the Triple-A Mexican League. Alfonzo also was with Long Island all of 2007, and he was with Bridgeport, CT of the Atlantic League briefly in '06.

ANOTHER WHO STARTED IN INDY BASEBALL TO PULL ON MAJOR LEAGUE UNIFORM

We had not seen any additions to the list of 28 non-roster players invited to major league camps since we first published it in our January 22 Independent Baseball Insider column. That is until San Diego finally revealed its full contingent of invitees Monday, even though the Padres had been saying for days they would have an unusually high count of 35 pitchers.

The great news for Independent fans is that strikeout machine Gabe DeHoyos, who will play most of this season at 29, finally is getting an opportunity to show his stuff in the Cactus League.

I do not recall that DeHoyos, who played his first two and a half seasons of professional baseball (2002-04) for Schaumburg, IL of the Northern League, has ever had a previous major league spring training opportunity.

The Padres obviously took note of his 110 strikeouts in only 83.2 innings (71 hits) during 60 relief appearances for Double-A San Antonio, TX last season. The stocky righthander allowed only two home runs and held Texas League hitters to a .228 average while compiling a 6-4, 2.69 record with four saves. He had spent three and a half seasons in the Kansas City chain after having his contract purchased from Schaumburg where he was a combined 8-3 with an ERA well under 3.00.

53 INDEPENDENT PLAYERS HEADED TO BIG LEAGUE CAMPS

We can account for 53 players who have been under Independent Baseball contracts who will be in major league camps, and all-time Indy great Kevin Millar, a free agent, surely will end up somewhere.

Five of the 29 invitees and 10 of the 24 players on 40-man rosters got their start in Independent leagues.

MATOS SHARP IN CARIBBEAN WORLD SERIES

I believe Josue Matos may be a free agent, but that may not last long because of the five innings of two-hit baseball the 30-year-old righthander turned in for struggling Puerto Rico in the Caribbean World Series.

He blanked the Dominican Republic in that stint and got a 3-0 victory for the previously winless Puerto Ricans, even though he did walk six. Matos, who is on Puerto Rico's early roster for the World Baseball Classic, pitched for North Shore (Lynn, MA) in the Can-Am League and Alexandria, LA of the United League in 2006.

COSTNER, CONTINENTAL LEAGUE AND EDMONTON IN THE NEWS

In case you missed any of last week's headlines, which we explained in detail in last week's Independent Baseball Insider, the Northern League struck paydirt by announcing plans for a new stadium and team in Zion, IL with actor Kevin Costner in a lead role. The Continental, which had only four teams its first two seasons, swelled to eight and will have four or five of the former United League teams. And, the Golden League's Edmonton Cracker-Cats will have a strengthened marketing position after they were sold to Daryl Katz, who owns the NHL's Edmonton Oilers and heads up a huge drug store chain. The Oilers' front office will jump in in an effort to build Edmonton baseball attendance.

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INDEPENDENT LEAGUERS GOT GREAT WORK IN WINTER BASEBALL

With both the Arizona Winter League and the Caribbean World Series (MLB Network) edging the baseball-starved among us closer to spring, I wanted to take a final look back at a few of the numbers put up in winter leagues by Independent players.

Two who really blistered Veracruz Winter League pitching in Mexico were Jayson Bass (.429 batting average, 14 homers, 52 RBI) and Jermy Acey, who was almost as hot at .412 (five homers, 30 RBI). Bass spent some time at Nashua, NH in the Can-Am League in 2006 while Acey has been with the Pride, Rio Grande Valley and Edinburg, TX in the United League and in 2008 was an energizing .374 for the Golden League champion Orange County Flyers (Fullerton, CA).

On the mound, former Can-Am leaguer Josue Matos (North Shore, Lynn, MA) warmed up for his effort to pitch for Puerto Rico in next month's World Baseball Classic with a 5-2, 2.89 performance in 53 winter innings. Indy original Chris Jakubauskas got in 66.1 innings in Venezuela as a tuneup for his spring training invitation from the parent Seattle Mariners. He was a so-so 4-5, 5.16. Jakubauskas has spent the last year and a half in the Seattle farm system after being signed out of Lincoln, NE of the American Association. He also has pitched in the Frontier League (Florence, KY and Ohio Valley) and the Golden League (Fullerton).

Four other hurlers with American Association experience had solid numbers in Mexico. Brian Campbell (Lincoln) was 6-2, 2.94, Alexander Francisco (Sioux City, IA) had a brilliant 1.17 ERA and won seven of his eight decisions, Jarrett Gardner (Lincoln) was 7-4, 3.33 and Matt Pike (St. Paul, MN) saved 10 games to go along with a 2-1 record and 2.25 ERA. Pike pitched for Bridgeport, CT of the Atlantic League in 2008, and also has made Indy stops at Elmira, NY, New Jersey (Little Falls) and Atlantic City, NJ.

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