WHERE ARE THE PITCHERS? WE HAVE 25 WHO SEEM TO BE FREE AGENTS

It seems unlikely this far into spring training that very few of the former Independent players who had major league organizational jobs at the end of last season and did not get an new contract earlier in the offseason will be asked back for 2011. As a result, the following 25 pitchers appear to be available (unless they have opted to retire):

Jason Anderson, Federico Baez, Steve Bray, Kyle Carr, Travis Chick, Brendan Donnelly, Derrick Ellison, Seth Etherton, Mark Holliman, Ryan Houston, Jason Jarvis, Jason Jones, Taylor Lavigne, Dan Leatherman, Chris Malone, Tom Mastny, Brian Mazone, Kyle Middleton, Josh Muecke, Oneli Perez, Adam Pettyjohn, Edwar Ramirez, Rick Rivas, Patrick Ryan and Preston Vancil.

If anyone has seen that someone on this list has signed either with an organization or an Independent team, I invite you to pass that information along to RWirz@aol.com.

We will have a list of unsigned position players in a day or two.

SPRING TRAINING ROSTERS SWELLING

A heavy portion of today's Independent Baseball Insider column, our subscription newsletter that is weekly from now through September, will be devoted to how former Independent players who are in major league spring training camps are doing.

One of the nuggets we have uncovered includes a list of six players not originally on either 40-man rosters or non-roster invitees who have appeared in at least one major league exhibition game. That brings the number of Indy grads involved in big league camps to at least 54 with more expected to show up. We track them as best we can.

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