TOM COCHRAN GETS FIRST MAJOR LEAGUE OPPORTUNITY; CANCEL BACK UP WITH ASTROS

Another longtime Independent Baseball pitching fixture can finally add his name to those who have made the climb to the major leagues.

Left-hander Tom Cochran, who needed a re-start on his professional career in 2005 after two undistinguished years as a Boston Red Sox farmhand, got the call from Triple-A Louisville in time to join the parent Cincinnati Reds in Atlanta Sunday.

Cochran spent three seasons in the Frontier League (Washington, PA and the road team known as Ohio Valley), then had a breakout season in 2008 in the Can-Am League (Worcester, MA) when Baseball America selected him as the top southpaw on its all-Independent team. He had just finished a 13-3, 2.79 season with the Tornadoes.

Now about to turn 28 (June 5), Cochran was at Lancaster, PA (Atlantic League) long enough to make seven appearances (3-2, 4.67) the next season before his contract was purchased by the Reds. That ran his Independent Baseball record to 37-24. The Wilmington, DE product was a Southern League all-star as well as the Cincinnati organization's Minor League Pitcher of the Year last season(8-5, 2.69 at Carolina) and had started this season by going 5-1, 4.08 in eight appearances at Louisville before getting the call. He has not yet pitched for the Reds.

We expect to have more on Cochran in this week's Independent Baseball Insider, which gets to subscribers on Thursday.

ROBINSON CANCEL BACK IN MAJORS

Catcher Robinson Cancel, who was hitting a blistering .457 in his last 10 games at Oklahoma City, is back in the majors with Houston and is expected to be in the lineup Tuesday night for the major league debut of the Astros' top prospect, Jordan Lyles, against the Chicago Cubs. Cancel has minor league experience catching Lyles.

Cancel, 35, was in the Atlantic League one year ago at this time, on his way to hitting .304 with 14 homers and 81 RBI over 105 games with the Long Island (NY) Ducks. He hit .324 with two home runs and 11 runs batted in in 30 appearances for Oklahoma City this season. He has 43 games of major league experience (.213-1-10), most recently with the New York Mets in 2009.

Cancel's Independent experience includes the 2003 season with Somerset, NJ and the traveling Road Warriors in the Atlantic League, a brief time with Somerset the next year and '06 with Edinburg, TX, then in the United League and now playing in the North American League.

THE UPS AND DOWNS FOR MIKE RIVERA AND BOBBY CRAMER

Southpaw Bobby Cramer (Orange County, Golden League) spent part of the weekend back in an Oakland Athletics uniform although he did not pitch this time before being optioned back to Sacramento. And catcher Mike Rivera (Atlantic City, NJ, Atlantic League) is back in the minor leagues (Huntsville, AL) after spending several days with Milwaukee. He appeared in only one game, going 2-for-6 May 20 against Colorado.

In all, 23 former Independent players have been on active major league rosters already this season. This compares to 30 for all of 2010.

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EDDIE LANTIGUA STRIKES ONCE MORE, AND BRANDON LARSON HOPES TO DO THE SAME AS A COLLEGIATE COACH

One of those "can you believe it" moments capped off opening night for the Can-Am League's Quebec Capitales Thursday. It delivered a crushing 3-2 loss for the defending league champions and a victory for one of the Can-Am's new teams, the traveling New York Federals, who get much of their roster from the two teams of professional hopefuls playing under the name of the New York State League.

Quebec had a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning when longtime hometown favorite Eddie Lantigua blasted a three-run home run. But this time it was for the visiting team.

Lantigua, who married a Quebec girl and has called that French-speaking city home for a decade or so, was the face of the Capitales for much of the last decade. He hit 117 homers while playing exclusively for Quebec from 2002-2009, and he had hit nine in his first stint in that city in 1999.

But with his overall skills diminishing and primarily only the ability to hit a fastball remaining, Lantigua, now 37, did not play last season. He is back now, but wearing a Federals uniform.

One can only imagine the thrill the Lantigua blow gave Manager Skip Nathanson and his roster of mostly youthful hopefuls on the Federals' first night in the league.

WHAT IS IN THE FUTURE FOR FORMER ATLANTIC LEAGUE MVP?

It was only in yesterday's Independent Baseball Insider column when I had the opportunity to single out two-time Atlantic League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Jeff Nettles for becoming the league's all time leader in runs batted in.

Now for an update on another of the Somerset (NJ) Patriots' postseason MVPs who, like Nettles, played third base.

Brandon Larson, the Cincinnati Reds' top draft choice in 1997 and their opening day third baseman in 2003, ended his playing career by winning MVP honors in Somerset's fourth of five Atlantic League championships in '08.

With Richard Oliver of The San Antonio Express-News providing the details, we learned that Larson is finishing up a degree at the University of Texas-San Antonio and coaching a couple of select high school baseball teams as he eyes a career as a college coach.

"I'm just trying to be a good coach, a good daddy and an ex-good baseball player," Larson told Oliver. It seems he is well on his way. Larson and wife Denise are raising Denise's daughter and expecting their own baby girl come September.

While injuries helped limit the San Angelo, TX native to 109 major league games, Larson finished his 12-year pro career in style in that 2008 season with a 30-home run, 95-RBI regular season with the Patriots, then capped it all off when Somerset toppled Camden, NJ in the four-game Championship Series.

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JOLIET, ATLANTIC LEAGUE GRADS, BILL BUCKNER AND NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUE EXPANSION ALL MAKE NEWS

Picking up some pieces after this week's Independent Baseball Insider column went to press Thursday night...

What a nice way to start for the new Joliet, IL, Independent team, blanking Washington, PA, 7-0 behind onetime Chicago Cubs pitcher Billy Petrick. The 2,886 fans who turned out for the Slammers' debut in the Frontier League had to go away impressed with the fact the 6-foot-6 Petrick set down the last 19 hitters he faced.

SWEENEY, PASCUCCI ALSO IMPRESSIVE

The New York Mets must be pleased today to have their first reward for signing veteran Brian Sweeney out of the Atlantic League (Somerset, NJ) earlier this season. After two losses, the right-hander turned in six shutout innings in a 5-1matinee win at Indianapolis Thursday. Sweeney is now at 1-2, 6.35 for his first 17 innings.

Another Atlantic League grad, first baseman Valentino Pascucci, got the Bisons started with a two-run double in the opening inning. Pascucci took over the team lead in RBI with three for the game in which he was 2-for-2 with three walks. The former Camden (NJ) Rivershark has 19 RBI and is hitting .259.

Sweeney and Pascucci may get another teammate from the same league. Jason Botts had his contract purchased by the Mets from defending champion York, PA Thursday. Botts had hit safely in 13 of the first 14 games with a .370 average along with a team-leading four home runs and 13 RBI. If Botts is sent to Buffalo, he might cut into Pascucci's playing time, since both are basically first basemen and designated hitters.

NOT SO FAST WITH SECOND HAWAIIAN TEAM

At least one media outlet carried a story recently indicating the North American League could soon have a second team in Hawaii, this one in Hilo. Maui already has a franchise.

NAL CEO Kevin Outcalt sent us an email stressing that the league did not have a press release out discussing Hilo. It sounds like the Maui ownership is hoping for a second team in the Hawaiian Island chain, and who could blame them since it would bring in a partner so that week-long home series with teams from the mainland could be split into two cities. No one looks forward to a six-game series between two teams.

Meanwhile, the first steps are being taken toward building a 3,500-seat stadium in Fort McMurray, Canada. Speculation automatically includes the NAL as a possibility since Edmonton and Calgary, also in Alberta, have teams in the league.

PLAYERS GRATEFUL BILL BUCKNER IS TEACHING AS HE MANAGES

"I've been here (Brockton, MA, Can-Am League) for three years now and if there was one thing I was searching for, it was more knowledge of the game to get higher up and learn from these guys," shortstop Dominic Ramos told MassLive.com. "For them (Buckner and his staff) to come down to our level? What a blessing".

Buckner's Rox and the Pittsfield (MA) Colonials will play an exhibition game in Springfield, MA Saturday afternoon to get ready for next week's Can-Am opener.

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PLAYING IN OUTLYING AREAS AND KEEPING AN EYE ON WILY MO PENA GETS OUR ATTENTION

I could not get it into this week's Independent Baseball Insider column because of so many other topics, but I hand it to the Independent Baseball teams playing exhibition games outside their own market. It is easier to stay right at home, but teams deserve credit for taking a pro game into the smaller communities which do not normally get a first-hand look at the faster game.

One such example this season was the St. Paul (MN) Saints' junket to Cold Springs, MN, where the population is about 2,500. Nearly half the town (1,200, I was told) turned out, and $15,000 was raised with most of that money no doubt going back into the ballpark or for youth baseball.

It was "perhaps the largest baseball crowd in Cold Springs in 25 years", The St. Cloud Times reported. "The giant throng enjoyed 70-degree, sunny weather and came to watch perhaps the first pro team to play in the vintage 1940s-style ballpark."

The story proudly pointed out that the Saints, who defeated a collection of Central Minnesota all-stars 8-1, had four former major league players, including outfielder Jonathan Van Every and hurler Robert Manuel, both of whom played for the Boston Red Sox as recently as last season. Former Kansas City Royals outfielder Shane Costa whacked a three-run homer.

PECOS LEAGUE UNDER WAY

The American Association started its new schedule this week, joining the Atlantic League as the most well known of the Independent leagues to begin the 2011 season. Also launching was the six-team Pecos League.

I applaud some of the Pecos efforts, especially its web site, which is full of news and photos and easy to navigate to find box scores. Some of the more established leagues could take notice. But it is going to be difficult for this corner to give equal attention to this Texas-New Mexico-based league since some of the players are not being paid. That has not been the case, to my knowledge, with any of the mainstream Independent leagues, dating all the way back to the start in 1993.

WILY MO PENA EARNS SECOND PLAYER OF WEEK HONOR

Arizona has not yet given hefty Wily Mo Pena a major league opportunity this season, but it is not keeping the 29-year-old from continuing to punish opponents.

Pena, who spent about half of last season with the Atlantic League's Bridgeport (CT) Bluefish, leads all of minor league baseball with 13 home runs in just 29 games for Reno, and the Aces star has been rewarded with his second selection of the young Pacific Coast League season as Player of the Week.

The right-handed hitting slugger, who likely is somewhat handicapped since he is not outstanding defensively at either first base or the outfield and the National League does not use the designated hitter, is hitting .366 with 34 runs batted in. He is making southpaws pay to the price of a .444 average although eight of his home runs have come against right-handers.

Maybe the start of major league inter-league play will help Wily Mo. Hmmm!

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CANSECO: 'I WANT YOU'; METS WANTED BRIAN SWEENEY

It is an understatement to say that every Independent Baseball team is playing a great many angles these days to come up with the best roster it can field, especially if its season has not started.

But no one is more emphatic than Jose Canseco, who has gone from major league slugger and much-discussed author to manager with the Yuma (AZ) Scorpions in the new North American League. This was the statement attributed to Canseco that came out of the NAL office this week:

"I plan to win this league and I need talented players that love the game, are obsessed with winning, and want to be part of a fun and successful professional baseball team. This is an opportunity for anyone. I don't care how old you are, what language you speak, you're gender (presumably, the author meant your gender), if you played in major league organizations, or where you played in college or overseas. I just want the best players in the land. If you are one of those, I want you."

AT LEAST SOMERSET GOT ONE START THIS TIME

Brian Sweeney's stop-overs are getting a tiny bit longer in the Atlantic League.

The Seattle Mariners signed the veteran right-hander before the Somerset (NJ) Patriots even started the season one year ago. Sweeney had only worked in an exhibition game.

A free agent again during the offseason despite a decent 3.16 earned run average (1-2record) in 24 relief appearances for the M's last season (and an earlier 15 games for Triple-A Tacoma), Sweeney returned to Somerset.

He was the opening day starter for Sparky Lyle's crew, picking up the Patriots' only victory in five outings this year. The four-hit, eight-strikeout effort (no walks) over seven innings in which the 36-year-old only allowed two runs were enough for the New York Mets to step in. They are sending Sweeney to Triple-A Buffalo, but that, too, could be a brief stay on the way to Citi Field where the parent Mets could use some help.

Sweeney's signing also brings the old Heartland League back into play. He is the only player from the HBL (Lafayette, IN, 1996) still playing in affiliated ranks and likely the only one still playing in any form of professional baseball.

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