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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