ONE TRIO GET NEW CONTRACTS WHILE ANOTHER FOURSOME FILE FOR FREE AGENCY

Realizing that it will not be long until we see that long list of former Independent players (as well as those in the affiliated minors) who are six-year free agents hoping to land a new contracts with their old organization or a new one, it is nice to see some players getting new pacts already from their current major league organizations. This group includes (with Independent affiliations in parenthesis):

RHP Mike DeMark (York, PA, Atlantic League; Florence, KY, Frontier League), who started in Indy play, with Arizona.
SS Mike Hollimon (Grand Prairie, TX, American Association), with Minnesota.
LHP Matt Meyer (St. Paul, MN, American Association), with the Los Angeles Angels. Meyer was an invitee to major league spring training this past winter.

FOUR WITH MAJOR LEAGUE TIME OPT FOR FREE AGENCY

We can identify four former Indy players who got some major league playing time this season before going back to the minors and now have opted for free agency where they hope for better opportunities:

C Robinson Cancel (Long Island, NY, Somerset, NJ and Road Warriors, Atlantic League, and Edinburg, TX, United League) from Houston.
OF Jay Gibbons (Long Island and Newark, NJ, Atlantic) from the Los Angeles Dodgers. He hit .300 with nine homers and 48 RBI at Albuquerque after starting the season with the parent Dodgers.
LHP Mike O'Connor (Southern Maryland, Atlantic) from the New York Mets even though he struck out 66 Triple-A hitters in 60.1 innings when not in the National League.
LHP Randy Williams (Edinburg, TX, Central League) from Boston. Williams, who is traveling abroad with Team USA at present, had a 1.41 earned run average with 36 strikeouts in 32 innings for Pawtucket, RI when not with the Red Sox.

MIXED RESULTS IN TRIPLE-A

We were curious how several other players who spent some time in the majors this season fared as Class AAA players:

UTIL Erick Almonte (Long Island), who surprised most everyone by starting the year with the parent Milwaukee Brewers, hit .303 with six homers and 42 RBI in 244 at-bats.
RHP Mark DiFelice (Somerset and Camden, NJ, Atlantic) had a 2.17 ERA along with a 2-1 record and fanned 29 in 31 innings for the Brewers.
RHP Nelson Figueroa (Long Island) was 7-8, 6.05 in finishing at Indianapolis (Pittsburgh) after starting the year with Houston.
RHP Scott Richmond (Edmonton, Northern League) struggled to 6-9, 7.33 for Toronto.
C Jose Yepez (Pensacola, FL, American Association, and Gary, IN, Northern) compiled a .307 average with three homers and 26 RBI in 153 times at bat for Seattle. Yepez spent a few days with the parent Mariners although he did not get into a game.

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