Indy Baseball Chatter: LOOK FOR ONETIME CAN-AM LEAGUER IN BALTIMORE BULLPEN TONIGHT

Monday, May 07, 2012

LOOK FOR ONETIME CAN-AM LEAGUER IN BALTIMORE BULLPEN TONIGHT

It is being widely reported today that onetime Can-Am League starter Stuart Pomeranz will be active in the hot Baltimore Orioles bullpen tonight when they entertain Texas.

The 27-year-old right-hander has been awesome all spring, as we have been reporting in the Independent Baseball Insider.

Pomeranz, who is not easy to overlook anyway because of his 6-foot-7 frame, only signed with the Birds February 9 after an 18-save season (1-6, 3.67) for Colorado’s Double-A farm club in Tulsa when he had just over a strikeout per inning (53 K’s in 49 innings). Baltimore gave him frequent looks during spring training even though the 2003 St. Louis Cardinals draftee was not an official non-roster invitee. He started the year back in Double-A (Bowie, MD), but after 20 strikeouts against seven hits and a walk in 13.1 innings without giving up an earned run it was on to Triple-A Norfolk.

Pomeranz whiffed 12 hitters without allowing any hits in 5.2 innings (one walk) spread over three appearances for the International League team, the latest a two-inning stint against Indianapolis three days ago.

After a year off in 2008, Pomeranz put up so-so numbers for the New Jersey Jackals in the Can-Am League, winning five of 11 decisions to go along with a 6.50 ERA for 16 games, 14 of which were starts.

Presuming the promotion becomes fact, Pomeranz will become the first former Independent player to get his initial call to the major leagues in 2012. Nine players got a similar thrill last season.

ANOTHER CAN-AM GRAD PART OF MAJOR LEAGUE ONE-HITTER

Another ’09 Can-Am product, Steve Delabar, got to finish up on a combined one-hitter with Felix Hernandez Saturday. Delabar, who was at Brockton, MA in both ’08 and ’09 and pitched briefly in Independent Baseball for Florence, KY of the Frontier League, finished off the Minnesota Twins with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Delabar has limited American League hitters to a .185 average for his first 15 appearances of the season, striking out 18 in 15 innings and posting a 4.20 ERA.

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Bob Wirz

Former chief spokesman for Major League Baseball Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Peter Ueberroth. Six years as publicity director for the Kansas City Royals, and a background in newspaper, radio and television. Started Wirz & Associates, a sports PR and consulting firm, in 1985. Has written extensively on Independent Baseball since 2003.

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About 'My Nebraska'

It seems almost universally accepted that Nebraskans are friendly, hard-working people.

A native son, who eventually transitioned to the East Coast because it was the best avenue to follow his passion of continuing to work in major league baseball, has published a book to share a lifetime of memories of growing up in the Cornhusker state.

You may have guessed it when you saw the title: My Nebraska. Yes, Bob Wirz, now a youthful 85, is sharing his "rich memories of growing up in rural Nebraska" in the 1940s and 1950s in a delightful 136 pages in the book produced by Dorrance Publishing in Pittsburgh, PA.

Wirz, who got to live his passion of working at the highest levels of baseball and later developing his own sports public relations and marketing company, lovingly empties out his memories of everything from counting millions of tiny trees to playing grass-roots baseball where the age of teammates might run from the early teens to the 50s.

The colorful cover of My Nebraska, which features two paintings from Dunning, NE rancher/artist Laron McGinn that depict the beautiful landscape of rural Nebraska and the ranching lifestyle, sets the tone for the 5 x 8 book also filled with meaningful pictures.

It is "a wistful and endearing love letter to Nebraska filled with memories shared by generations raised in small towns throughout the Midwest", praises Shari Veil, who heads up the journalism and mass communications department at the University of Nebraska.

My Nebraska, a 5x8 paperback, is priced at $19.95 plus $4.00 for handling and shipping. Autographed copies may be ordered at www.WirzandAssociates.com