REDS DROP GATHRIGHT, BRAVES SIGN TIFFEE

Most every day I pour over transactions to see what is happening with former Independent players in major league organizations (there are about 200 of them) as well as to see if there have been sales of more players to the 30 clubs. The worst part is finding the notation "released".

That happened only twice in this week's thorough report put out by major league baseball, and one seems to have a reasonably happy ending.

As reported in yesterday's Independent Baseball Insider column, Chris Jakubauskas, who we've watched and written about for years since he started his professional journey in an Indy league, was let go by Arizona, but the right-hander quickly signed with Toronto for the Blue Jays' Class AA franchise in New Hampshire.

The second release was of Joey Gathright by Cincinnati. The speedy outfielder, who spent last September with the parent Red Sox, had a commendable .299 (44-for-147) batting average in 40 games for Triple-A Louisville after starting the season with the Bridgeport (CT) Bluefish in the Atlantic League. Gathright also had a very decent .346 on-base percentage, but one has to wonder if his speed game is slipping since he only had four thefts (in six tries) during his time in Louisville.

CHAMPION LANCASTER LOSES A BIG BAT

It is a good thing Lancaster, PA already has a spot in September's Atlantic League playoffs by virtue of winning a half-season title because the Barnstormers lost third baseman-first baseman Terry Tiffee to the Atlanta Braves Friday.

Tiffee, 33, reports to Triple-A Gwinnett, GA, and gets one more look by a major league organization. This one-time top prospect has only played 97 regular-season major league games, the last a brief stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers in '08. He also got a lengthy look from Miami in the big-league camp this spring.

The switch-hitter played in all but one of Lancaster's 70 first-half games (45-25), hitting .297 with 11 homers and 46 runs batted in.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE INDEPENDENT BASEBALL INSIDER FOR 2012. Subscriptions to the Insider reduced to only $35 from now through December, 2012.

REQUEST A FREE WEEK OF THE INDEPENDENT BASEBALL INSIDER

Get the independent minor league baseball trivia question of the day by clicking this link: Independent Minor League Baseball Trivia Questions