The list of Independent players who are free agents after stints in major league organizations is slowly trimming down, but it still has more than 50 names.
Among those coming off the list recently are Independent original Brian Sweeney, the right-handed pitcher who went all the way to the majors after starting out in the long-departed Heartland League at Lafayette, IN. Sweeney, who as we noted in the full list of Indy participants in the World Baseball Classic in yesterday's Independent Baseball Insider column will be pitching for Italy, has signed once more with the Seattle Mariners. He always provides nice backup depth in Triply-A. Sweeney also trained with Somerset, NJ at least once, then got an affiliated job before the Atlantic League season started.
Lefty Rich Rundles (Lancaster, PA, Atlantic League) signed back with Baltimore and outfielder Todd Linden (Edmonton, North American League) did the same with San Francisco. Austin Bibens-Dirkx, who got some exposure in the Washington Nationals spring training camp last year before moving to the Colorado Rockies farm system, has moved, this time to Toronto. None of these players have received major league spring training invitations.
GREAT STATS FOR SOME ON WBC ROSTERS
Among the 28 current or former Indy players we cited as being on WBC rosters in yesterday's Insider, several players had unusually good seasons in Independent leagues last season.
John Mariotti, on the Italian roster, won 10 of 11 decisions in the Can-Am League (Quebec) and Canadian first baseman-third baseman Jonathan Malo drove in 63 runs and hit .288 on the same team. Third baseman Yurendell de Caster of Team Netherlands hit .327 with 10 homers and 68 RBI for Winnipeg of the American Association and Jimmy Van Ostrand, now on Washington's Triple-A roster and a likely regular for Canada, hit .368 in a 95 at-bat stint with Sugar Land, TX (Atlantic League).
The position-by-position breakdown of the 28 WBC players is such that those with Independent Baseball experience could very well make up one entire team.
AFTER YEAR OUT, SHAUN ELLIS JOINS REDS
I have not seen it reported, but we are told 26-year-old right-hander Shaun Ellis, who went 15-10 combined in the '09-11 Independent seasons despite some wildness, has been signed by Cincinnati.
Ellis was out last season after going 5-3, 4.12 primarily as a starter for the New Jersey Jackals (Can-Am League) in 2011. He was 9-4, 4.61 for El Paso, TX (American Association) the previous season and started out with limited time in the Frontier League (Gateway, Sauget, IL) in '09.
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