VAN STRATTEN MOVES WITHIN TWO OF AMERICAN ASSOCIATION'S ALL-TIME HITTING STREAK

Nick Van Stratten of Laredo, TX extended his American Association hitting streak to 32 games, two shy of Stephen Douglas’s league record, with a single in four at-bats Thursday night. The Lemurs topped host Sioux Falls, SD, 1-0, on John Alonzo’s seventh-inning home run. Van Stratten is on pace to break the record at Grand Prairie, TX this weekend.

HERE AND THERE

Bouncing around with a few former Independent players now in major league organizations:

**Jerome Williams (Lancaster, PA, Atlantic League, and Long Beach, CA, Golden League), released recently by Houston, made his first start for Texas’s top farm club in Round Rock, allowing seven hits and four runs (three earned) in 4.1 innings.

**First baseman Brock Peterson (Bridgeport, CT, Atlantic) is taking advantage of his new organization (Los Angeles Dodgers), hitting a homer and double in five at-bats for Albuquerque, NM, Thursday night with his average at .375 (18-for-48) in 14 games. He has three homers and nine RBI.

**Julio DePaula, who jumped from York, PA (Atlantic) to the parent Baltimore Orioles in a mere 11 days, returned to Class AA Bowie, MD, but has allowed four runs in as many innings over three outings. Still, in six appearances overall with Bowie, DePaula has two saves and a 3.48 ERA while posting 14 strikeouts in 10.1 innings.

**Lefty Greg Smith (Grand Prairie, TX, American Association) has a winning record (7-6) and a 3.86 ERA in 18 starts for Philadelphia’s top club, Lehigh Valley (Allentown, PA).

**Outfielder Cory Aldridge (Somerset, NJ, and Newark, NJ, Atlantic) is hitting .333 (10-for-30) with a .432 on-base percentage in 10 games since Toronto promoted him to Triple-A Buffalo, NY.

RE-ENTERING GAMES NOW POSSIBLE

One unique aspect of the Atlantic League’s speed-up rules is that even a player who has been taken out of the game may serve as the substitute runner for a catcher. He could even be used multiple times so some creative team may look for a speedster who would serve primarily in that role.

To clarify from yesterday’s Independent Baseball Insider column, umpires will be allowed to give a batter an automatic ball if the team in the field uses more than the allowable 45 seconds for a mound visit if the pitcher is not relieved.

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