44 FORMER INDY PLAYERS DUE IN MAJOR LEAGUE CAMPS WITH MORE EXPECTED

With the joyful start of major league spring training only three weeks away, it is time to get serious in tracking former stars of the Independent leagues who are now involved (or recently have been) with any of the 30 American or National League organizations.

Non-roster invitations are coming in at a good pace now, and we can report that 44 players who have been in Independent leagues are already ticketed for major league camps. Twenty-five of them are on 40-man rosters and the other 19 are invitees. The latter number almost certainly will grow, and it is possible more roster slots may be taken in the near future because steady major leaguers Craig Breslow, Aaron Crow and Jerome Williams still are free agents.

This is the only place where baseball people and fans are likely to get the entire roster of these two groups. We will post it before pitchers and catchers start camp.

60 Free Agents

Player personnel bosses will likely want to peruse our list of 60 onetime Independent players who have become free agents since last season and have not re-signed although a few of these people likely will retire, turn to coaching or are injured. The complete list maintained by the Independent Baseball Insider follows:

Right-Handed Pitchers (19): Austin Bibens-Dirkx, Derek Blacksher, Brian Broderick, Zach Cooper, Aaron Crow, Charles Fisher, Parker Frazier, Mark Hamburger, Jeff Howell, Chad James, Kenn Kasparek, Mike Lee, Marcel Prado, Edwin Quirarte, Mike Recchia, Cody Satterwhite, Robert Stock, Dakota Watts, Jerome Williams.
Left-Handed Pitchers (13): Andrew Albers, Mike Antonini, Sean Bierman, Craig Breslow, Matt Bywater, Aaron Dott, Trevor Lubking, Ronan Pacheco, Jhonathan Ramos, Dustin Richardson, Greg Smith, Caleb Thielbar, Fabian Williamson.
Catchers (6): Brandon Bantz, Jose Gil, Jose Gonzalez, Ralph Henriquez, Ryan Ortiz, J.T. Wise.
Infielders (14): Brock Bond, Brooks Conrad, Chris Curley, Allan De San Miguel, Jonathan Galvez, Luis Hernandez, Kevin Howard, Michael Johnson, Daniel Mayora, Brock Peterson, Jonathan Roof, Nate Samson, Hainley Statia, Justin Toole.
Outfielders (8): Jeremy Barfield, Brian Burgamy, Jose Constanza, Robert Garner, Teodoro Martinez, Burt Reynolds, Trayvon Robinson, David Sappelt.

We welcome any adjustments to this list, with the suggestion that those comments be sent to this writer at RWirz@aol.com.

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