THREE PITCHERS AND THREE POSITION PLAYERS STILL IN RUNNING

How about going out on the limb with exactly one week to go before the 2007 season opens.

Jason Simontacchi (Bridgeport, Atlantic League; Springfield, Frontier League) is not going to be ready for a spot in the Washington Nationals' rotation until at least mid-April because of a groin injury, but if my reading of several rosters is correct I give at least six of the Independent Baseball products who were non-roster invitees to spring training a chance of opening the season in the major leagues.

I am not predicting six will make it, but I believe any of this group could get the call. (Independent teams, leagues in parenthesis, and some spring stats, in certain cases.)

Pitchers:
D. J. Carrasco, Arizona (Johnstown, Frontier), 11 strikeouts, two walks in 10.0 innings, 4.50 ERA

Tim Byrdak, Detroit (Joliet and Gary, Northern League), 6.75, but in 8 games and a lefty

Nate Field, Florida (Sioux City, Northern), 3.12 in a busy eight games with eight K's and only one walk

Position Players:
Shortstop Rey Ordonez, Seattle, (St. Paul, Northern), in a nice comeback

Infielder Tomas DeLaRosa, San Francisco, (Nashua, Atlantic League), as a backup infielder

First baseman Tagg Bozied, St. Louis, (Sioux Falls, Northern), as a righthanded bat off the bench

Others have an opportunity, of course, but this is the group I give the best chance.

Of 40-man roster players who haven't been major league regulars, I give Ken Ray a nice chance of being on the Kansas City mound staff. He has been busy with eight appearances (6.23), and it is key for a reliever that he has only walked two. Ray has Indy experience in the Can-Am League (North Shore), Atlantic (Long Island) and Western League (Yuba-Sutter), and got some big league time at Atlanta last year.

We will find out all the answers soon. Stay tuned.

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BREWERS PROMOTE JOE THATCHER TO MAJOR LEAGUE CAMP

How often do we hear of a player being promoted during spring training? Not often.

But that is exactly what happened to onetime Frontier League hurler Joe Thatcher. Milwaukee elevated the former River City Rascals (O'Fallon, MO) lefthander to their major league spring training roster virtually simultaneously with the writing of our latest Independent Baseball Insider column, which was singing his praises as perhaps second in line behind incumbent southpaw specialist Brian Shouse.

The promotion doesn't mean Thatcher will be on the Opening Day roster, of course, but it is further proof of how much they like the soon-to-be 26-year-old who Brad Del Barba signed the day after seeing him in the 2005 Frontier League All-Star Game. His future seems bright.

"Anybody who wears a uniform over here (major league camp) has a chance to make the club," General Manager Doug Melvin told The Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal.

And, it gives fans of Independent Baseball one more player to cheer.

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PHILS START WITH INDY BATTERY; TOUGH BREAK FOR KINNEY

I was all excited to report on the fact Philadelphia started an all-Independent Baseball battery yesterday for its Grapefruit League game against Cleveland in Winter Haven, FL, then the tough news came in that Frontier League grad Josh Kinney has been lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, probably for the season.

Kinney had that meteoric climb that started with River City (O'Fallon, MO) and ended up in the bullpen of the eventual World Champion Redbirds, including some key postseason appearances last October, and now needs Tommy John (elbow) surgery. I knew he had suffered a couple of tough spring training outings, but the verdict that he needs surgery has to be a major blow to the young man who spent his winter hunting as well as to the St. Louis bullpen.

The brighter side for Independent fans is that lefty Brian Mazone (Joliet, IL, Northern League and Zion, UT, Western League) and catcher Chris Coste (Fargo, ND, Northern, and Brandon, Prairie League) made up the Phils' battery for the first three innings Thursday.

Mazone, off that exceptional season in Triple-A, had a decent outing except for one pitch which Cleveland catcher Victor Martinez swatted for a three-run first inning homer. The Indians did not score off Mazone again, while Coste, the .328-hitting surprise of 2006 as a 33-year-old rookie, had a double and scored the tying run (3-3)in the fifth. Coste reportedly needs to keep his bat working well to stick with the Phils, even though he was catching at least two of every five days at the end of last season.

Curtis Pride, Luther Hackman, Jason Simontacchi, Jason Shiell, Tagg Bozied and all of the other Independent Baseball grads getting a look in spring training make scouring the boxscores daily fun. I will be doing more reporting on my findings, both here and in my Independent Baseball Insider column, the next of which will reach subscribers on Thursday.

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GRAND PRAIRIE, CANADIAN CITIES IN THE NEWS FOR MILES WOLFF'S TWO LEAGUES

I seem to have fallen behind as I travel south for a few weeks of visiting spring training sites--and doing some loafing--in Florida. It certainly isn't that I have forgotten baseball. I took part in a SABR program at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Little Falls, NJ, Saturday, my XM radio is almost constantly tuned in to spring training games where I keep one ear tuned to hear how our Independent Baseball grads are doing and I pour over the boxscores at every opportunity for the same reason. I'm just not finding enough time to write in this space.

I spent some time with Miles Wolff and Dan Moushon, the commissioner and president, respectively, of the Can-Am League and American Association, Monday at their Durham, NC office.

It was while I was there that I learned some sobering news which had eluded me. It was the fact former Allentown (PA) Ambassadors Owner Pete Karoly and his dentist wife Lauren perished recently when their airplane went down near New Bedford, MA. Fog may well have been an issue.

I spent several enjoyable evenings with Pete--and usually Lauren--watching the Ambassadors and our Waterbury (CT) Spirit battle it out in the Northeast League. While Karoly made some bitter enemies when he pulled Allentown out merely weeks (three, I believe) before a season was to begin forcing the Northeast League to create a traveling team, there was a time when he had what seemed to be one of the better franchises in the league.

Thankfully, the Can-Am League, which replaced the Northeast three seasons ago, is a much stronger unit today, and appears ready to grow from its current 10-team lineup, which again will have a travel team in 2007.

The Can-Am is openly courting both Montreal and Ottawa to join over the next year or two. Two Montreal groups in opposite areas of that French-speaking city want to build stadiums. Whoever succeeds--it wouldn't be impossible for both to come in along with Ottawa, which is losing its Triple-A team after this season--will join Quebec to add a much greater Canadian influence in the league. All the other franchises are in the United States.

Wolff had just returned from the announcement that Grand Prairie, TX, a Dallas suburb which could build a stadium within four miles of the Texas Rangers, will join the American Association next season, presuming there is no stumbling when a referendum is voted on in May.

Wolff called the potential 4,000-seat, $15 million stadium a "gorgeous design", and lauds the fact it will be in a complex which also houses a horse-racing track where the Breeder's Cup was run a year or so ago.

If the American Association wins the Wichita, KS, territory, where the Northern League likely will be the primary rival, it will be a 12-team league in 2008.

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PHILLIES WEIGH IN AS INDEPENDENT SIGNINGS CONTINUE TO EMERGE

I am feeling somewhat like an expectant father these days, times which I thought were long past. This anxiety--only a bit of an overstatement--comes about as Grapefruit and Cactus League play begins, and we wait to see how the 47 Independent Baseball alums in major league camps fare. One can only imagine the increased pulse rate for the players themselves, starting with the 32 who are non-roster invitees.

But I also find myself fascinated with how many new signings from the Independent ranks are coming in even as the affiliated minor league camps swing their doors open. The talent level the Independents offer cannot possibly be lost on the major league scouting departments.

I can count 14 additions in the last three weeks to the master roster we keep of the onetime Independent players now toiling for the 30 major league organizations, and all of the news may not have even reached this cluttered desk.

The Phillies alone signed four players from among 74 who attended their first ever tryout camp for largely Independent players last weekend. All four were pitchers although several position players are among the 14 recent signees. One of the Philadelphia foursome had only college experience, but three were from the Indy ranks--Mike McTamney, Cory Willey and Jason Wylie. Technically, the trio all came from the Can-Am League, which could be causing some button-popping in the Durham, NC league office.

McTamney played in the Golden League last season, wearing both Fullerton, CA and Reno, NV uniforms, but he had recently been moved to the Can-Am's Brockton, MA franchise. Willey pitched for New Haven County, CT in '06 while Wylie was with both Brockton and the New Jersey Jackals.

The Philadelphia camp was run by Mal Fichman, the onetime Northern League manager who has been signing Independent players for years for the San Diego Padres.

Another signing which has peaked this corner's interest was veteran major league reliever Rich Garces joining the Can-Am League's Nashua (NH) Pride. Garces, who turns 36 in May, has 287 major league appearances, all out of the bullpen, and a 23-10 record, but I do not believe he has pitched professionally since 2002.

My Independent Baseball Insider column Thursday will include a spring training chat with Tagg Bozied, the onetime Northern Leaguer who is trying to make the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals roster this spring after the misfortune of a serious injury from a homeplate celebration after one of his walkoff home runs. He is a great hometown story, just like Philadelphia's Chris Coste (Fargo, ND), with Bozied being the pride of Sioux Falls, SD, which now is in the American Association.

WINTER LEAGUE AND EXPANSION TIDBITS

It is encouraging that both the Golden League and the United League were sufficiently pleased with their winter league seasons that they will do it again next January. One other winter league is on the drawing board, possibly in Florida, although as best we know it is not directly affiliated with any league. And, the new Continental League was scheduled to unveil its last 2007 franchise in League City, TX (near Houston) today. It will be called the Bay Area Toros. The league's fourth entry, largely a traveling team, will be known as the Texas Heat. We understand it may play games in one or more prospective future cities. Tryout camp information for the Continental League is available at www.cblproball.com.

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