Strasburg Signs for $15.1 Million While Indy Hurlers Cost $45,000 and Have 44 Major League Wins in ‘09

Let me see if I have this right?  The Washington Nationals just signed Stephen Strasburg, the whiz kid who went 13-1 at San Diego State last spring but has not thrown a professional pitch, for $15.1 million.  He may turn out to be a bargain or a trivia question as “the phenom who set the record for the highest June free agent draft contract ever and hurt his arm before ever getting to the major leagues.”

On the other side of this lopsided proposition, the 15 former Independent Baseball pitchers now in the major leagues have won 44 games so far this season.  They cost their teams less than $45,000 to purchase their contracts from their respective leagues and get an opportunity to work their way up the food chain to the majors.  That is $45,000 total.

Hmmm!

It would seem the major league teams got a pretty good bargain in their acquisitions. I believe any sane National or American League owner could make a pretty good case to his front office briefcases that they should take a chance on a bevy of additional Independent hurlers.

The $45,000 price tag to obtain the services of the 15 hurlers who were in Independent leagues and now are working in the majors comes about this way. The going price for purchasing an Indy player is $3,000, if that signing occurs during the season.  The majors did not actually spend the entire $45,000 because if they purchase a player shortly after the Indy season ends it is for $1,000.  Later in the offseason some deals are for $1 plus another $1,499 if the player is on an affiliated team roster when spring training ends.  The Atlantic League, which was the last Indy stop for a few of the 15 players, does not get a dime when signings take place after December 31 since its players annually are free agents when the calendar turns to a new year.

44 Wins, Even Without Weaver and Carrasco

An even dozen onetime Independent Baseball pitchers have accounted for the 44 major league wins so far in 2009 (three others are winless), and the count would leap to 61 if our calculations added Jered Weaver (13 victories) of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and D. J. Carrasco (four wins) of the Chicago White Sox.  Weaver was with Camden, NJ of the Atlantic League for a time and Carrasco agreed to play for Johnstown, PA of the Frontier League although neither was in regular season game.  A 62nd victory could be credited to Josh Kinney of St. Louis, but this former Frontier League righty (River City, O’Fallon, MO) is back in the minor leagues.  Counting all of this, the major league record of the Indy hurlers would be a combined 62-51.

Arizona’s Max Scherzer, who played for the Fort Worth (TX) Cats (American Association), is the top winner among the Indy hurlers with seven victories. 

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Breslow Dissects Baseball Before Med Field Gets Him

Onetime New Jersey Jackals reliever Craig Breslow has been getting a lot of attention because The Wall Street Journal recently tabbed him “The Smartest Man in Baseball”, but it seems pretty apparent the lefty, who just turned 29 two weeks ago, has more baseball life in him before he starts medical school and puts his Yale degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry to work in trying to eliminate pediatric cancer.

Five years after leaving the Little Falls, NJ team, which now is in the Can-Am League, for the San Diego farm system and four seasons after he first reached the majors with the Padres, Breslow is leading the American League with 60 mound appearances and proving pretty stingy in the Oakland bullpen.  Breslow has allowed a meager 32 hits for 49 innings while putting together a 5-6 record and 4.22 earned run average combined between Minnesota, where he started the season, and the Athletics.

‘The Smartest Man’ did break down the difference between the medical field and baseball earlier this week for The San Jose (CA) Mercury News. “When you’re in a lab, you’re always following a protocol,” he told Mark Emmons.  “There’s a structure.  But on the mound, everything is reactive and spontaneous.  The first pitch goes awry and then you have to improvise.  There’s no recipe to follow out there.”

Incidentally, Breslow’s contract from New Jersey to San Diego was sold for $1 with the balance of $1,500 if he made a team, which he obviously did.

26 and 27-Game Hit Streaks Belong to Same Player

Twenty-five game hitting streaks are a rarity.  The odds against two of them in the same season are somewhat akin to winning the lottery.  Fort Worth, TX outfielder Brian Fryer has pulled off the unlikely hitting feat with 27 and 26-game streaks for the American Association playoff-bound Cats, who believe it may be an all-time first in an Independent league.

The 27-year-old Fryer, a steady .300 hitter for his four Independent seasons, had his first streak June 7-July 8, and only six days after the 27-game streak ended the second challenge to the league’s 30-game record started.  It ended last weekend, but hitting safely in 56 of 59 games in the entire stretch would have made Joe DiMaggio proud.  The speedy centerfielder (37 steals) is hitting .320 for the season.

(This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes on Independent Baseball.  Fans may subscribe at www.WirzandAssociates.com, enjoy his blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com, or comment to RWirz@aol.com.  The author has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)