{"id":10236,"date":"2010-12-16T15:54:38","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T22:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=10236"},"modified":"2010-12-16T15:54:38","modified_gmt":"2010-12-16T22:54:38","slug":"yankees-won-this-battle-with-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/16\/yankees-won-this-battle-with-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Won This Battle With Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 This will shock some, but it turns out while neither of the supposed top two bidders won Cliff Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>heart, the New York Yankees <\/strong>did beat out the Texas Rangers <\/strong>for one player.\u00c2\u00a0 The Bombers got Mark Prior<\/strong>, the onetime National League All-Star (Chicago Cubs),<\/strong> a free agent who had been in Texas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s system at the end of the season.\u00c2\u00a0 Prior got a minor league deal with the Yankees, but it includes a spring training invitation with the big club as he tries to take the final comeback step, which started in the Golden League (Orange County)<\/strong> in August.\u00c2\u00a0 A mere unearned run plus 22 strikeouts in 11 innings with the Flyers <\/strong>convinced Texas to give him a chance.<\/p>\n

$2 Million for This Pair<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 It may not be Cliff Lee <\/strong>or Carl Crawford <\/strong>money, but I am guessing George Sherrill <\/strong>and Jay Gibbons <\/strong>are not complaining about the $2 million this pair of former Indy leaguers could make combined next season.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Sherrill will get $1.2 million from his new employers, the Atlanta Braves<\/strong>, while Gibbons could earn up to $800,000 with the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 The salaries are a far cry from what Sherrill earned in his nearly five seasons to start his career when he was in the Frontier (Evansville, IN) <\/strong>and Northern Leagues (Sioux Falls, SD <\/strong>and Winnipeg, Manitoba,<\/strong> and what Gibbons took home when he was on the comeback trail in the Atlantic League (Long Island, NY, <\/strong>and Newark, NJ).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong>Gibbons, who got back to the majors last August 8 after nearly three seasons out of the big time, re-signed with LA for $650,000 ($400,000 guaranteed) although Dylan Hernandez <\/strong>of The Los Angeles Times <\/em>reports he would get another $50,000 for every 100 plate appearances starting at 300.<\/p>\n

* * * *<\/p>\n

www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/a> ADDED TO www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

FOR ADDITIONAL INDEPENDENT BASEBALL COVERAGE?<\/strong><\/p>\n

* * * *<\/p>\n

Rehabbing Coste Still Exudes Confidence<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Another player on the comeback trail is catcher Chris Coste<\/strong>, an Independent showpiece when he debuted in the major leagues (Philadelphia) <\/strong>at the age of 33 in 2007 <\/strong>after five seasons in the Independent ranks, <\/strong>four of them with his hometown Fargo (ND) Redhawks <\/strong>(then in the Northern League <\/strong>but moving to the American Association <\/strong>next year) and another six and a half seasons in the affiliated minors.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m throwing at about 75 per cent and getting better each week\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, he said via email this week, almost seven months after major elbow surgery which cost him all of 2010 when he was ticketed for Washington.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The big question, however, will be which team wants to sign a 38-year-old backup.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The door will open at some point, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be ready when it does,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Coste with the same confident tone that has gotten him into 299 more major league games than many expected.<\/p>\n

With Pensacola Out, American Association Seems Set <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 One more significant domino seemed to fall into place Thursday toward finalizing the lineup of Independent teams for the new season.\u00c2\u00a0 Pensacola, FL <\/strong>made it official the Pelicans <\/strong>will no longer be in the American Association <\/strong>when they simultaneously announced the purchase of a Southern League <\/strong>franchise for their new waterfront stadium for 2012 and the sale of the Indy franchise \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to an ownership group in Amarillo, TX<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 With Amarillo, the top drawing team in the United League<\/strong>, joining the American Association and Pensacola departing the Independent league not only gets to an even-numbered 14 teams but also cuts down significant travel with the eastern most franchise now the defending champion Shreveport-Bossier (LA) Captains.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The Frontier League <\/strong>has announced its 96-game schedule which includes the new team in Joliet, IL<\/strong>, which had been a Northern League <\/strong>city, and a one-year departure for the Oakland County Cruisers <\/strong>while their new stadium is being finalized in Waterford Township, MI<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 This primarily leaves the Can-Am League <\/strong>and the newly-formed North American League <\/strong>to complete their 2011 lineups.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0(This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes year round on Independent Baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans may subscribe at <\/em><\/a>www.WirzandAssociates.com, enjoy his blogs, <\/em>www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/em><\/a>, or comment to <\/em>RWirz@aol.com<\/em><\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 The author <\/strong>has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 This will shock some, but it turns out while neither of the supposed top two bidders won Cliff Lee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heart, the New York Yankees did beat out the Texas Rangers for one player.\u00c2\u00a0 The Bombers got Mark Prior, the onetime National League All-Star (Chicago Cubs), a free agent who had been in Texas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s system […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4746],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-indy-baseball-insider"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/452"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}