{"id":13916,"date":"2011-05-05T15:24:18","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T22:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=13916"},"modified":"2011-05-05T15:24:18","modified_gmt":"2011-05-05T22:24:18","slug":"royals-crow-latest-talking-point-for-american-association","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/05\/royals-crow-latest-talking-point-for-american-association\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals’ Crow Latest Talking Point for American Association"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The American Association <\/strong>already has plenty of talking points for the inauguration of its sixth season next week, not the least of which is its five new franchises and its expansion to 14 teams, more than in any other Independent Baseball league.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Its newest headline-drawing major league pitcher could be another point of emphasis.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 That would be 24-year-old Kansas City <\/strong>reliever Aaron Crow. \u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t certain until the final days of spring training whether this hard-throwing product of nearby Topeka, KS <\/strong>and the University of Missouri <\/strong>would even be in the American League<\/strong> because his past\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand likely his long-term future\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhas been as a starting pitcher.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 But the bearded right-hander has pretty well proven in one month he is ready to face major league hitters.\u00c2\u00a0 This young man, whose first four professional games\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthree of them starts\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcame with the American Association\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fort Worth Cats<\/strong>, has been next to perfect, which earned him Pitcher of the Month honors for the improving Royals.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 <\/strong>Crow has come out of the bullpen 13 times so far, working with a total of 10 runners on base, and the opposition has not scored.\u00c2\u00a0 His impressive record is 2-0 with eight hits and five walks allowed in 15.1 innings, and he has 15 strikeouts.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Asked by The Kansas City Star<\/em> what has impressed him the most about Crow, Manager Ned Yost <\/strong>replied:\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The fact that he throws 97 miles an hour with an above average slider, and that when he steps on that mound he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fearless.\u00c2\u00a0 He just comes right after you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Yost has called on Crow four times in the last eight days, and it seems certain the clamor is going to get louder for the 6-foot-3 pitcher to start.\u00c2\u00a0 That would give the American Association three starters in the American League\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Central Division<\/strong>, joining teammate Luke Hochevar <\/strong>and Max Scherzer <\/strong>of Detroit, <\/strong>two other touted hurlers who also threw their first pro pitches for Fort Worth.\u00c2\u00a0 When Milwaukee <\/strong>reliever Brandon Kintzler,<\/strong> who worked for St. Paul, MN <\/strong>and league newcomer Winnipeg, <\/strong>is added to the mix the American Association quartet has an 11-4 major league record already this season.\u00c2\u00a0 Scherzer is 5-0 by himself.<\/p>\n

* * * *<\/p>\n

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

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

* * * *<\/p>\n

176 Have Gone From Indy Leagues to MLB Organizations<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 We often talk in this space about players having their contracts sold to major league organizations.\u00c2\u00a0 The Independent Baseball Insider <\/em>has just finished its audit of the players with Independent experience who are playing somewhere in the affiliated system for the 30 American <\/strong>and National League <\/strong>franchises, with a current count of 176 players, including 12 who signed or trained with Indy teams but did not play in any regular-season games.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Sixteen of the group are in the majors with Jay Gibbons (Long Island, NY <\/strong>and Newark, NJ)<\/strong> being reactivated from the Los Angeles Dodgers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/strong>disabled list (vision issues) two days ago and the New York Mets <\/strong>bringing southpaw reliever Mike O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Connor (Southern Maryland)<\/strong> onto their roster Wednesday.\u00c2\u00a0 Both played in the Atlantic League, <\/strong>Gibbons in 2008-09 and O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Connor in \u00e2\u20ac\u212209.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Our tally has the Atlantic League setting the pace in players back in organizations with 56, including six in the majors, with the Frontier League <\/strong>next at 42.\u00c2\u00a0 The American Association <\/strong>and the Northern League<\/strong>, the latter no longer active, are credited with 31 apiece although the Northern is one ahead with its five major leaguers.\u00c2\u00a0 The Golden League <\/strong>has 21 on the list followed by the Can-Am League <\/strong>with 13 and the idle United League <\/strong>at seven.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

\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<\/em><\/a>, 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\u00c2\u00a0 The American Association already has plenty of talking points for the inauguration of its sixth season next week, not the least of which is its five new franchises and its expansion to 14 teams, more than in any other Independent Baseball league. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Its newest headline-drawing major league pitcher could be another point of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4746,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-indy-baseball-insider","category-minors"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13916","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=13916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}