{"id":15649,"date":"2011-08-04T14:22:08","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T21:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seamheads.com\/?p=15649"},"modified":"2011-08-04T14:22:08","modified_gmt":"2011-08-04T21:22:08","slug":"latest-independent-player-to-reach-majors-in-one-year-sets-bar-high-for-2011-signees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/04\/latest-independent-player-to-reach-majors-in-one-year-sets-bar-high-for-2011-signees\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest Independent Player to Reach Majors in One Year Sets Bar High for 2011 Signees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erik Hamren <\/strong>has set the bar very high for those who follow in his footsteps such as premier American Association <\/strong>players Cyle Hankerd <\/strong>and Blake Gailen,<\/strong> who recently had their contracts purchased by major league organizations.\u00c2\u00a0 The same is true for 2011 grads who have made their way out\u00c2\u00a0 of the Can-Am, North American <\/strong>and Frontier Leagues <\/strong>and into any of the 30 organizations.<\/p>\n

Hamren is not the first player to go from an Independent league one season to the majors the very next year, but most of the others either had stardom written all over their resume when they worked with an Indy team while a bonus contract was being negotiated or they had previous time at baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s highest level before returning to perhaps the veteran-laden Atlantic League <\/strong>to prove themselves once more.<\/p>\n

The right-handed hurler, who does not turn 25 until later this month, was an everyday worker bee splitting time between Kansas City, KS <\/strong>and Joliet, IL, <\/strong>two communities that played in the Northern League<\/strong>, last season, hoping that his work would merit a higher level on the baseball chain.<\/p>\n

While his numbers were not outstanding, they were good enough that Kansas City Manager Tim Doherty <\/strong>recommended him for an invitation only San Diego Padres <\/strong>tryout camp after the 2010 season.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 After proving himself with Padres affiliates in both the California<\/strong> <\/strong>and Texas Leagues <\/strong>earlier this year <\/strong>the onetime position player from Saddleback<\/strong> Community College (Mission Viejo, CA) <\/strong>joined the parent Padres <\/strong>this week.<\/p>\n

Big RBI Producer and Batting Leader Among 15 Recent Player Sales<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We can account for another 15 Independent players having their contracts sold to major league organizations in the last two weeks alone, including the American Association <\/strong>sales of \u00c2\u00a0two of its top offensive players in first baseman-outfielder Cyle Hankerd <\/strong>to Philadelphia<\/strong>, <\/strong>where he can see what the big RBI bat he wielded in Amarillo, TX <\/strong>will do in the Florida State League,<\/strong> and outfielder Blake Gailen <\/strong>to the Los Angeles Angels <\/strong>to see how close he can come to maintaining his pace while at Lincoln, NE <\/strong>in the Class AA Texas League. <\/strong>Hankerd already had 74 RBI in only 70 games while hitting at a .355 clip and sharing the American Association lead with 30 doubles at Amarillo while Gailen was pacing the league in hitting at .406 for Lincoln.<\/p>\n

The Atlantic League <\/strong>accounted for one-third of the 15 recent player sales with four from both the Can-Am League <\/strong>and the American Association and one apiece from the North American <\/strong>and Frontier Leagues.<\/strong><\/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

What Major League Vets Learned in Indy Baseball<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mark Atlantic Leaguers Jeff Bennett <\/strong>and Angel Berroa <\/strong>down as two of the most recent major league veterans to find the mixed blessing of playing in an Independent league.\u00c2\u00a0 They are new teammates with Arizona<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>top farm club in Reno<\/strong>, <\/strong>after having their contracts sold.\u00c2\u00a0 Bennett was at Lancaster<\/strong>, PA, <\/strong>Berroa at Bridgeport<\/strong>, CT.<\/strong> <\/strong>Neither player has been in the majors since \u00e2\u20ac\u212209.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of talent there, in Independent ball,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bennett, who has pitched in 179 major league games, told The Reno Gazette Journal. <\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not where you want to end up.\u00c2\u00a0 You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (an Independent league) going to happen.\u00c2\u00a0 But when the free-agent markets haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gone as well the past couple years, I was fortunate to have a job in Independent ball.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They play more like a big-league style.\u00c2\u00a0 They have a set bullpen and pretty much put the same lineup out there every day.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not worried about pitch counts and whether a guy can throw back-to-back days.\u00c2\u00a0 You go out there trying to win every day.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

For his part, Berroa, a onetime American League Rookie of the Year<\/strong>, told the newspaper \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was excited\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to learn from his agent his contract had been picked up.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My family was with me.\u00c2\u00a0 They got more excited than me.\u00c2\u00a0 When I got that call, my wife was next to me and she was jumping before I (even) knew what team.\u00c2\u00a0 I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBaby, let me talk.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00c2\u00a0 But it was exciting.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

(This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes year round on Independent Baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans may subscribe at www.WirzandAssociates.com<\/a>, enjoy his blogs, www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/a> and www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a>, or comment to RWirz@aol.com<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erik Hamren has set the bar very high for those who follow in his footsteps such as premier American Association players Cyle Hankerd and Blake Gailen, who recently had their contracts purchased by major league organizations.\u00c2\u00a0 The same is true for 2011 grads who have made their way out\u00c2\u00a0 of the Can-Am, North American and […]<\/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-15649","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\/15649","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=15649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}