{"id":19087,"date":"2012-01-06T13:56:29","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T21:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seamheads.com\/?p=19087"},"modified":"2012-01-06T13:56:29","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T21:56:29","slug":"getting-more-opportunities-indy-hurlers-top-three-winter-leagues-in-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/06\/getting-more-opportunities-indy-hurlers-top-three-winter-leagues-in-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting More Opportunities, Indy Hurlers Top Three Winter Leagues in ERA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unlike many previous seasons when prominent current or former Independent players had a difficult time finding any significant playing time in the winter leagues, a bevy of these players are prospering this winter.  Many of them, as best we can tell, are free agents so this can be a very good showcase.<\/p>\n

Travis Schlichting<\/strong>, who pitched for the Kansas City T-Bones,<\/strong> has already capitalized.  The right-hander and onetime Los Angeles Dodger<\/strong> leads the Puerto Rican League <\/strong>with a sparkling 0.92 earned run average, and now he has a new agreement with Oakland <\/strong>that includes an invitation to the Athletics’ <\/strong>spring training camp.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Shane Youman <\/strong>and Eric Junge<\/strong> pace the Dominican <\/strong>and Venezuelan <\/strong>leagues, respectively, in ERA, and no doubt hope for a similar fate.  Youman, who has toured the Atlantic League (Lancaster <\/strong>and York, PA, Bridgeport, CT, Newark, NJ<\/strong> and Long Island, NY <\/strong>last summer), has won five of six decisions to go with his 0.88 ERA.  Junge, who has been at Lancaster and Bridgeport,  is 4-1, 1.59 with a sparkling strikeout to walk ratio.  In all, six Indy hurlers are among the top four in the ERA derby in the three leagues.<\/p>\n

Free agent hitters among the winter league standouts include Cesar Suarez <\/strong>in Venezuela and Sandy Madera <\/strong>and Kraig Binick <\/strong>in Mexico<\/strong>.  <\/strong>Suarez, whose Indy stops have included Camden<\/strong>, NJ <\/strong>and Lancaster in the Atlantic League and Wichita<\/strong>, KS <\/strong>and Fort Worth<\/strong>, TX<\/strong> <\/strong>in the American Association, <\/strong>is No. 1 in batting (.349) and second in runs batted in (40).  Madera, a fixture in New Jersey<\/strong> <\/strong>between Newark before the Bears moved to the Can-Am League<\/strong> as well as with that league’s New Jersey Jackals<\/strong>, is pacing the Mexican League in hitting (.366) to go with 13 homers and 44 RBI.<\/p>\n

Binick continues to show the slap-hitting skills that won the Atlantic League batting championship this summer with Long Island by ranking second in average (.354) and is well ahead of anyone else with his 20 stolen bases.  He was a fixture in the Can-Am League (Sussex<\/strong>, Augusta, NJ) <\/strong>in 2010 and played at Windy<\/strong> City (Crestwood, IL) <\/strong>of the Frontier League <\/strong>in ’09.<\/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

* * * *
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Batterymen Dominate Among Non-Roster Invitees<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Twelve of the 13 onetime Independent players we can identify so far who have received non-roster invitations to major league spring training camps are batterymen.  The invitees with major league and Independent city and league affiliation and an asterisk (*) denoting anyone who started his pro career in a non-affiliated league:<\/p>\n

PITCHERS (9)—Alberto Castillo<\/strong>, Los Angeles Dodgers (Newark <\/strong>and Camden, NJ <\/strong>and Road Warriors, Atlantic League; Schaumburg, IL, Northern League),<\/strong> Robert Coello,<\/strong> Toronto (Edmonton and Calgary, Golden League), Jarrett Grube<\/strong>, Seattle (Southern Maryland, Atlantic), *Josh Kinney, <\/strong>Seattle (River City, Frontier League), *Scott Patterson,<\/strong> Seattle (Lancaster, PA, Atlantic; Gateway, Frontier), Will Savage, <\/strong>Los Angeles Dodgers (Wichita, KS, American Association; Lancaster), Travis Schlichting, <\/strong>Oakland (Kansas City, KS, Northern), R. J. Swindle,<\/strong> St. Louis (Schaumburg; Newark). Raul Valdez, <\/strong>Philadelphia (New Jersey and Nashua, NH, Can-Am League).<\/p>\n

CATCHERS (3)—Michel Hernandez, <\/strong>Cleveland (Somerset, NJ, Atlantic), Mike Rivera,<\/strong> Milwaukee (Atlantic City, NJ, Atlantic), Jose Yepez, <\/strong>Atlanta (Pensacola, FL, American Association; Gary, IN, Northern).<\/p>\n

INFIELDER (1)—Erick Almonte, <\/strong>Milwaukee (Long Island, NY, Atlantic).<\/p>\n

Brockton<\/span><\/strong> Demise Signals a Sad Day for Ed Nottle<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Sentimentality does not always get a lot of play in baseball, but I could not help but get choked up to read Ed Nottle’s <\/strong>comments after the Brockton Rox <\/strong>dropped out of the Can-Am League.<\/strong>  Jolly Ed, or Singin’ Ed as many friends know him from his postgame songfests in pubs throughout the game, was Brockton’s first manager and the unofficial mayor of the blue-collar Massachusetts city.<\/p>\n

“We had some success there (quite an understatement) and it (Campanelli Stadium) <\/strong>was a little gem of a park,” he told Brockton Enterprise <\/em>writer Glen Farley.  <\/strong>Then commenting on the possible end to his lengthy career at age 72, he added:  “That phone’s not going to ring.  I think I could do this until I’m 90, but you’ve got to have a circus to go to.”<\/p>\n

(This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes year round on Independent Baseball.  Fans may subscribe for 2012 at www.WirzandAssociates.com<\/a>, enjoy his blogs, www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/a> and www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a>, or comment to RWirz@aol.com<\/a>.  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":"

Unlike many previous seasons when prominent current or former Independent players had a difficult time finding any significant playing time in the winter leagues, a bevy of these players are prospering this winter.  Many of them, as best we can tell, are free agents so this can be a very good showcase. Travis Schlichting, who […]<\/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-19087","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\/19087","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=19087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}