{"id":20584,"date":"2012-05-11T05:12:53","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T12:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seamheads.com\/?p=20584"},"modified":"2012-05-11T05:12:53","modified_gmt":"2012-05-11T12:12:53","slug":"independent-baseball-season-fires-up-next-week-with-three-more-leagues-starting-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/11\/independent-baseball-season-fires-up-next-week-with-three-more-leagues-starting-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent Baseball Season Fires Up Next Week With Three More Leagues Starting Play"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Calfapietra <\/strong>is one of the real veterans among the 32 Independent Baseball managers preparing teams to open the season in one week (May 17) when the Can-Am League, American Association <\/strong>and Frontier League <\/strong>hear the “Play Ball” cry.<\/p>\n

The 42-year-old New Jersey Jackals <\/strong>skipper has had time to develop a plan for building a roster since this will be his 10th<\/sup> season at Yogi Berra Stadium <\/strong>in Little Falls <\/strong>and his 13th<\/sup> overall in leading an Independent team.<\/p>\n

“I like guys just out of an (major league) organization”, Calfapietra said, “and guys who have an opportunity to get re-signed” as opposed to longtime Indy vets with little chance of going elsewhere.  That’s why the Jackals return only six players from the team that went to the Can-Am finals last year, and it likely has a bearing on their ability to get players to the majors.<\/p>\n

Baltimore <\/strong>reliever Stu Pomeranz <\/strong>is the fourth New Jersey player to land in the big time along with current Arizona <\/strong>reliever Craig Breslow<\/strong>, first baseman-DH John Lindsey <\/strong>(now in Mexico) <\/strong>and another southpaw, Raul Valdes<\/strong>, who could get another shot from Philadelphia’s <\/strong>top farm club, Lehigh Valley (Allentown, PA), <\/strong>where he has struck out 26 International League <\/strong>hitters in 21 innings while issuing only one walk.  The Cuban<\/strong> is 2-1 with a save and a 3.86 earned run average.<\/p>\n

By perusing New Jersey’s roster, it is not difficult seeing others who could get attention from the major leagues since it has former American League <\/strong>Rookie of the Year Angel Berroa <\/strong>at shortstop, major league southpaw Matt Chico <\/strong>(40 career starts) <\/strong>and young righties Zach Woods <\/strong>and Jimmer Kennedy, <\/strong>who Baseball America <\/em>tabbed last fall as the No. 9 and 10 best prospects, respectively, in Independent Baseball.<\/p>\n

Three new franchises will debut next week with the Laredo (TX) Lemurs <\/strong>in the American Association and both the London<\/strong> (<\/strong>Ontario<\/strong>) Rippers <\/strong>and the Schaumburg (IL) Boomers <\/strong>in the Frontier League.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

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

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

* * * *<\/p>\n

 Bridgeport<\/span><\/strong>, Nettles in Atlantic League Spotlight<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Willie Upshaw’s Bridgeport (CT) Bluefish <\/strong>have been the class of the Atlantic League <\/strong>so far, stretching their record to 10-4 in a 40-hit, 15-11, 11-inning daytime marathon at Southern Maryland (Waldorf) <\/strong>Thursday, but they are being challenged for attention by the continued assault on the league record book by Somerset, NJ <\/strong>third baseman Jeff Nettles.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nettle, whose dad, Graig<\/strong>, did his own headline-making as a superb major league third baseman,  claimed the all-time hit leadership (934) Wednesday and broke the marks for games (881) and at-bats (3,258) a few days earlier.  He also is the all-time best in RBI (597) and doubles (198) and is within 13 of Glenn Murray’s <\/strong>record of 158 home runs although he is off to a slow start with a homerless .154 average for 13 games.<\/p>\n

Now Starting, Savage Runs <\/span><\/strong>Albuquerque<\/span><\/strong> Record to 6-0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Will Savage <\/strong>will not be compared to Bob Gibson <\/strong>or Randy Johnson <\/strong>when it comes to strikeouts, but presuming wins are still most important the Los Angeles Dodgers <\/strong>surely are taking note of the 6-0 record the 27-year-old has posted for Triple-A Albuquerque<\/strong>, <\/strong>NM<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2009 Wichita<\/strong> (KS) Wingnuts (American Association) <\/strong>starter, who also worked briefly for Lancaster<\/strong>, <\/strong>PA<\/strong> <\/strong>in the Atlantic League, <\/strong>was moved from the bullpen into the rotation four starts ago for the Isotopes.  <\/strong>He has gone 3-0, 3.80 to bring his overall earned run average in the light air ofAlbuquerque to 3.22.<\/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, enjoy his blogs, www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/span> and www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/span>, or comment to RWirz@aol.com<\/span>.  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.)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Calfapietra is one of the real veterans among the 32 Independent Baseball managers preparing teams to open the season in one week (May 17) when the Can-Am League, American Association and Frontier League hear the “Play Ball” cry. The 42-year-old New Jersey Jackals skipper has had time to develop a plan for building a […]<\/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":[18800,18798,462,514,542,7621,871,508,493,13833,18801,7391,11322,6292,7384,530,18799,2454,414,9390],"class_list":["post-20584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-indy-baseball-insider","tag-american-league-rookie","tag-angel-berroa","tag-baseball-america","tag-baseball-season","tag-can-am-league","tag-craig-breslow","tag-first-baseman","tag-frontier-league","tag-independent-baseball","tag-independent-team","tag-jimmer","tag-john-lindsey","tag-laredo-tx","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-new-jersey-jackals","tag-raul-valdes","tag-season-fires","tag-th-season","tag-yogi-berra","tag-yogi-berra-stadium"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t