{"id":4071,"date":"2010-04-08T19:01:36","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T02:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=4071"},"modified":"2010-04-08T19:01:36","modified_gmt":"2010-04-09T02:01:36","slug":"with-nelson-figueroa-joining-phillies-an-even-dozen-independent-grads-in-majors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/08\/with-nelson-figueroa-joining-phillies-an-even-dozen-independent-grads-in-majors\/","title":{"rendered":"With Nelson Figueroa Joining Phillies, An Even Dozen Independent Grads in Majors"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were a number of late disappointments to be sure, but 11 former Independent Baseball players were on Opening Day major league rosters, and the number will climb to 12 since Philadelphia<\/strong> <\/strong>claimed Nelson Figueroa <\/strong>from the New York<\/strong> Mets. <\/strong>Who are the others?<\/p>\n

Brothers J. D. Drew (<\/strong>St. Paul<\/strong>, <\/strong>MN<\/strong>) <\/strong>of Boston<\/strong> <\/strong>and Stephen Drew (<\/strong>Camden<\/strong>, <\/strong>NJ<\/strong>) <\/strong>represent the position players climbing from Independent ranks to the majors.\u00c2\u00a0 The other nine are pitchers\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe Oakland <\/strong>trio of Craig Breslow (New Jersey Jackals, Little Falls), Edwar Ramirez (Pensacola, FL <\/strong>and Edinburg, TX) <\/strong>and Brad Ziegler (Schaumburg), <\/strong>the Fort Worth, TX (American Association) <\/strong>duo of Max Scherzer (Detroit) <\/strong>and Luke Hochevar (Kansas City), Houston\u00e2\u20ac\u2122sTim Byrdak (Gary, IN, <\/strong>and Joliet, IL, Northern League), \u00c2\u00a0Brendan Donnelly (Ohio Valley, Frontier League,<\/strong> and Nashua, NH, Atlantic League) <\/strong>with Pittsburgh, George Sherrill (Winnipeg, Canada, Sioux Falls, SD <\/strong>and Evansville, IN <\/strong>(Frontier) with the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/strong> and Randy Williams <\/strong>(Edinburg) with the Chicago White Sox.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Axe Falls Hard<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The list of players given their outright release while organizations were trimming to both major and minor league roster limits always is staggering.\u00c2\u00a0 One whopper to these eyes was Mike Rivera (Atlantic City, NJ, Atlantic League)<\/strong> since it was barely 48 hours earlier when he was being mentioned to catch the New York Yankees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/strong>opener if Jorge Posada <\/strong>and Francisco Cervelli <\/strong>did not recover from injuries.\u00c2\u00a0 Rivera struggled at the plate this spring (3-for-18, including two doubles), but he is a .244 lifetime major leaguer.<\/p>\n

Charlton Jimerson, <\/strong>the 2009 Atlantic League batting champion (.335 at Newark<\/strong>, <\/strong>NJ<\/strong> and formerly with Sioux City<\/strong>, <\/strong>IA<\/strong>, <\/strong>American Association) did not make it with Minnesota<\/strong>, <\/strong>and Jermaine Van Buren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>comeback effort with Florida<\/strong> <\/strong>ended.\u00c2\u00a0 He had made it to the major leagues after playing for Fort Worth<\/strong>, <\/strong>TX<\/strong> <\/strong>when it was in the Central League.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were a number of late disappointments to be sure, but 11 former Independent Baseball players were on Opening Day major league rosters, and the number will climb to 12 since Philadelphia claimed Nelson Figueroa from the New York Mets. Who are the others?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\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