{"id":5056,"date":"2010-05-11T14:13:12","date_gmt":"2010-05-11T21:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=5056"},"modified":"2010-05-11T14:13:12","modified_gmt":"2010-05-11T21:13:12","slug":"somerset-nears-lead-for-graduates-getting-to-majors-st-paul-has-15-patriots-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/11\/somerset-nears-lead-for-graduates-getting-to-majors-st-paul-has-15-patriots-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Somerset Nears Lead for Graduates Getting to Majors; St. Paul Has 15, Patriots 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Ryan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/strong>recall to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim <\/strong>brings Somerset<\/strong>, NJ<\/strong> <\/strong>within reach of tying for the all-time (1993-2010) record of the most alumni from one Independent team reaching the major leagues.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>The St. Paul (MN) Saints<\/strong>, who got a five-year jump on the Patriots <\/strong>since they started play in the Northern League <\/strong>in 1993 (they now are in the American Association<\/strong>), have seen 15 of their players climb to the majors.\u00c2\u00a0 Somerset has had 14.\u00c2\u00a0 Ryan is the 140th<\/sup> graduate of an Independent league overall to play in the majors.<\/p>\n

Somerset has a sizeable advantage in the Atlantic League.<\/strong> Newark <\/strong>is second with nine players, followed by Nashua, NH <\/strong>(no longer in the league) with eight, Long Island <\/strong>has six, Camden<\/strong> and the former Atlantic City Surf <\/strong>five apiece, Bridgeport <\/strong>three, York <\/strong>and Lancaster<\/strong> one each.\u00c2\u00a0 Four of the 51 players who have made the climb were with other franchises no longer in operation.<\/p>\n

Ryan, who had the fifth highest batting average (.351) in the Pacific Coast League<\/strong> at the time he left Salt Lake City<\/strong> last Friday, has been in three of the four Angels games so far, going 1-for-3.<\/p>\n

* * * *WANT MORE INDEPENDENT BASEBALL COVERAGE?\u00c2\u00a0 Check out our blog,\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a> * * * *<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cancel Hopes Atlantic League Helps One More Time<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Robinson Cancel<\/strong> would like to be in the major leagues like any other player, and he realizes the Atlantic League <\/strong>is a very good option for possibly making that happen.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It worked for me once\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, he told Ryan Dunleavy <\/strong>of MyCentralJersey.com. <\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hopefully, it works again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Cancel is catching for the Long Island Ducks <\/strong>this time as he comes back from offseason surgery to his right elbow, but he still has an admirer in Somerset\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Brett Jodie, <\/strong>who is both pitching coach and director of player personnel.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He makes you feel confident in calling a game,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jodie told Dunleavy, and he should know since he was the Patriots\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/strong>ace in 2003 and Cancel was his batterymate as Somerset won the second of its five league championships.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If he (Cancel) put down a sign and you weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure about it, he put it down again,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jodie said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good at controlling the run game for you, too.\u00c2\u00a0 You always felt like he knew what was going on.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old catcher had only 15 games of major league play (Milwaukee, <\/strong>1999) before he joined the Atlantic League, and he got back to that level for a productive 27 games with the New York Mets <\/strong>in 2008 plus one more game last season.<\/p>\n

(Subscriptions to the <\/em>Atlantic League Notebook <\/em>are available on a monthly or full season basis via www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/a> or www.WirzandAssociates.com<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Bob Wirz also writes a weekly column, the Independent Baseball Insider<\/em>, as well as a blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com. The author <\/strong>has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as chief spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Ryan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recall to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim brings Somerset, NJ within reach of tying for the all-time (1993-2010) record of the most alumni from one Independent team reaching the major leagues. The St. Paul (MN) Saints, who got a five-year jump on the Patriots since they started play in the Northern League […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":452,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6254,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atlantic-league-notebook","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056","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=5056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}