Cuban <\/strong>refugee Raul Valdez,<\/strong> a southpaw reliever who played in the Can-Am League (Nashua, NH <\/strong>and New Jersey)<\/strong>, debuted in the majors with the New York Mets<\/strong> earlier this season, and he rejoined the National League <\/strong>team as did Travis Schlichting <\/strong>with the Los Angeles Dodgers. <\/strong>Schlichting has been on a shuttle between LA <\/strong>and its Albuquerque<\/strong>, NM<\/strong> <\/strong>farm club in recent weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 The right-handed Schlichting pitched for Kansas City<\/strong>, KS<\/strong> <\/strong>in the Northern League <\/strong>in 2007.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n 76 Runs Scored in Just Two Games<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The American Association <\/strong>had another form of fireworks the Fourth of July when El Paso<\/strong> and first-half South Division <\/strong>champion Shreveport-Bossier<\/strong>, LA<\/strong> <\/strong>combined to score 45 runs.\u00c2\u00a0 Sioux Falls<\/strong>, SD, <\/strong>which had won the North Division <\/strong>the previous day, and Sioux City<\/strong>, IA<\/strong> <\/strong>had a modest slugfest in which 31 runs were scored.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, that is 76 runs in two games.<\/p>\n Shreveport-Bossier tied a league record with 28 hits and had four players register four-hit games although the Captains <\/strong>were on the losing side, 24-21.\u00c2\u00a0 The Sioux Falls victory, 24-7, which could not be completed until the next day because of the league curfew, saw the Pheasants<\/strong> tie the American Association record with seven home runs, including three each by Reggie Abercrombie <\/strong>and Trevor Lawhorn<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 The duo drove in 13 runs, scored eight (Lawhorn tied another league mark with five runs) and went a combined 9-for-13.<\/p>\n * * * *<\/p>\n www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com<\/a> ADDED TO www.IndyBaseballChatter.com<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n FOR ADDITIONAL INDEPENDENT BASEBALL COVERAGE? <\/strong><\/p>\n * * * *<\/p>\n Cochran, Umpire Latest Can-Am Selections<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n While the Can-Am League <\/strong>will not play an All-Star Game, it has reason to be interested in three other contests since Tom Cochran<\/strong>, voted the top left-handed pitcher in the league in 2008, will play in Monday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Class AA Southern League <\/strong>game.\u00c2\u00a0 First baseman John Lindsey (Albuquerque, Los Angeles Dodgers) <\/strong>will be in the Triple-A game and one of the league\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s former umpires, Adam Hamari<\/strong>, will be behind the plate when the Major League Futures Game <\/strong>is staged in Anaheim<\/strong>, CA<\/strong> <\/strong>Sunday.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Cochran has won six of nine decisions with a 2.38 earned run average for Carolina<\/strong> (Zebulon, NC) <\/strong>of the Cincinnati<\/strong> <\/strong>farm system.\u00c2\u00a0 Hamari has been on a rapid climb ever since his contract was purchased out of the Can-Am League in June, 2006.\u00c2\u00a0 He has worked in the New York-Penn, Midwest <\/strong>and California<\/strong> Leagues<\/strong> and currently is a crew chief in the Eastern League.\u00c2\u00a0 Dixon Stureman<\/strong>, who has worked in four Independent leagues including the Northern <\/strong>and American Association<\/strong>, was expected to be part of the Futures one time in the past until he was promoted to his current job in the Pacific<\/strong> Coast<\/strong> League.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Chico<\/span><\/strong> Rules in Golden League<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Add Chico<\/strong>, CA<\/strong> <\/strong>to the list of first-half champions.\u00c2\u00a0 Former major league shortstop Garry Templeton<\/strong> led the Outlaws<\/strong> to the Northern Division <\/strong>title.\u00c2\u00a0 The South <\/strong>remains up for grab.<\/p>\n (This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes on Independent Baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans may subscribe at www.WirzandAssociates.com, 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":" Any week we can report on players reaching the major leagues is a good one so two new promotions and two additional repeat selections during the early days of July represent the type of fireworks Independent Baseball should always celebrate. The elevation of outfielder Matt Watson to the parent Oakland Athletics could be looked at […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-6488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-indy-baseball-insider"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6488","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=6488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/indylogo.png\" "\\"indylogo\\"")
<\/a>Almost as exciting as Watson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s promotion was the elevation of another lefty-hitting outfielder, Cory Aldridge, <\/strong>to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim,<\/strong> since his only other major league opportunity was for 27 days and a measly five at-bats spread over eight appearances with Atlanta<\/strong> <\/strong>in 2001.\u00c2\u00a0 Aldridge played for Newark<\/strong>, NJ <\/strong>(Atlantic) in \u00e2\u20ac\u212208.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 His second start with the Angels came Thursday in a game in which Anaheim and the Chicago White Sox <\/strong>combined for only five hits. Unfortunately, Aldridge went 0-for-3 to drop his current hitless streak to 10 and his major league career total to 0-for-15.<\/p>\n