Atlantic League news, transactions Aug 27 – Sept 9
So this is news/transactions blog entry is a little longer than normal since it combines the last two weeks (sorry, didn’t have time to put together an entry for last week since a man nicknamed ‘The Rocket’ came to York). As a result, there are a lot of newsworthy items, from historic marks set to Player of the Month honors for the month of August to some big news on the retirement of a manager. We’ll get to those first before moving on to the transactions…
Jesse Hoorelbeke
Hoorelbeke new home run king: Forgot to mention this a couple weeks ago, but Somerset’s Jesse Hoorelbeke is now the all-time leader in home runs among the independent ranks. Hoorelbeke broke the mark Aug. 18 and added another homer Aug. 19 for his 164th and 165th dingers, passing outfielder Glenn Murray, who hit 163 homers between 1999 and 2006 with Nashua (NH) when that city was in the Atlantic and Can-Am Leagues.
3B Luis Lopez
–Lopez on DP Show: The Dan Patrick Show, a national radio show and TV show on DirecTV, brought Bridgeport Bluefish third baseman Luis Lopez on the show last Monday so he could chat about what he saw out of Roger Clemens in Sugar Land two days prior. Lopez also shares a couple interesting facts about his career, including the time 11 years ago when he was “all over Sportscenter” thanks to a Roger Clemens’ milestone. Check out the full interview here.
Skeeters
Skeeters set attendance mark: The Sugar Land Skeeters announced today that the club broke an Atlantic League weekend attendance record following last night’s crowd of 6,826 at Constellation Field. The Skeeters’ weekend crowd totaled at 22,886 from Friday through Sunday against the Long Island Ducks. The mark tops the previous Atlantic League weekend record held by the Somerset Patriots, who reached 22,200 over three games from June 15-17 this season.
OF Ryan Harvey
August honors: Lancaster outfielder Ryan Harvey took the Atlantic League’s Player of the Month honors in the month of August, while Bridgeport pitch Paul Oseguera was named the Pitcher of the Month. Harvey, who turned 28 during the month, topped the league in both home runs (12) and RBI (39) while batting .322. He led the Barnstormers to a 22-8 record, the best month in team history. The former Chicago Cubs’ first round draft choice had three multiple home run games during August. He homered in each of the last four games of the month and batted safely in the last eight.
Oseguera posted a 4-2 record with a 1.96 ERA in 41.1 innings of work. The left-hander also recorded 45 strikeouts while holding opposing batters to a .228 batting average.
Andy Etchebarren
Etch’ to retire: The York Revolution announced last week that manager Andy Etchebarren will retire at the end of the 2012 season, with pitching coach Mark Mason assuming the managerial duties in 2013. Etch’ came to York near the end of the 2009 season and turned around a losing ball club by winning back-to-back league titles in 2010 and 2011. The former Orioles catcher is in his 51st season of pro baseball. He’ll stay involved in the game by assuming an advisor role under Opening Day Partners’ chairman Peter Kirk (ODP owns five of the eight teams in the league). For full details on the news, click here.
Now on to the transactions…
Over the last two weeks, all eight Atlantic League ball clubs were involved in transactions, which included a total of 19 players. Of the fifteen players who signed new deals with clubs, two of them are former big leaguers. Seven of the 15 were acquired in trades. Four players were released.
BRIDGEPORT BLUEFISH: Signed RHP Wanel Mesa and RHP Pat Bresnahan
Mesa, 25, if a former Washington Nationals’ prospect who reached Class A Hagerstown in 2010. In 2011, he had a combined 0-2 record and 13.50 ERA nine starts and one relief appearance split between North American League clubs Rio Grande Valley and McAllen.
The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Bresnahan in the fifth round in 2006 out of Arizona State. The right-hander reached Class AA Altoona in 2007. The 27-year-old made two appearances for Bridgeport in 2010.
OF Bryan Goelz
CAMDEN RIVERSHARKS: Signed OF Bryan Goelz, acquired OF Reid Gorecki from Long Island in exchange for a pitcher to be named later
Goelz, 32, returns to the Atlantic League after a five-year hiatus. It’s unclear if he’s been playing anywhere during the last handful of years. He has experience in the Atlantic League with the Road Warriors and Long Island Ducks in 2006 and Somerset Patriots in 2007. In 114 combined games over those two seasons, the New York native batted a collective .226. He is a former prospect of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, topping out at High Class A in 2004 and 2005.
Gorecki, 31, reached the major leagues for one season in 2009 with the Atlanta Braves, where he batted .200 with three RBIs in 31 games. This season marks his first playing independent ball. Gorecki batted .281 with 10 homers and 41 RBIs in 83 games for Long Island.
LHP Ronnie Morales
LANCASTER BARNSTORMERS: Signed RHP Joe Gannon, acquired LHP Ronnie Morales from Grand Prairie (American Association) in exchange for future considerations
The Atlantic League Pitcher of the Year in 2008, Gannon signed with Southern Maryland in the last week of July only to be cut a month later. A former Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox prospect, the 37-year-old Gannon went 3-3 with a 4.72 ERA in five starts and 19 relief appearances for Southern Maryland in 2011. Gannon had a 6.98 ERA in three starts and two relief appearances for the Blue Crabs this season.
Morales returns to the Atlantic League after Lancaster shipped him away earlier this season to Grand Prairie in exchange for infielder Cesar Nicholas. The Barnstormers originally acquired Morales from York, where the left-hander set a club record in 2011 with 70 appearances. The former Chicago White Sox prospect went 2-2 with a 3.81 for York last year, tossing scoreless ball in his final 3.2 innings (six appearances), allowing a combined three hits and walking four. In 55 appearances for Grand Prairie this season, Morales posted a 5-4 record and 2.97 ERA, striking out 50 and walking 16 in 57.2 innings.
1B/OF Lee Cruz
LONG ISLAND DUCKS: Acquired 1b/OF Lee Cruz from Kansas City T-Bones (American Association) for a player to be named later, acquired P John Brownell from Grand Prairie (American Association) in exchange for future considerations; traded OF Reid Gorecki to Camden in exchange for a pitcher to be named later; released LHP Adam Rowe and RHP Bubbie Buzachero
The Ducks got a nice bat in Cruz, who led the T-Bones with a .354 batting average in 44 games played. He also hit seven homers and collected 28 RBIs. The Florida native spent the first five years of his pro career playing mostly for the Chicago White Sox organization before joining the Astros farm system in 2010. A 10th-round draft pick of the White Sox in 2006, Cruz is a career .255 hitter in 140 games played at the Class AA level. He played in just one game at Class AAA for the Astros’ Round Rock club in 2010. In 100 games with the American Association’s Amarillo club in 2011, Cruz hit .344 with 18 homers and 94 RBIs.
The Ducks continue to rebuild their starting rotation with the addition of Brownell. The right-hander put together a 8-7 record and 3.65 ERA in 21 starts this season for the Air Hogs. A year ago, he had a 3.56 ERA in 20 starts for Grand Prairie. The South Dakota native played one year in affiliated ball for the Philadelphia Phillies’ Low Class A Batavia club in 2006, posting a 3.89 ERA in 19 relief appearances. He has split time between the independent Frontier League, North American League and American Association since then, converting to a starter’s role in the 2008 season.
Gorecki, 31, reached the major leagues for one season in 2009 with the Atlanta Braves, where he batted .200 with three RBIs in 31 games. This season marks his first playing independent ball. Gorecki batted .281 with 10 homers and 41 RBIs in 83 games for Long Island.
Rowe is a former Kansas City Royals prospect who came over to Long Island in a trade in early August from the Abilene Prairie Dogs (North American League), where he had an impressive 2.75 ERA in 12 starts this season. Drafted by the Royals in the 20th round in 2004, Rowe reached High Class A High Desert in 2006 but posted a 5.10 ERA in 36 relief appearances. Since then, the Ohio native has spent his time playing in the independent North American League and American Association. Rowe posted an 0-3 record and 11.84 ERA in four starts and two relief appearances for the Ducks.
Buzachero didn’t last long for Long Island (no pun intended) after signing with the Ducks just a couple weeks ago. He returned to Long Island for the third time in his career. He first joined Long Island in 2009 before returning in 2011, when he posted a stellar 3.26 ERA and 7-2 record over 52 relief appearances. The right-hander played in just four games for Long Island this season, posting a 20.25 ERA in one start and three relief appearances.
LHP Adam Champion
SOMERSET PATRIOTS: Signed LHP Adam Champion
Champion, who turns 25 later this month, is just two years removed from playing college ball at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, where he had a 5-4 record and 3.11 ERA in 14 starts in his senior season in 2010. The Houston Astros selected Champion in the 24th round of the draft that year. The left-hander appeared in a combined 38 games at Low Class A Tri City in 2010 and 2011, and appeared in one game at Class A Lexington. The Indiana native comes to Somerset after playing for the the Evansville Otters (Frontier League) this season, appearing in 23 games and finishing with an 8-5 record, a 3.06 ERA and 69 strikeouts.
RHP Joe Gannon
SOUTHERN MARYLAND BLUE CRABS: Signed RHP Benjamin Moore, acquired INF Cory Morales and INF Cesar Nicolas from the Sioux Falls Pheasants (American Association) in exchange for players to be named later; released RHP Joe Gannon
The 31-year-old Moore started off the season playing for Southern Maryland by posting a 2-1 record and 2.05 ERA before getting picked up by the Lamigo Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League.
Morales, 26, is just four years removed from playing college ball at Northern Colorado. He has spent his entire pro career in the American Association. A year ago, he batted .283 with two homers and 48 RBIs in 100 games for Fort Worth. The California native batted .292 with nine homers and 51 RBIs in 90 games for Sioux Falls this season.
Nicolas might end up being a solid pickup for Southern Maryland as the Blue Crabs battle for the second-half Liberty Division crown down the stretch. As a Detroit Tigers prospect in 2010, Nicolas was suspended mid-way through the season for 50 games for testing positive for amphetamine, a performance-enhancing drug. At the time, the first/third-baseman was batting .279 with seven homers and 38 RBIs through 70 games at Class AA Erie. It looks like Nicolas has served out his suspension because he came back to the Tigers in 2011 at Class AAA Toledo. However, he played in just seven games there before being released in early May. He went on to play the rest of the season with Grand Prairie, where he batted .353 with eight homers and 73 RBIs in 84 games. He comes to Southern Maryland after hitting .335 with 12 homers and 82 RBIs in 99 games.
The Atlantic League Pitcher of the Year in 2008, Gannon signed with Southern Maryland in the last week of July only to be cut a month later. The Blue Crabs brought Gannon on board to fill the void left by injured starter Dan Reichert, who recently came back from the disabled list. A former Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox prospect, the 37-year-old Gannon went 3-3 with a 4.72 ERA in five starts and 19 relief appearances for Southern Maryland in 2011. Gannon had a 6.98 ERA in three starts and two relief appearances for the Blue Crabs this season.
C Koby Clemens
SUGAR LAND SKEETERS: Signed 1B/OF Carlos Sosa and C Koby Clemens
Sosa returns to the Atlantic League for the second year in a row. He hit .330 with 17 homers and 55 RBIs in 75 games for the league’s Road Warriors club in 2011 before being picked up by the Texas Rangers and assigned to Class AA San Antonio, where he batted .312 with with two homers and 13 RBIs in 28 games. The 30-year-old Dominican Republic native started off this year playing for San Antonio before transitioning to a coaching role in the minors.
The Toronto Blue Jays had released Clemens early last week so he could catch his dad on Friday against Long Island. Clemens went 1-for-4 – his lone hit being a double – in that game. It’s unclear if he’s sticking around the rest of the year since the Skeeters put him on the inactive list the very next day. An eighth-round draft pick of the Houston Astros in 2005, Clemens’ best year came in 2009 when he batted .345 with 22 homers and 121 RBIs in 116 games at High Class A Lancaster. He joined the Blue Jays’ organization this season and hit .299 in 23 games at High Class A Dunedin and .218 in 41 games at Class AA New Hampshire.
3B Ramon Castro
YORK REVOLUTION: Acquired UTL David Espinosa from the Lincoln Saltdogs (American Association) in exchange for future considerations; released 3B Ramon Castro
Espinosa comes back to the Atlantic League for the third straight season and fourth overall after spending the last two years playing in a combined 21 games for Southern Maryland. He has spent his time in the American Association and the Atlantic League since 2010. He batted a combined .327 in his previous two years between the leagues. He comes over to York after batting .313 with seven homers and 35 RBIs in 68 games for Lincoln. He also had 12 stolen bases. Espinosa, a Venezuelan native, is a former first-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds in 2000. The switch-hitter played 224 combined games at the Class AAA Toledo from 2005 to 2007, batting .251.
Castro’s release stemmed from an on-the-field incident Aug. 29 at Southern Maryland. It’s been an atypical season for Castro. In his previous two seasons with the Revs, Castro hit .339 in 2010 and .323 in 2011, respectively. But he’s had an up and down season in 2012, batting .288 through 105 games. The Revs’ all-time leader in RBIs (214) and doubles (81), Castro sat out the Atlantic League All-Star game in Camden in July for undisclosed personal reasons.
