6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Golden Baseball League Tryouts

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Monday, December 27, 2004

Golden Baseball League Tryouts

Again in the "old news" department -- because this slipped my eye earlier and I forgot to put it in my Pilot before I left -- the Golden Baseball League has concluded its first round of tryouts to fill the 240 positions for the 30-man spring training roster. The press release claims half the players have experience in the minors somewhere or in independent leagues, but running the names through The Baseball Cube, only the following players turned up as having any pro experience (or at least college experience):

Player	Years Pro Experience	League*	Pos	Stats**	Notes
Chico
Erik Estrada	1	Central (Ind)	P	0-1, 4.50 ERA, 16 IP, 6.75 K/9, 1.5 K/BB
Fullerton
Craig Green	2	Northwest (A)	RHP	0-1, 6.61 ERA, 16.1 IP, 4.41 K/9, 2.66 K/BB
Darren Heinrichs	0	NCAA	?	.226/.250/.290	But drafted as a pitcher; out of baseball since 1998
Robert Mason	3	GCL (Rookie A)	LHP	0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1 IP, 0.00 K/9, 0.00 K/BB	Did not play in 2004
Tim Thurman	2	Appalachian (Rookie A)	1B	.277/.355/.434
Jose Rodriguez	1	Ind.	SS	N/A	Unsure if this is the right Jose; TBC shows ten, half of whom could be this guy.
Long Beach
Adam Montarbo	2	Central (Ind)	RHP	4-5, 3.27 ERA, 66.0 IP, 4.09 K/9, 1.50 K/BB
Samone Peters	7	Central (Ind)	1B	.231/.271/.452	INF in minors.
Zach Silvera	0	NCAA	P	4-0, 5.71 ERA, 41.0 IP, 8.34 K/9, 1.58 K/BB
Mesa
Jason Alcott	0	NCAA	C	.380/.553/.638	At Alvernia College, in 141 AB; out of baseball since 2003.
Keith Bowman	0	NCAA	P	.252/.309/.441	At CSUN, in 111 AB; out of baseball in 2004. Drafted as a pitcher.
Greg Cauble	1	Frontier (Ind.)	P	0-0, 3.60 ERA, 5.0 IP, 9.00 K/9, 1.67 K/BB
Chris Davis	N/A	N/A	P	N/A	TBC lists six players with this name, five of whom are pitchers. Take your pick.
San Diego
Jeffrey Blitstein	N/A	NCAA?	P	N/A	Last known year 1999 with Chapman College. Drafted by Houston Astros in 1999.
Nick Guerra	0	NCAA	P	.267/.374/.392	With CSUSJ, but drafted as a pitcher. May also be the same as this Nick Guerra, who played for UCSF in 2000. Out of baseball in 2004.
Michael Leishman	1	Frontier (Ind.)	P	0-1, 6.43 ERA, 28.0 IP, 9.69 K/9, 1.67 K/BB
Justin Ottman	0	NCAA	P	3-0, 6.00 ERA, 21.0 IP, 6.86 K/9, 1.78 K/BB	Out of baseball in 2004.
Surprise
Rafael Clemente	1	Frontier (Ind)	PH	.000/.000/.000	In 5 AB.
Mike Smith	N/A	N/A	P	N/A	Take your pick of about a dozen.
Tijuana
Carlos Aponte	1	Canadian (Ind.)	P	0-0, 3.05 ERA, 21.2 IP, 7.40 K/9, 1.21 K/BB	Out of baseball in 2003.
Jon Marshall	1	Central (Ind)	C	.063/.132/.063	In 48 AB. Also played for Cal Poly.
Gavin Monjaras	0	NCAA	SS	.232/.371/.338	In 198 AB, with NMSU.
Yuma
Joe Davenport	1	Atlantic (Ind.)	P	1-3, 9.53 ERA, 17.0 IP, 3.71 K/9, 0.70 K/BB	There's another pitcher with this name who bounced around in the minors (active 1994 through 2001), but has been out since 2002.
Jorge Perez	1	Canadian (Ind.)	P	5-3, 4.81 ERA, 58.0 IP, 9.15 K/9, 2.95 K/BB
Jjallil Sandoval	3	Frontier (Ind.)	P	.174/.296/.217	In 23 AB. Skipped 2003. In his last full season with Tri Cities (Rookie A, Houston), hit .242/.343/.274 in 190 AB.
Justin Schuda	4	California (A)	1B	.190/.272/.285	In 242 AB. Out of baseball since 2003.

* Last league played in.
** For pitchers: W-L, ERA, IP, K/9, K/BB; all others, Avg/OBP/SLG. Stats from last team or cumulative for last full year in professional club shown.

Pretty clearly, the bulk of the players coming from college and pro programs are pitchers, which pretty much makes sense; it's the hardest thing to teach.

Independent Thinking has the latest newsletter from the GBL.

// posted by Rob @ 9:12 AM link // 1 comments