A p cuban Amaury Cazana (Marti) to Showcase His Talent With Cards
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P Cuban Amaury Cazana (Marti) to Showcase His Talent With Cards, But Runs King Scott Grimes Still Awaits an Opportunity By Bob Wirz The stories of players who have come through the Independent Baseball ranks and show some major league promise are forever fascinating. Will they get a break by being in the right organization at the right time and make the most of the opportunity or have to settle for a decent minor league career? Two such players are going to be especially interesting to watch in the coming weeks. We know this much. Cuban native Amaury Cazana—or Amaury Marti as he is sometimes known—is going to get a chance to showcase his potent bat in the St. Louis Cardinals’ major league camp in Jupiter, FL, even though he will be doing so as a 36-year-old rookie.  Scott Grimes is nearly a decade younger (27), led all of professional baseball in runs scored last season while helping the York (PA) Revolution win the Atlantic League championship and seems to have all of the other requisite skills to make a mark in some organization, yet he does not even have a contract with one of the 30-major league teams. Not even a minor league invitation so far.
Both players are right-handed-hitting outfielders of nearly the same size—Cazana 6-foot-1, 212, Grimes 6-foot, 200—and get on base frequently. Cazana probably has more power; Grimes more speed. Cazana’s non-roster invitation was announced this week, some seven years after he said goodbye to his parents and his two children in Cuba, went into hiding and spent what he has described as “a little over 24 hours in the water” bouncing in a small boat before he landed in Cancun, Mexico. He started playing professional baseball in the Can-Am League (Elmira, NY) in 2005, then was drafted by the Cardinals the next year. He has worked his way up, frequently playing in Mexico, including this winter, and hitting 26 homers with 116 runs batted in and a combined .302 average in 173 games over the past 12 months. He went .305-13-54 with a .353 on-base percentage for Triple-A Memphis last summer, perhaps the best proving grounds story for St. Louis brass. Grimes, who also started professionally in the Can-Am League (two years with Sussex in Augusta, NJ, and 2008 at Worcester, MA, where he was the league’s Player of the Year), hit leadoff and played a solid centerfield for York, scoring 138 runs in 132 games during the regular season. By comparison, Albert Pujols led the majors with 115 runs. Grimes had 32 doubles, eight triples, 17 homers and 59 RBI while hitting .312 and getting on base 42.9 per cent of the time. He also stole 28 bases, and was named co-Player of the Year in the Atlantic League. Veteran York Daily Record baseball writer Jim Seip called it “the best season for a player wearing a Revolution uniform”. Yet the only opportunity he has had in an affiliated farm system after five pro seasons was for 27 games of rookie and short-season Class A play for the New York Mets in ’09, a period stalled by a broken hand that shelved him for what Grimes recalls as “eight to 10 weeks”. “Nothing concrete” with an organization for 2011, Grimes confirmed Thursday, while showering praise on two former major league catchers who managed him in his last two Independent seasons. “In 2008, I really changed my approach”, he said. Worcester Manager Rich Gedman helped Grimes improve his thinking while in the batter’s box. “It worked wonders,” the Keystone College (LaPlume, PA) graduate said, and the jump from hitting .261 in 2007 to .365 a year later backed up the comment. “I love Etch” (York skipper Andy Etchebarren), added Grimes, who said “I don’t see why I wouldn’t (go back to York)” if an affiliated job does not come along. It seemed prophetic to hear the outfielder praise Gedman, who only recently left the Tornadoes after six seasons to become a hitting coach in the Boston chain, telling The Worcester Telegram “I see myself in a batting cage (teaching hitting instead of managing). That’s where I’ve learned the most about the game, that’s where I’ve learned the most about myself.” Non-Roster Count Up to 18 The count of onetime Independent players with non-roster invitations to major league spring training camps has climbed by eight to 18 since our last report. Catchers Mike Rivera (Atlantic City, NJ, Atlantic League) and Shawn Riggans (New Jersey, Can-Am League) with Milwaukee, backstop Rene Rivera (Camden, NJ, Atlantic) with Minnesota and pitchers Jon Huber (Lancaster, PA, Atlantic) with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Josh Kinney (River City, Frontier League) with the Chicago White Sox, Chris Oxspring (Cook County, Frontier League) with Detroit and Clay Zavada (Southern Illinois, Frontier) with Arizona. Riggans and Rene Rivera were in Indy baseball as recently as last season while Kinney and Oxspring both got their professional start in a non-affiliated league. A blip, perhaps only temporary, hit righty Brian Sweeney (Lafayette, IN, Heartland League), when the Arizona Diamondbacks designated him for assignment this week. Sweeney trained with Somerset, NJ (Atlantic League) last spring before signing with Seattle. He got into 24 games with the parent Mariners (1-2, 3.16). * * * *
www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com ADDED TO www.IndyBaseballChatter.com FOR ADDITIONAL INDEPENDENT BASEBALL COVERAGE? * * * *
The army of young men who invade tryout camps each year hoping to make an impression on scouts can take heart from the story of Keli’i Zablan. Zablan entered a Frontier League tryout session in the fall of 2009 as a second baseman after coming out of Southern Utah (Cedar City). Since he had pitched a few innings for the Mid-Continent Conference school, Zablan also took the mound during the tryout. One year later, the 5-foot-11 Zablan has been part of a championship River City team, contributing with 40 innings of work (2-1, 3.15) spread over 28 appearances. What’s more, his contract has been purchased by the Seattle Mariners. “He is a tremendous young man with unlimited potential at the affiliated level,” praised River City Manager Steve Brook. Showcase Event Goes on Without Its Organizer A showcase workout event under unusual circumstances attracted about 25 players with a range of experience from the major leagues all the way to former collegians hopeful of a professional career. It was staged in Port Chester, NY this week. The unusual part was that the organizer, long time scout Mike DeAngelo, who issued the invitations, passed away suddenly less than two weeks ago. A scout friend, David Scrivines, who works the Atlantic and Can-Am Leagues searching for talent for the Boston Red Sox, stepped in to save the event. “Mike did a great job of assembling players”, Scrivines said, and representatives from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, the New York Yankees and the Major League Scouting Bureau plus Independent teams in Bridgeport, CT and Brockton, MA turned out. Players hoping to better themselves included the likes of Joe Augustine, selected as the top starting pitcher in the Frontier League last season (10-3, 1.97 for Southern Illinois), to nine-game winner Shaun Ellis of El Paso, TX (American Association) to veteran major league reliever Ryan Speier, who is a free agent. Gibbons Okay After Eyes Blurred The Los Angeles Dodgers continue to indicate former Atlantic League outfielder Jay Gibbons is likely to have at least a platoon job in left field this season so it is understandable they got the 33-year-old back to the West Coast when he experienced blurred vision while playing in Venezuela. “It’s nothing,” Dodgers trainer Stan Conte told ESPNLosAngeles.com. Gibbons, who played at Long Island, NY in 2008 and at Newark, NJ a year later, had a surgical procedure on his eyes in November to improve his vision from a reported 20/20 to 20/15. Henderson, NV In, Tijuana Out The long-awaited North American League schedule is out, showing 96 games from May 25-September 5, and one more apparent franchise shift. Schaumburg, IL, which some have been saying still could jump to the Frontier League, is on the schedule as one of three former Northern League franchises, but the league web site no longer lists a Western Division team in Tijuana, Mexico, replacing it with the Henderson (NV) Roadrunners. Henderson, little more than a stone’s throw from Las Vegas where Toronto has its Triple-A team, has never had a professional team, but it has a solid collegiate program at the College of Southern Nevada. The NAL schedule announced by the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings (Harlingen, TX), one of three holdovers from the United League, reveals a staggering 44 games against Edinburg, TX, including one stretch of 20 consecutive games in a 22-day period. The cities are separated by something like 40 miles. Lincoln Stocks Up With Power The Lincoln (NE) Saltdogs crushed the five-year-old American Association home run record last season, blasting 128 round-trippers, with Argelis Nunez the leader with 22. Marty Scott must feel a power show could go a long way toward getting the ‘Dogs back to their championship ways of ’09 because Lincoln has already added the 27-homer bat of Jon Nelson and the 26 homers of Josh Short. Nelson ranked third in the Northern League last season with Joliet, IL while Short was with Lake County (Zion, IL) in the same league. Sioux Falls, SD held the previous American Association record with 96 homers in 2008. (Bob Wirz also writes about Independent Baseball on two other sites, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com and www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com. Fans may subscribe for 2011 to this Independent Baseball Insider column at www.WirzandAssociates.com or comment to RWirz@aol.com. He has 16 years of major league baseball experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners, and lives in Stratford, CT.) Directory: column column -> P g eorge Sherrill Feels Honored to Represent column -> Greatest Male Heavyweight: (#1) Toshiaki Kawada column -> This month: Samsung Gets Jumpstart in Smartphone Market with Google Preferred-Vendor-Status and the Galaxy Nexus column -> The North End on the mend column -> S a daniel Nava Discusses It All From Being 4-Foot-8 to Red Sox Championship column -> Indy Club Could Not Promise a Rotation Job, Now Jerome Williams Might Start for Angels and Pujols Download 65.57 Kb. Share with your friends:
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