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Ex-Nats In The Indys, Redux

This used to be a much more enjoyable task, but the nature of the beast is this: In the “lower” independents, it’s been fairly brutal the past few years.

The Can-Am League is down to just five teams plus a travelling squad (and its official developmental league, the New York State League is on hiatus). The North American League — the merger of the former Northern League, United Baseball League and Golden Baseball League — is on the verge of collapse (though more likely, the United League will be reborn from its ashes).

As always, there’s talk of some new leagues, but as noted in this story about the Freedom Pro Baseball League, an upstart similar to the tiny Pecos League, indy ball has proven to be an especially hard sell in the Western U.S.

I’ll spare you the speculation as to why this is (the economy, growth in collegiate wood-bat leagues) and cut to the chase: There are fewer places for “our guys” to end up after they get released, with the Atlantic League tilting heavily towards 4A’s and the rest tilting towards the non-drafted free agents and guys released after one or two seasons of short-season ball.

Without further ado, here’s a list of the guys I was able to spot in my tour through the available rosters of the North American League, American Association, and the Can-Am League:

• Kyle Morrison, Newark Bears (Can-Am)
• Daryle Ward, Newark Bears (Can-Am)
• Matt Chico, New Jersey Jackals (Can-Am)
• Nick Serino, Worcester Tornadoes (Can-Am)
• Alex Caldera, Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks (Am. Assoc.)
• Mitchell Clegg, Sioux Falls Pheasants (Am. Assoc.)
• Trevor Lawhorn, Sioux Falls Pheasants (Am. Assoc.)
• Christian Guerrero, Sioux Falls Pheasants (Am. Assoc.)
• Ben Graham, Wichita Wingnuts (Am. Assoc.)
• Jack Spradlin, Amarillo Sox (Am. Assoc.)
• Marcel Prado, El Paso Diablos (Am. Assoc.)
• Osvaldo Rodriguez, El Paso Diablos (Am. Assoc.)
• Mark Herrera, Grand Prairie Air Hogs (Am. Assoc.)
• Russell Moldenhauer, Lake Erie Crushers (Frontier)
• Justino Cuevas, London (Ontario) Rippers (Frontier)
• Patrick Arnold, Gateway Grizzlies (Frontier)
• Chad Mozingo, Schaumburg Boomers (Frontier)
• Matt Rogelstad, Edmonton Capitals (No. Am.)
• Lou Santangelo, Edmonton Capitals (No. Am.)

I’m sure I’ve probably missed a few (last month proved as much), but bear in mind that without a searchable database at Pointstreak, it’s too time-consuming to do much more than an eyeball test. This concludes the series.

10 Commments

  1. I have a warm spot in my heart for Matt Chico, as other ground-floor Nats fans do. However, I see he has played one game and got knocked around. It really seems to me that getting knocked around at that level pretty much ever would be a disheartening strong signal that perhaps it’s over.

  2. Can I assume most of those guys — Matt Chico excepted — played only in the minors (or just had a cup of coffee with the Nats)? I’ve followed the Nats since day one and apart from Mr. Chico none of those names means anything to me.

    1. Well, this is a site about the minors, but yes. Ward’s the only other one that played in DC that I’m sure of. Most of the cup-of-coffee guys ended up in the Atlantic League.

  3. Of these guys im most interested in seeing how Chico, Cuevas, Moldenhauer, and Graham do. And its always good to cheer for Jack Spradlin

  4. Jason Bergmann ended up with the Camden Riversharks in the Atlantic league. He pitched with the big league club for a while too.

  5. Luke,
    I would like to know your take on three older OG pitchers.

    1. Cory VanAllen
    Why is he struggling so much this year? He looks like he did in 2009 when I used to cringe when he came in.

    2. Erik Arnesen
    He does not exactly throw hard but he has shown that he can be very successful at many levels. What do you attribute to his success?

    3. Josh Wilkie
    I know he didn’t do so well in his last outing, but do you think he has any chance at DC?

    All three of these guys have expiring minor league contracts at the end of the year. Do you think any of them will be back in the Nats organization or can you see them moving on in either a step forward or a step back? I would just like to hear your take on these guys.

    1. 1. He’s not throwing strikes, not to mention it appears he’s hit his ceiling at AAA.

      2. Clean living? Seriously, Arnesen has had success because while he’s hittable (career 9.5H/9) he doesn’t hurt himself (2.0BB/9, 0.7HR).

      3. Not in a Nationals uniform. Rizzo’s made it pretty clear that he likes HARD throwers out of the ‘pen, which is why Severino has been warehoused in Syracuse, waiting for Sean Burnett and Tom Gorzelanny to get into a bar fight or car accident (that’s a joke, people).

      I’d like to say that at least one of these guys will be back, but the number of FAs signed for AA and AAA this past offseason says the odds are very long for all three of them to stay in the org.

  6. Here’s a list of ex-NATS playing outside of MLB. (These are folks who played in DC)

    AAA: Brendan Harris, Ramon Ortiz, Mike O’Connor , Josh Wilson, Tim Redding, Jonathan Albaladejo, Wil Nieves,
    Anderson Hernandez, Luke Montz, Garrett Mock,
    Josh Bard, Corey Patterson, J. D. Martin, Scott Olsen (DL), Logan Kensing (DL), Kip Wells, Victor Garate, Wil Ledezma, Brian Bruney, Doug Slaten, Brad Peacock, Brian Broderick, Brian Bixler, Daniel Cabrera, Willie Harris, Mike MacDougal

    AA: Zach Segovia, Luis Atilano, Shairon Martis

    Indy: Jason Bergmann, Alex Cintron, Jesse English,
    John Halama, Gary Majewski, Charlie Manning
    Daryle Ward, Matt Chico

    Japan: Tony Blanco, Terrmel Sledge, Darrell Rasner, Lastings Milledge, Jorge Sosa

    Mexico: Henry Mateo, Hector Carrasco, Wily Mo Pena
    Winston Abreu, Joe Bisenius, Jorge Padilla

    Unknown: Jesus Colome, Mike Hinckley, Willy Tavares
    Michael Restovich, Felipe Lopez, Roy Corcoran
    Steven Shell (50 game suspension)

    Released: Alex Cora, Joe Beimel, Cristian Guzman

  7. Luke,

    Thanks for taking the time to put this together. It’s a great resource for those of us interested in how past Nats’ farmahands are stil doing.

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