The Traverse City Beach Bums have signed two catchers to 2008 contracts - Patrick Perry and Ryan Kottke. Picture: Patrick Perry swings the bat while in college at Northern Colorado in 2004.
Perry is a 6'1" 190-pounder from Longmont, Colorado, who was named to the post season All-Star Team for the Worcester Tornadoes of the CanAm League in 2007 while hitting .305, with 17 doubles, 7 home runs, and 50 RBI. Perry also has great plate discipline, walking 35 times last season against 41 strikeouts for a .374 on-base percentage. The CanAm League only selects one catcher to the post-season All-Star Team, and Perry was it.
Perry was drafted in the 7th round of the 2004 MLB draft out of Northern Colorado, where he had a record breaking junior season that included a .478 average, 28 doubles, 13 home runs, and 74 RBI. He spent two seasons in the Red Sox organization before spending the past two seasons in Worcester. He played out his option year in 2007 and was granted free agency this off-season.
Perry has a great opportunity to make a lot of noise in the Frontier League. Like I said when we traded recently traded for Matt Imwalle, players who come from leagues with unlimited age, like the CanAm, Northern, or American Association, tend to see a great increase in their offensive production in the Frontier League. Last season, Mike Scanzano of Southern Illinois came from the Brockton Rox of the CanAm League the year before, where he hit .278, with a .355 on-base percentage, and .319 slugging percentage. Last year in the Frontier League he hit .309, with a .381 on-base percentage, and a .344 slugging percentage. A 10-20% increase in numbers is pretty typical with players coming over from the CanAm League.
Kottke is 6'0" 220-pounder who has kicked around the independent circuit over the past few years, landing a solid season last year in the United League. Kottke split time between Rio Grande and Laredo last summer, hitting .235 with 5 doubles, a triple, a home run, and 19 RBI in 135 at-bats. Kottke is a solid defensive catcher with a lot of drive and determination. He will have the opportunity to battle for some playing time during spring training.
5 comments:
Good to see guys have to fight to make a roster. It will show if they really want to be here or not. Still looking for a shortstop? Maybe in the player to be named later trades? Keep up the great work doing a very important job, especially in this league.
Shortstop is the biggest hole right now, but more than likely we will look for someone who gets released out of spring training. We also need another right-handed bat to rotate at DH/3B/1B with Imwalle and Ledbetter, but we plan on picking that up out of spring training, too.
As of right now, it looks like we will have three LS-1 spots to work with along with the Veteran spot that Hutting left open. I want to fill the SS position with a Veteran, and take at least 2 of those 3 LS-1 spots for pitchers, either two starters or one starter and a closer. However, sometimes you can find a guy who classifies as a Rookie-2 to be your closer. On the other hand, I like starters to have proved some time in their career they can pitch 80+ innings over a complete season. Starters coming down with sore arms in the middle of the pennant race in August has been a killer the last two years.
The player to be named deals may also net us someone to fill these needs, but we are probably done with trading players for the foreseeable future. The player to be named deals may even stay open into the this season or possibly next season - the idea being picking up a player when you need to fill a hole the most.
How do you decide who comes back from the previous year? I am sure there are many factors, but I thought that Bradburry fit the bill for DH/1B/3B with a right-handed bat.
Kyle struggled defensively for us - 7 errors in 14 games at 3rd base - and offensively - .183 average in 71 at-bats. Kyle is a good ballplayer, but is better suited for a smaller ballpark. Many balls that Kyle hit that would have been home runs are just deep fly balls at Wuerfel Park. In the end we felt we could get a better player fresh out of spring training.
As for what goes into bringing guys back - classification, attitude, and ability to help the squad win a championship are at the top of the list.
I thought Bradbury was going to be a good player too. However he was hitting long flyballs ala Devei Cruz for Detroit in early 2000s. Jason havent you used up all your L2 and Vet statis players? Im counting 5 on Frontier League site. Unless some contracts havent come back yet. You will be able to get a good shortstop late spring training. Seems like in history of league most closers are rookie or L1, I think you will be able to find a rook2 to fill that spot. If you could clear up L2 and Vet question that would be great. Leep up the good work building the team and keep us fans involved in the process.
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