Meet the Whitecaps

Monday, January 19, 2009

Meet the Whitecaps

I just noticed that Brewster's roster is out so it's about that time for a quick look. At first glance, the Whitecaps don't seem to have quite as many of the real hyped-up players as some of the other teams in the league. Come June, though, that probably won't mean anything. New manager Tom Myers has a solid team on his hands.

Thoughts:

Catcher Yasmani Grandal and left-hander Iden Nazario, both of Miami, are the only two returning players. Neither of them spent a full summer in Brewster, but both made an impression. Grandal hit .279 in 20 games and should enter the coming summer as one of the top catchers in the league. Nazario made 10 appearances, all out of the bullpen, and had a 4.05 ERA with 17 strikeouts in 13. 1 innings. He, too, should be a good one.
Cal's Kevin Miller looks like he'll be one of the headliners of the pitching staff. A righty who's just 5'10, Miller put up numbers last year that could match any freshman in the country. In 12 appearances (six starts) he had a 2.80 ERA with 68 strikeouts in 71.1 innings. Opponents hit just .196 against him, the second best mark in the Pac-10. It'll be interesting to see whether Miller is used as a starter or a reliever this spring.
For the second straight winter/spring, UCLA's Erik Goeddel looks like one of the more intriguing Cape League prospects. Last year, he redshirted because of an injury and though he was on the Y-D roster, he never made it to the Cape. Coming out of high school, Goeddell was rated as one of the top pitchers in the country. He's another one to watch this spring.
Last summer, the Whitecaps didn't have a ton of guys who were true Friday-night starters, and the makeup of the team looks like it will be similar this season. That said, Texas' Stayton Thomas, Stanford's Danny Sandbrink, and Virginia's Neal Davis have been great out of the bullpen so far in their careers.
Lyle Allen is another guy who was on the Y-D roster last year, but he also didn't make it. The lefty-swining OF/1B hit .274 last spring for Georgia.
John Barr was Virginia's top hitter last season.
West Virginia second baseman Jedd Gyorko had a tremendous freshman season last year. He finished with a .409 batting average, and plenty of accolades.
Another Mountaineer, catcher Tobias Streich, hit .264 while starting for all of his freshman campaign.
Freshman infielder Harold Martinez will join Miami teammates Grandal and Nazario in Brewster. He was a 19th-round pick out of high school last year.
Tant Shepherd played in only 27 games for Texas last year but made the most of it, hitting .357 with two home runs.

That's that. Hopefully, some other rosters will pop up soon. I believe we're just waiting on Chatham, Falmouth and Harwich.

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as the fog settles in

The left-field sunset has faded. It is chilly now. You slip a sweatshirt on. The stat sheet you hold in your hands almost feels wet, the air is so damp. But the ink doesn't run. You can read it. That kid from LSU is still leading the league in home runs. That pitcher who they say throws 95 -- he's way up on the list in strikeouts.
The game is close, 3-2 through seven innings. You're staying till the end.
You look out at the field. Some fog has slipped in. It settles like smoke, just off the grass in front of the right fielder, like a cloud. When he runs through it to catch a fly ball, it looks almost magical, maybe even spiritual, like he's playing baseball in heaven.
Maybe he is.
The baseball is pure here. The players eager. The fans, maybe some of them don't know what they're seeing, maybe they just heard it was a fun night out, good for the family and everything -- but they know. They know somehow that this thing, this Cape League, is special.
Really, there's nothing like it.
I'm going to try and keep up.

Stop waxing poetic

The Cape Cod Baseball League is the top college summer league in the nation. Plenty of other leagues have cropped up of late, and some are having success, but the Cape League is still the model -- and the pinnacle. In 2006, 198 Major Leaguers had spent time in the Cape League.
The rosters are like a who's who of the best college baseball players. All the top prospects want to spend their summers on the Cape. The only better opportunity is Team USA. There are 10 teams in the league, divided into two divisions. Over the course of two months, they play 44 games. Scouts will watch many of them. They come because of the combination of talent and wood. Unlike college baseball, the Cape uses only wooden bats, providing an accurate picture of what players might do at the next level.
What else? Players live with host families. Some have part-time jobs (Jeff Bagwell worked at Friendly's). There's no admission charge at games. The level of baseball has been compared to Single A.
That should sum it up. If you have never experienced Cape League Baseball, you have missed out.

Monday, January 19, 2009