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. 

nice to meet you, firebirds . . .

...but I'm not sure about you yet.

As some on Codball have mentioned, it's a very un-Cape League like name. I hope it's not the start of a trend. If any other teams change their names, and we start getting a lot of purple, teal and singular nicknames (i.e., Magic), I'll be upset. 

catching up

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Apparently, I go into hibernation in November and December.

Time to catch up on a few things.

• The Y-D roster has been out for a little while now. At first glance, it might rival Cotuit's roster for the best group of freshmen. The most notable names in that bunch are Chase Davidson and Michael Palazzone of Georgia and Brett Mooneyham of Stanford. Other big names include LSU's star catcher Micah Gibbs, and returnees Josh Rutledge of Alabama and Andy Wilkins of Arkansas.

• It looks there are still four rosters that haven't come out -- Brewster, Chatham, Falmouth and Harwich.
  

• Brewster announced its new manager last month. It's Tom Myers, who's also the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at UC-Santa Barbara. As far as I can tell, he and Harwich's Steve Englert are the only two Cape League managers who are also D-I assistants. I believe Myers is also the only D-I pitching coach.
  

• While home for Christmas, I discovered a bunch of old Cape League programs, going back as far as 1994. I thoroughly enjoyed flipping through them and seeing all the familiar names that, back then, were just names I'd never heard before. Also, I wrote in an earlier post about Kevin Seitzer's son being on the Hyannis roster that I thought Kevin Seitzer was a Cape League alum. I didn't know for sure, but one of the old Chatham A's books did confirm it. He played for the A's, and apparently, the 12-year-old version of me who insisted on keeping every Cape League book I got knew that the 25-year-old version of me would someday need that information.

That's it for now. I'll keep an eye out for new rosters and post some thoughts whenever they come out. After that, maybe some college baseball updates, and before we know it, it'll be time for the early looks at every team. I think that was the best thing I did last year, so I'll definitely be doing it again. I'll probably plan on a March start date for those.

Thanks for reading. Happy New Year, people.

two more rosters

Cotuit and Orleans have released their early rosters in the last few days, which means we've now gotten a look at half the rosters in the league. Still waiting on Falmouth, Yarmouth-Dennis, Harwich, Chatham and Brewster.

The biggest thing that stands out from these last two: Cotuit's freshmen. They've got some serious talent, rivaling that of Wareham's freshmen crop last year. Of course, a lot of those freshmen never made it to Wareham, so we'll see how this plays out.

Some first impressions:

Cotuit

• Kevin Patterson, Seth Blair, Brandon Cumpton and Drew Storen are the returning players. I'd rank Patterson and Blair among the top 10 freshmen in the league this year, and I think, at this point, you could call Patterson the top returning hitter in the league.

• Ricky Hague should be a a familiar name. The Rice shortstop was on Wareham's roster last year before getting invited to Team USA. Because of an injury, he ended up back home for the summer.
  

• Over the years, Wareham has had the market cornered on players from the University of Texas, but Cotuit has grabbed a few Longhorns for 2009, and they're good ones. Chance Ruffin was one of the top freshman pitchers in the nation, while outfielder Cameron Rupp was named the top prospect in the California Collegiate League this summer. Catcher Kevin Keyeswas third on the same list.

• Cotuit had Robbie Shields from Division II Florida Southern this year, and they've gone to the well again for pitchers Daniel Tillman and Max Russell. Tillman was PG Crosschecker's top prospect in the Clark Griffith League this year.
  

• And now to the freshmen. Righty Gerritt Cole heads to UCLA as the first unsigned first-round pick to go to college in quite some time. So, he'll also be the first unsigned first-round pick to play on the Cape in quite some time. Vanderbilt righty Sonny Gray was thought of as a first-round talent as well. Fellow Vandy recruit Navery Moore was pegged as the top pitcher in his class before an injury his junior year of high school. UC-Santa Barbara pitcher Chris Joyce was a 10th-round pick and played in the Cal Collegiate League this summer, where he was named the fifth-best prospect. Arkansas 3B/P Zach Cox was a 20th-round pick, but he's another guy who many thought would go higher.
  

Orleans

• The Cardinals (?) currently have eight players slated to come back, led by Cal-State Fullerton's Gary Brown, UCLA's Rob Rasmussen and Loyola-Marymount's Martin Viramontes, who was an all-star this summer. The list also includes three players who will be juniors: Florida's Hampton Tignor (who, if he comes to the Cape, would be playing his third summer with Orleans), Nevada's Shaun Kort and Duke's Alex Hassan. North Carolina's Rob Catapano, who pitched for Orleans in '07 but not '08, is also on the roster.
  

• In all, there are 10 juniors on the roster, which is a really high number.
  

• Long Beach State shortstop Devin Lohman played briefly for Chatham this summer before an injury sent him home. He's a player to watch.

• Georgia Tech pitcher Deck McGuire is coming off a huge summer. After serving as a mid-week starter his freshman year, he headed to the Coastal Plain League, where he went 7-0 with a 1.28 ERA. He was named the league's top prospect by Baseball America.
  

• There are only three freshmen on the roster, but they look three real good ones. Fresno State pitcher Josh Poytress was a 16th-round pick in June, Arizona's Donnie Roach was a 27th-round pick and Arizona State's Riccio Torrez went in the 32nd round.
  

a's change name to . . . a's?

By now, you've probably heard that the Chatham Athletics changed their name to the Chatham Anglers as a result of the agreement with Major League Baseball, which would have limited their merchandise opportunities while using the Athletics' name.

I like the name, and it's a nice little slap in the face of Major League baseball.

But my question: Are they still just going to be A's?

Because, if you flip through a Chatham yearbook from any of the past few years, you won't see a single reference to the Chatham Athletics. They had become the Chatham A's.

It stands to reason that they could still be the A's, but that ground hasn't really been covered in any of the stories I've read.

Does anybody know?

moving on

As much as I like looking back on the summer, it's about time to look ahead.

(Also, I forgot what I was going to say in the last summer wrap installment.)

Anyway, Cape League teams, of course, were looking ahead a long time ago, and we're starting to see what they've been looking at. I'm a little behind in getting to these, but Bourne, Hyannis and Wareham have all put out early versions of their 2009 rosters.

My first impression: They all look awesome.

But they always all look awesome. So, some second impressions.

Bourne

• Two players with Cape League experience are on the roster, but they don't bring much experience. Pierre LePage (UConn) came to Bourne in the second half this season and played in 16 games. Tyler Holt (Florida State) played in three games early in the season for Cotuit then didn't play again.

• Drew Pomeranz (Ole Miss) was on the Bourne roster last year, got invited to Team USA, didn't make Team USA but still didn't end up in Bourne. He could make a big impact if he makes it to Bourne this year. A 12th-round pick in 2007, Pomeranz struck out 74 in 67 innings for Ole Miss last year.

• I would be surprised if Ryan Lockwood (South Florida) makes it to the Cape. A redshirt sophomore, Lockwood hit .415 last year for the Bulls and is eligible for the 2009 draft. I've seen projections that have him going in the first or second round. That said, we saw a lot of guys head to the Cape to gain leverage this summer, so it's possible Lockwood could do the same.

• Dan Mahoney, a righty from UConn, was named the top pro prospect in the NECBL this summer by PG Crosschecker.

• Ben Klafczynski (Kent State), a 6'3 200-pound outfielder, had a huge freshman season, hitting .339 with 11 home runs. Baseball American named him a Freshman All-American. He hit .270 in the Great Lakes League this summer. Also, that name is not going to be easy to spell.
  

• Dominic D'Anna (CS Northridge) hit .401 this summer in the MINK (Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas) League, and was named the league's No. 9 prospect. Blake Forsythe (Tennessee), a catcher, was named the 10th best prospect in the Coastal Plain League.
  

• Four freshmen are on the roster: Taylor Hightower (Ole Miss), Zack MacPhee (Arizona State), Anthony Rendon (Rice) and Austin Stadler (Wake Forest).
  

• East Carolina pitcher Seth Maness was tabbed by BA as a first-team Freshman All-American last year. Coastal Carolina infielder Scott Woodward was also on that list, and he played for Team USA this summer.
  

Hyannis

• Like Bourne, not much Cape League experience returning, with Notre Dame's Ryan Sharpley as the only one who played for the Mets this summer.
  

• Hyannis went after a lot of juniors for the summer of '08 but currently have just one junior, Notre Dame's Eric Maust. Instead, they've got seven freshmen.
  

• Freshman lefty Danny Hultzen (Virginia) will bring a lot of hype with him. He was a 10th-round pick in June, but would have gone a lot higher if not for signability concerns.
  

• Ryan Duke was Oklahoma's top pitcher as a freshman, going 7-5 with a 3.57 ERA. Oklahoma teammate Casey Johnson hit .346 last year.
  

• Infielder Dustin Harrington hit .320 last spring for East Carolina, a program that seems to send more and more players to the Cape every year.
  

• Wake Forest will be sending two highly-touted freshmen to Hyannis -- infielder Shane Kroker and righthander Daniel Marrs.
  

• Oklahoma freshman Cam Seitzer is the son of former Major Leaguer Kevin Seitzer. I believe Kevin also played in the Cape League.

Wareham

• The Gatemen had a ton of freshmen this summer, so it's no surprise that they've got a long list of returnees. Eleven to be exact, a list that's headed by pitchers (Texas) and Brandon WorkmanRobby Broach (Tulane), infielder Ryan Pineda (CS Northridge )and outfielders Connor Rowe (Texas) and Brett Eibner (Arkansas). Rising junior pitcher Max Perlman is also back on the roster after a solid summer.
  

• If Workman, Broach and Perlman all make it back, that's a heck of a starting point.

• Also back on the roster is highly-touted Georgia Tech shortstop Derek Dietrich, who spent this summer with Team USA. From what I heard, Dietrich was torn between going to Wareham and staying with Team USA. If the decision needs to made again this year, it'll be interesting to see what Dietrich chooses.
  

• Again, the Gatemen have a big crop of freshmen, including Texas pitcher Taylor Jungmann, Arizona State's Jordan Swagerty and Zach Wilson and Duke's Eric Pfisterer. All were drafted in June. Pfisterer went in the 15th round.
  

summer wrap: we hardly knew ye

I know it's officially autumn, but I feel that the summer has not been sufficiently wrapped. Two more installments before we can put a bow on it. Here's the first. The next one will be up sooner rather than later, and then it'll be on to a few months of randomness before some rosters pop up. Then we can officially start dreaming about next summer.


The 2008 draft was a banner one for the Cape League. Five of the top 10 picks were on the Cape less than a year before, many of them, like Aaron Crow and Jason Castro, emerging then as true stars.

When the 2009 draft rolls around, there may be even more Cape League fingerprints.

But they're not going to be quite as bold.

It's early to talk about the draft, and a lot will change between now and then, but some early previews are coming out, with the same names popping up in almost all of them.

They're familiar names to Cape League fans, but in an interesting revelation about the summer of '08, they're not as familiar as names like Crow, Castro, Beckham and Posey.

Take the top 30 prospects list at Breaking Bats. There are 14 college players on the list, and 10 of them played in the Cape League. But only three of them played on the Cape this summer.

Take the mock draft at mymlbdraft.com. Six of the top 10 are former Cape Leaguers, a number that would surpass the 2008 draft. But of those six, only two played on the Cape in 2008, and one of them, Dustin Ackley, played only briefly. That leaves just Grant Green.

I guess the point is that while the Cape League will be as prominent as ever come June, it's going to feel a little bit different. The current favorite to be the No. 1 pick, Stephen Strasburg, played in the NECBL after his freshman year, then opted for Team USA this summer. Several of the other top pitchers, like Alex White, Andy Oliver and Kyle Gibson all shined on the Cape in 2007, but White sat out the summer of '08 while Oliver and Gibson pitched for Team USA.

In the prism of looking back at the Cape League summer, this means we were watching a talented crop of players, but a crop that may have been in a different stage than normal. There were more drafted college players than I can ever remember, and at the other end of the spectrum, there was a pretty strong freshman class headed by Brandon Workman and D.J. LeMahieu. In the middle were the sophomores, the ones who will be draft eligible in June. Judging from the way things are shaking out right now, they're not as strong a class as the one we saw last year. Because one player's talent level reflects another's, I always find it tough to guage, but prospect lists and these early looks at the draft seem to reflect the same idea.

Is it some kind of trend? Maybe. It'll be worth keeping an eye on the summer destinations of some of the league's top freshmen. If a lot of them end up with Team USA next year, then we may see the trend continue.

But more likely, it was simply the way things went, and while it meant that we didn't see quite as much of a draft class this summer, that's not going to matter in June. When those Cape Leaguers get their names called, I'll be excited, even if they're not our most recent boys of summer.