Mets Sign Somerset Starter To Minor League Deal
Nice signing by the Mets. Brian Sweeney isn't a star, but he has shown he can be, at the very least, a serviceable pitcher at the Major League level during his time with both the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners.
With Bobby Parnell and Pedro Beato currently on the disabled list, a spot on the major league bullpen could become available especially if injury magnet, Jason Isringhausen, ends up on the DL later on down the road. For now though, it appears that Sweeney will be ticketed for the Buffalo Bisons starting rotation to claim the spot that was left empty by Jenrry Mejia according to ESPNNY's Adam Rubin.
Sweeney, Somerset's Opening Day starter, gave the Atlantic League ball club something to cheer about in his one and only start with the team when he went 7 innings against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs and allowed only 4 hits while striking out 8.
In case if you're interested, check out Sweeney's Major League career stats below courtesy of Baseball Reference:
| Year | Age | Tm | Lg | W | L | G | GS | GF | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 29 | SEA | AL | 0 | 0 | 1.93 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9.1 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0.857 | 6.8 | 7.00 |
| 2004 | 30 | SDP | NL | 1 | 0 | 5.65 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 14.1 | 20 | 9 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 1.535 | 6.3 | 5.00 |
| 2006 | 32 | SDP | NL | 2 | 0 | 3.20 | 37 | 0 | 15 | 2 | 56.1 | 53 | 22 | 20 | 6 | 16 | 23 | 1.225 | 3.7 | 1.44 |
| 2010 | 36 | SEA | AL | 1 | 2 | 3.16 | 24 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 37.0 | 33 | 16 | 13 | 5 | 6 | 14 | 1.054 | 3.4 | 2.33 |
| 4 Seasons | 4 | 2 | 3.38 | 73 | 2 | 26 | 2 | 117.0 | 113 | 49 | 44 | 12 | 25 | 54 | 1.179 | 4.2 | 2.16 | |||
Mets Ink Atlantic League Hurler To Minor League Deal
Justin Hampson pitching for the San Diego Padres. Credit: SD Dirk / Flickr
According to Baseball America's Matthew Eddy, the New York Mets have signed left-handed pitcher Justin Hampson to a minor league contract.
Credit: LI Ducks
Hampson has been somewhat of a minor league journeyman the past couple of seasons. He last pitched at the big league level with the San Diego Padres, who play in a notoriously pitcher's friendly park similar to Citi Field.
His best year in the bigs came in 2007 where he put up an ERA of 2.70 in 39 games pitched. The next season, he produced similar results by posting an ERA of 2.93 in 35 games.
Most recently, Hampson was a member of the 2010 Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League for a brief time during the month of July last season.
He pitched in merely four games with the Ducks, including one poor outing on July 21st against Newark in which he gave up four runs in one inning en route to a 12-5 loss. This caused his ERA with the team to balloon to 11.25.
Earlier in the year the 30 year-old pitched with the York Revolution and his numbers were a bit more respectable. Hampson pitched in 16 games with the Revs and accumulated a 4.96 ERA with 11 strike-outs and 9 walks.
The bottom line is that just like the Casey Fossum signing from a few weeks ago, I see this move as being nothing more than organizational depth. If Hampson does crack the Major League roster at some point this year, it will likely be in the form of an emergency start or (more likely) a seventh man in the bullpen type of deal. Nevertheless, a good low-risk pickup by Mr. Alderson.
Press Release: OOTP 12 Baseball Simulator Pre-Order Special
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Chilly temperatures can't shake the warm feelings we get when we realize that not only are pitchers and catchers reporting soon, but the next version of Out of the Park Baseball is getting ready for spring training too. OOTP 12 will throw out its first pitch this spring, and we want to make sure you have the best seat in the house two days early.
How? By pre-ordering the game now for just $29.99. Not only is that 25% off the list price, but you'll also get to download the game two days before its official release. Hurry, though, because only those who pre-order in January will get the game early, and the special pricing ends the day before OOTP 12 ships this spring. After that, the full price will be $39.99.
With pre-orders for Out of the Park Baseball 12 underway, we started chatting in the office about iOOTP, which is being developed for iPod Touch, iPad, and iPhone. And then we realized: Wouldn't it be great to make sure one lucky OOTP 12 player also gets a chance to experience our other upcoming baseball sim?
So here's our offer to you: Pre-order OOTP 12 by the end of January and we'll enter you in a drawing to win a brand new fourth generation 32GB iPod Touch, along with a free copy of iOOTP when it arrives at the App Store. That's right: you'll get twice the OOTP fun this summer, whether you're in front of your computer or out and about. And you'll even save $10 and get OOTP 12 two days before its official release.
Former Newark Bear Isaiah Ka’aihue Signs With Rockies
Isaiah Ka'aihue at the plate against the Camden Riversharks on 09/10/10. Credit: Phil Hoops
According to Baseball Prospectus writer Kevin Goldstein, the Colorado Rockies have agreed to a minor league deal with former Newark Bears catcher Isaiah Ka'aihue for the 2011 campaign.
The 25 year-old Ka'aihue had bounced around various levels of the minor leagues throughout his entire six year playing career before coming to the Brick City in the middle of the 2010 season. Arguably his best season in affiliated ball came in 2008 as a member of the Mississippi Braves (Double-A affiliate of you guessed it....the Atlanta Braves) with 14 home runs and 61 RBIs.
Last season with the Bears was Ka'aihue's second in the independent circuit. The 230lb younger brother of Kansas City Royals prospect, Kila Ka'aihue, assumed the role of starting catcher in Newark following the departure of veteran backstop J.R. House, who signed on with the New York Mets affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons.
Ka'aihue appeared in 55 games with the Bears and amassed a batting average of .216. While he certainly didn't win the batting title he did hit 5 home runs with 21 runs batted in only 185 at-bats. Granted those are not the best numbers you'd want out of your starter, but it's tough to find good catching that can hit for average, especially at the minor league level. After all, there aren't too many Mike Piazzas or Joe Mauers floating around out there.
As they say in professional wrestling, best of luck to Mr. Ka'aihue in his future endeavors!
One Is The Loneliest Number of All
Matt Morris Credit: Maryland Baseball Academy
As of writing, the Newark Bears have only one player under contract for the 2011 season. That player is pitcher Matt Morris (no not THAT Matt Morris), who admittingly nobody seems to know much about. Most recently, the right-handed product of Franklin High School, pitched briefly for the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings of the United League. By brief, I mean brief as Morris only threw two innings for the club and surrendered three hits and two earned runs.
I did a little more digging on this bitterly cold day in Newark and found out that in the off-season the hurler works as a pitching instructor in Maryland.
According to the Academy's website, Morris is fairly well-traveled given his age, pitching for the Texarana Gunslingers of the Continental League, as well as the Fargo-Moorhead Red Hawks of the Northern League and the Calgary Vipers of the Golden League. In addition, he played a stint in Europe.
In 2009, Morris also participated in the Arizona Winter League alongside Major League pitchers, Sergio Romo (SF Giants) and Scott Richmond (Toronto Blue Jays); as well as former Newark Bears, Kennard Jones and Arthur Barone.
It should be interesting to see what Morris' role with the team is. I have no idea on how the team intends to use him, but it'd be nice to see the kid get a shot at making a couple of starts.
So there we have it, at least one Bear will be taking the field come May 26th when the team takes on the Rockland Boulders at home. The question now is, "Who's Next?". I have an idea of guys I'd like to see join the team for the 2011 season (both realistic and not) but first I'd love to hear your's. Who do you want to see take the field at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium? Drop me a line in the Comments section or feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @HoopsApproved.
Who Do The Mets Turn To Now?
Photo Credit: Getty Images
The Mets were very impressive last night in their 5-2 win over the Atlanta Braves.
Unfortunately, the win came at a price; as starter John Maine left the game with an apparently injury to his non-throwing elbow. While Maine indicated that he would like to make his next start, that is still very much up in the air.
This means that the Mets have a gaping hole in their starting pitching staff. Even if Maine doesn’t miss much time, it’s not like he’s been all that effective. If I had to take a guess I’d say that Maine hasn’t been healthy all year, which is likely why most of his performances have been so disappointing.
The question that remains is who should take Maine’s spot in the rotation? Last night on SNY’s Post Game show, analyst Bobby Ojeda predicted that Hisanori Takahashi would be the pitcher to fill the gap. I love Takahashi, but the team needs this guy in the bullpen.
I Like Ike…Well Kind Of
Throughout this past Spring Training, I often questioned the Mets on their decision to keep highly-touted prospect, Ike Davis, in the minor leagues rather than promote him to the Opening Day lineup.
Photo Credit: NY Daily News
However, after thinking long and hard about it; I resided to the fact that the Mets had made the right decision. After all, Davis is still very young (23 years old) and has a little more than a year and a half professional baseball experience under his belt.
Spending the better part of the season in Buffalo would be beneficial for Ike, as he would not have to deal with the media frenzy that is New York and he could work on fine tuning his defense. However, after two weeks into the season and a red hot start in Buffalo, Ike Davis finds himself batting sixth in the Mets lineup.
As excited as I am to have Ike’s power bat in the lineup, I ask myself why now? Had the Mets waited until tomorrow to call up Davis, they would have been able to push off his free agency by a full year. Then again, the Mets are a New York team so I’m sure they would deepen their pockets a bit if they wanted Davis to stick around after his contract is up.
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Newark Bears
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