Adventures in the New York-Penn League

Amazingly, all four draftees end up in the New York-Penn league, a short-season, low, low minor league where mud, rainouts, and desperate finances afflict small towns from Lowell, Massachusetts, to Oneonta, New York, to Aberdeen, Maryland. Roger Kahn has written extensively about his (massively unprofitable) experiences owning a team in this league, and it makes for good reading.

Mark Carver, Jason Appel, and Daniel Hargrave signed almost immediately after draft day (June 8), and were placed, respectively, with the State College (PA) Spikes, the Hudson Valley (Wappingers Falls, NY) Renegades, and the Williamsport (PA) Crosscutters.

Carver: has started 1-for-10, with 3 strikeouts, and has not played in 4 days. He seems relegated to a backup role at the moment. There are 2 other catchers on the Spikes, Chris Simmons, a 41st round pick from Army who just signed and has started 2-for-4 in his first game, and Josue Peley, a 20-year-old Venezuelan (Latin American players do not go through the Draft) prospect who has received the lion's share of the playing time, but who has started only 2-for-18. All told, Spikes catchers are hitting .156/.206/.187, so Carver is not exactly getting left in the dust.

Appel: is a Long Island kid, the only Yankee on the 2008 UNCW Seahawks, playing in Wappingers Falls, NY, less than 100 miles from home. Appel started the first six games in center field, and has come in as a pinch runner/defensive replacement since. He's started at .286/.318/.333, which is respectable enough, but has found the bench the last 2 games behind Anthony Scelfo, another left-handed batter who has identical stats but was an 8th round pick, drafted as an infielder. Apparently they are giving him a look as a center fielder.

Hargrave: has started 4-for-27 with 1 walk and 8 strikeouts, but, like Carver, is not really getting left in the dust by his Latin American position mates. Jesus Villegas Andino, a 2007 14th rounder who played shortstop and hit .184/.275/.269 in 32 games for the Gulf Coast League Phillies, came down from Class A Advanced after hitting well there to start last night in Hargrave's place. The plan for him, I think, was probably to have him spend another season in short-season ball, and now that the season has started, they have him there. The Crosscutters seem to have 3 middle infielders, so we'll see if there's some kind of timeshare there.

Holt: the 11th pitcher taken in the Draft, he signed on June 13, and has just recently reported to the Brooklyn Cyclones.

********************* (From MLB.com)
Holt, the No. 33 pick in the Draft, also has a few things he has to work on. At UNC-Wilmington, the 6-foot-4 righty threw about "99 percent" fastballs, and he'll begin developing a secondary pitch when he starts working out with the Cyclones.

Right now, he might only sprinkle in a slider or split-fingered fastball on occasion, a repertoire that still earned him a 19-9 collegiate record in three seasons with the Seahawks and eventually made him the highest drafted player in the program's history.

Even without the extra pitches, the Mets were still pleased with the stuff he brought to his 25-pitch session in the Shea Stadium bullpen on Friday. In fact, if he weren't wearing that uniform for show on Friday, the coaches joked that they'd throw him in that day's game.

"I plan on throwing all three pitches," Holt said. "Everything looked sharp. They told me if I had gone on the mound, and if I was going in today, everything would have been positive."
*********************

Holt's pro debut was on a June 21 start in Aberdeen, where he got his feet barely wet, facing 10 batters in 2-1/3 innings, givng up 2 hits, striking out 4 and walking 1. Both runners he left on base scored after he left. A good start for a promising prospect.

For all their denigration in Moneyball, and the fashion of sabermetrics, MLB scouts are really quite good, and the great majority of players picked within the first 50 picks in a draft have always tended to make the major leagues. So, as the 33rd pick, there is a very, very good chance we'll see Holt in a major league uniform one day. Not bad for a kid who just one season ago had a 5.90 ERA as a UNCW sophomore!

As for Nate Hall and Jeff Hatcher? So far, I've found no information on what either of them are doing. I assume they're playing, or getting ready to play, somewhere, or at least staying in shape. If anyone reading this has any info, please let me know!