Four Players Added to Seals Roster

Darrell Evans must have been racking up the long distance minutes over the last few days, because the Seals added four players to their roster during the "Tijuana break". In addition to Isaac Hess, the three new Seals are outfielders Gabriel Riley and Billy Krause and pitcher Dane De la Rosa.

As was reported by our alert blog reader Terry, the Seals traded away Carlos Duncan to the Edmonton Capitals at the end of last weekend for a player to be named later. To make enough room for the new Seals, the team released the injured Chris Van Rossum (who is out for the rest of the year) and placed third-baseman Brian Rios and pitcher Phil Sobkow on the inactive list.

Let's take a quick look at the Seals' new closer: 26-year-old flame-thrower Dane De la Rosa.

De la Rosa was drafted by the Yankees in the 24th round of the 2002 draft. Back problems limited him to only 45 innings in the Yankees organization from 2002-2004 before he was released. De la Rosa did quite well when he was healthy enough to take the mound, tallying a 3.00 ERA in 2003 and a 2.75 ERA in 2004. Perhaps George Castanza had a hand in the decision to let him go.

De la Rosa struggled in independent baseball in 2005, posting a 6.45 ERA for the Yuma Scorpions. After taking the next season off, he returned to the Golden League with a vengeance in 2007 and 2008. In fact, De la Rosa was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers organization at the end of the 2007 season, but he didn't make any minor-league appearances as a result. He struck out 10.3 batters per nine innings with Long Beach in 2007 and 10.4 batters per nine with league-champion Orange County last season. He also racked up 14 saves and was coached by -- you guessed it -- Seals manager Darrell Evans.

De la Rosa played for the El Paso Diablos of the independent American Association this season but things did not go so well. He was released on July 18th after amassing a 1-4 record with an 8.07 ERA and one save. He struck out 38 in 35 2/3 innings, but control was a bit of an issue (as it has been throughout his career). De la Rosa walked over five batters per nine innings with the Diablos and opponents hit .340 against him. We'll see if a reunion with Darrell Evans will provide another spark for his pitching career. With the recent struggles of Javier Garcia, the Seals sure could use a reliable closer right now.