Former Seals players in independent baseball

Yesterday, we gave you an update on two former Victoria Seals who are still pitching in affiliated baseball (Austin Bibens-Dirkx and Dane De La Rosa). Today we check up on some ex-Seals who are playing in independent baseball leagues this season.

Since he sported a nasty 7.44 ERA in 2008, Anthony Pluta has improved on his indy numbers each year. This year, Pluta is pitching out of the pen for the Newark Bears of the Can Am League and he currently has a nifty 1.00 ERA.

After being released by the Leones de Yucatan of the Mexican League, Jeff Duda signed with the Can Am League's Quebec Capitales. Although he was originally rumoured to be the Quebec closer this season, Duda has pitched in middle relief and has made a couple of spot starts recently.

After a solid 2011 season with the now defunct Calgary Vipers, Chris Bodishbaugh signed with the Sioux City Explorers of the American Association. Bodi was named the team's closer and so far he's posted two saves in eight appearances for the Central Division cellar dwellers.

Former Seals ace Isaac Hess was traded by the Winnipeg Goldeyes to the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League in April. Unfortunately, Hess has fallen on hard times with the Bluefish and has given up at least four earned runs in his last six starts.

Here is a statistical summary of these four former Seals:

Player	Team	League	Record	ERA	SV	G	IP	K	BB	WHIP
Anthony Pluta	Newark Bears	Can Am	2-1	1.00	0	9	9	12	5	1.00
Jeff Duda	Québec Capitales	Can Am	2-0	4.40	0	4	14 2/3	10	7	1.30
Chris Bodishbaugh	Sioux City Explorers	American Association	0-1	4.50	2	8	10	8	3	1.60
Isaac Hess	Bridgeport Bluefish	Atlantic	2-3	6.35	0	7	39 2/3	33	15	1.66

Ex-Seal Brett Flowers had a successful 2011 campaign with Bodishbaugh's current team, the Sioux City Explorers, hitting .329 with 4 homers and 38 RBI. He is now playing baseball in Japan for the Ehime Mandarin Pirates of the Shikoku Island League. Click below for an interesting "highlight" video of one of the Mandarin Pirate's recent games. Brett appears at both the 1:57 and 2:22 mark of the video. Flowers is wearing jersey number 88 with the name "BRETT" on the back.



Apparently, Wilver Perez is also playing in Japan this season, but I was unable to confirm this. If you are aware of any other former Seals playing professional baseball this season, please don't hesitate to leave a comment to this blog post.

Two former Victoria Seals still pitching in AAA

Ex-Victoria Seals pitcher Austin Bibens-Dirkx is continuing his journey towards the big leagues this summer.  Now 27 years old, the big right-hander is pitching for the Syracuse Chiefs, the AAA affiliate of the Washington Nationals in the International League. Die-hard Seals fans will remember the dominant half-season that Bibens-Dirkx put together in 2009 for the Victoria squad before he was signed by the Chicago Cubs.

After stagnating as a starter in the Cubs' organization, the Nationals moved Bibens-Dirkx back into the bullpen this year. So far, Bibens-Dirkx has had mixed results. In 16 appearances, he has a 0-1 record and a 4.76 ERA. However, in his 22 2/3 innings pitched, he has only walked five batters and has registered an impressive 27 strikeouts. If Bibens-Dirkx can lower that ERA, he'll have a decent chance of getting called up by the Nationals later this season.

Another former Victoria Seal is trying to claw his way back to the majors in the International League. You may remember that Dane De La Rosa became the first former Victoria Seal to make it to the bigs when he was called up by the Tampa Bay Rays in July of 2011. Unfortunately, his initial "cup of coffee" only lasted three days, but he was promoted to the Rays again on September 11th and then spent the rest of 2011 on the big-league roster. This spring, the Rays returned De La Rosa to their AAA affiliate in Durham -- only to recall him on April 14th. Unfortunately, a disastrous outing against the Boston Red Sox that day (five earned runs in one inning of work) resulted in an immediate demotion back to AAA.

In 22 games with the Durham Bulls this season,  De La Rosa has an 0-2 record with 6 saves and a 3.77 ERA. But those numbers mask his dominance -- De La Rosa has racked up a whopping 41 strikeouts in only 28 2/3 innings on the hill and opponents are only batting .170 against him. Unfortunately, his control has been a big issue: He's averaging 5.7 walks per nine innings, a figure that must come down if he is to earn a fourth promotion to "The Show". If he can cut down on his walk rate, don't be surprised if both of these ex-Seals get the call before the year is out.

Negotiations continue between City of Victoria and WCL baseball team

Almost two months have passed since the City of Victoria's Director of Parks, Recreation and Culture began negotiating a memorandum of understanding with a West Coast League (WCL) expansion franchise. This new WCL baseball team is owned by an unnamed Vancouver businessman and is slated to start play at Royal Athletic Park in June 2013 if an agreement can be reached.

Waiting 30 minutes for beer at RAP in May 2009

Word on the street is that negotiations are generally going well, but there is at least one significant obstacle that must be overcome. The WCL team would like to run their own concessions at Royal Athletic Park, while the City of Victoria wants to retain the responsibility for selling food and beverages. Under the latter scenario, the city would use their own (unionized) workforce and then likely pass on a share of the profits to the WCL team. However, the WCL team would rather use their own (non-unionized) workers, thinking that they can generate much greater revenue and profit than the city can.

Fans of the Victoria Seals will remember the slow service provide by the City of Victoria concessions staff at RAP in 2009 and 2010 whenever any more than 2,000 fans were in the park (although the staff themselves were not to blame). The Seals ownership complained that even though they were aware that large crowds were coming out on a particular night, the city refused to bring in additional staff to deal with the throngs of hungry and thirsty baseball fans. No matter the attendance, the city refused to employ any more than two vendors in either of the two beer stands. Not surprisingly, this resulted in absurdly long lineups at many games.

Over the last couple of years, Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin has been very supportive of putting a baseball team back in Royal Athletic Park. However, it wouldn't hurt to contact the mayor and let him know how much a WCL baseball team at RAP would mean to you. He can be reached via email at mayor@victoria.ca or you can send him a good old-fashioned letter via snail mail at the following address:

City of Victoria
c/o 1 Centennial Square
Victoria, BC V8W 1P6

Let's hope that a suitable agreement can be reached in the upcoming months and elite-level baseball will be back in Victoria for 2013.

Seal Blubber Bits - Retro Edition

• The first former Victoria Seal to make the major leagues, Dane De La Rosa, did not make the Tampa Bay Rays opening-day lineup. Instead, he was optioned to AAA and will start the season with the Durham Bulls. The Durham Herald Sun recently published an interesting story on De La Rosa's journey to the big leagues.
• Another former Seals hurler, Austin Bibens-Dirkx, is continuing his attempt to make the big leagues. The Washington Nationals assigned him to the Syracuse Chiefs in the AAA International League and he made his first appearance of the year on Saturday, pitching three scoreless innings and picking up the save. It's unclear if the move to the bullpen is permanent or if Bibens-Dirkx will return to the starting rotation.
• And last but certainly not least... former Victoria Seals players Wilver Perez, Matt Kavanaugh and Josh ("Arrrrrrrr") Arhart all expressed heart-warming sentiments about the city of Victoria and its baseball fans on Twitter recently. See below for the trail of complimentary tweets. On behalf of all baseball fans in the city, we dearly miss all of you guys too!

Former Seals pitcher sent to minors by Nationals

Austin Bibens-Dirkx had three solid appearances this spring, but it wasn't enough to keep him from being included in the first round of cuts made by the Washington Nationals on Monday.

The former Victoria Seals pitcher started off with a bang on the opening day of the spring by striking out all three Georgetown Hoyas he faced on March 2nd. In his second appearance, he struck out Justin Heyward of the Atlanta Braves and in his final outing he faced the Detroit Tigers and struck out Jhonny Peralta and Miguel Cabrera. In that final appearance, he also retired Prince Fielder and Delmon Young. Not bad for a guy who was out of baseball as recently as 2008.

Although his outing against the Hoyas isn't recorded as an MLB spring training game, Bibens-Dirkx still finished the spring camp with the Nationals with a 3.86 ERA, no walks and three strikeouts. He also only allowed two hitters to reach base in his 2 1/3 innings of work. Given that this success comes on the heels of an impressive showing in the Venezuelan Winter League, I'm a bit surprised that the Nationals didn't give him a longer look. Austin will now report to the Nationals' minor-league camp and I'd expect him to be assigned to play AAA ball this season with the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. Don't be surprised to see Bibens-Dirkx get the call-up to the big club sometime during the 2012 season and become the second ex-Seal to appear in the major leagues.

Ex-Seal Bibens-Dirkx in spring camp with Nationals

Photo courtesy of Christian Stewart

After declaring free agency and turning a few heads with a dominant performance in the Venezuelan Winter League, former Victoria Seals pitcher Austin Bibens-Dirkx was signed to a minor-league contract by the Washington Nationals in January. The Nationals then rewarded his efforts by inviting him to attend spring training with the club in Viera, Florida as a non-roster invitee.

Over the winter, Bibens-Dirkx led the Venezuelan Winter League in wins (7) and posted a sparkling 2.19 ERA. He also struck out 51 batters and only walked 22 in 78 innings pitched, while holding opponents to a paltry .201 batting average.

Bibens-Dirkx had been part of the Chicago Cubs systems since he was signed in July 2009 after mowing down Golden Baseball League hitters while a member of the Victoria Seals. If all goes well, Bibens-Dirkx could become the second ex-Seal to make the big leagues (Dane De La Rosa was the first). The Nationals are set to start their exhibition schedule tomorrow afternoon with a game against Georgetown University. Best of luck in spring training, Austin!

Former Seal Bibens-Dirkx named a Venezuela Winter League All-Star

Austin Bibens-Dirkx, a dominant pitcher for the Victoria Seals in 2009, has been tearing it up in the Venezuela Winter League. He was recently named as a VWL All Star, based on his outstanding 2.47 ERA (6th best in the league) and 1.05 WHIP. He has also posted a 5-2 record in 11 appearances for Águilas del Zulia. The All Star game is scheduled for this Tuesday night.

When we last checked in on Bibens-Dirkx in September, he had turned his 2011 season around and was back in contention for a spot on the Chicago Cubs' 2012 pitching staff. His recent performance has certainly solidified his position and he will likely get an invitation to spring training with the Cubbies.

Congratulations, Austin!

Ex-Seal Bibens-Dirkx finishes season strong

When we last reported on the progress of former Victoria Seal pitcher Austin Bibens-Dirkx, he had been struggling mightily with the Iowa Cubs and had just been demoted to AA. Although he showed only marginal improvement with the Tennessee Smokies, Bibens-Dirkx got the call back up to AAA when the Cubs promoted Casey Coleman to the big club.

Photo courtesy Christian Stewart

After Austin's return to the Iowa Cubs, he reverted back to his dominant 2010 form and gave up a mere six earned runs in 23 2/3 innings pitched, while walking only 7 and striking out out 19 batters. The turnaround has him once again poised to possibly snag a spot as a reliever with the Chicago Cubs out of spring training. To get ready for the upcoming year, Bibens-Dirkx will once again play winter ball in Venezuela for Águilas del Zulia.

The Cubs appear to think highly of the former Seal.  "He's a grinder, a strike-thrower," AAA pitching coach Mike Mason said of the right-hander. "He's not going to overpower you. He fits in the Casey Coleman-Randy Wells mold." Let's hope that Bibens-Dirkx becomes the second ex-Seal to make the major leagues, following in the footsteps of Dane De La Rosa.

Ex-Seal Bibens-Dirkx has setback on way to big leagues

Photo courtesy Christian Stewart

At the start of 2011 it looked like Austin Bibens-Dirkx was on track to be the first (only?) former Victoria Seal to go on to make the major leagues. Given the troubles that the Chicago Cubs have had this year, all he had to do was duplicate his fine 2010 minor-league season to get a call-up. But things have not gone quite according to plan for Bibens-Dirkx.

Austin has posted a 3-5 record and a nasty 7.16 ERA with the AAA Iowa Cubs in 2011 after having a respectable 4.61 ERA at that level in the latter part of last season. Although his ERA has taken a big hit this year, many of Bibens-Dirkx's underlying AAA numbers have actually improved:

Year	IP	ERA	BB/9	K/9	K/BB
2010	52 2/3	4.61	3.6	5.8	2.1
2011	81 2/3	7.16	2.6	6.2	2.3

It's fair to chalk up his struggles to a run of bad luck and a few horrendous starts like the one on June 18th against the Albuquerque Isotopes in which he gave up 11 earned runs in only one inning of work. Thankfully the Cubs have done their homework and instead of releasing Bibens-Dirkx, they sent him back down to AA yesterday. Given that his confidence has probably taken a big hit, it's likely that he'll benefit from a stint back down with the Tennessee Smokies. In the first part of the 2010 season, Bibens-Dirkx put up stellar numbers with the Smokies: a 3.27 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. Let's hope he can regroup in AA and eventually resume his trek to the big leagues.

Dane De la Rosa is fourth ex-Seal in the minors

This entire off-season, I have been under the mistaken impression that three former Victoria Seals are currently in the affiliated minor leagues. Well it turns out that there is a fourth ex-Seal and he just might be the closest one to the big leagues.

Dane De la Rosa briefly pitched for the Seals in 2009 before his contract was sold to the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League. During his July/August 2009 stay in Victoria, De la Rosa had an 0-1 record with one save and a 2.45 ERA in six relief appearances. We were impressed with his stuff when he arrived, touting him as a potential closer for the Seals. It turns out that his upside was a bit higher than we thought.

De la Rosa was signed by the Tampa Bay Rays prior to the 2010 season and he spent last year pitching for the Charlotte Stone Crabs (Advanced A, Florida State League) and Montgomery Biscuits (AA, Southern League). De la Rosa made 47 relief appearances for Montgomery and sported a nifty 9-3 record with a 1.97 ERA and 1.26 WHIP. Most impressively, he addressed what was previously one of his biggest flaws -- surrendering too many walks. De la Rosa only walked 3.2 batters per nine innings while averaging 9.3 strikeouts per nine. He was even promoted to the Durham Bulls for the AAA playoffs, but he did not appear in any games with Crash Davis' old team.

Just before Christmas, De la Rosa got the amazing news that he was added to the 40-man roster by Tampa Bay and was invited to spring training with the big club. For now anyway, De la Rosa is sharing the same clubhouse as Manny Ramirez. With an impressive spring, De la Rosa could break camp with the big club, but at the very least he'll start the 2011 season at AAA with the Bulls.

The Rays play their first spring training game on Friday afternoon against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Here is an updated list of the ex-Seals who are currently playing in the minor-league system of MLB teams:

Player	Year(s) played for Seals	MLB organization	Likely starting level for 2011
Dane De la Rosa	2009	Tampa Bay Rays	AAA
Austin Bibens-Dirkx	2009	Chicago Cubs	AAA
Chris Bodishbaugh	2009-10	Chicago White Sox	Advanced A
Anthony Pluta	2009-10	Los Angeles Angels	Advanced A or AA

North American League staggers toward 2011 season

It's been four weeks since our last update on the status of the North American League and a lot has happened in that time. On the plus side, the league has finally released its schedule for 2011, allowing teams to begin selling season tickets in earnest. Ballpark Digest, on the other hand, has referred to the NAL schedule as "one of the worst schedules we've ever seen in professional baseball." Ouch.

A quick check of the schedule shows the Edmonton Capitals and the Calgary Vipers playing each other a grand total of 25 times in the 96-game regular season. Both teams also fly to Maui to play an eight-game series against the Na Koa Ikaika. Incidentally, it appears the league has greatly reduced the number of inter-division games (presumably, to cut down on the already hefty travel costs incurred by NAL teams). Neither the Capitals nor the Vipers will play a single game against an Eastern Division team.

The makeup of the league has also changed in the last month and more changes are likely to follow. The league has (wisely) dropped the Tijuana Embajadores in favour of the Henderson Roadrunners. The Henderson (Nevada) squad will be owned by the league will be basically a resurrected version of the ill-fated St. George Roadrunners. In fact, the same logo (and uniforms?) will be used by Henderson.

In other bad news, one of the Eastern Division teams is close to imploding. The Schaumburg Flyers recently had their business license revoked by the state of Illinois due to unpaid taxes. The team also owes over $920,000 in back rent to the Village of Schaumburg, who may evict the team from Alexian Field on February 24th. Although they aren't listed on the league's website, the Omaha (Nebraska) Flame will likely replace the Flyers in the Eastern Division.

The NAL divisional alignment is now as follows (location and former league in brackets):

Eastern Division
Edinburg Roadrunners (Texas; United League Baseball)
Lake County Fielders (Illinois; Northern League)
Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings (Texas; United League Baseball)
Rockford RiverHawks (Illinois; Northern League)
San Angelo Colts (Texas; United League Baseball)
Schaumburg Flyers (Illinois; Northern League) or Omaha Flame (Nebraska; expansion franchise)

Western Division
Calgary Vipers (Alberta; Golden Baseball League)
Chico Outlaws (California; Golden Baseball League**)
Edmonton Capitals (Alberta; Golden Baseball League)
Henderson Roadrunners (Nevada; Golden Baseball League**)
Maui Na Koa Ikaika (Hawaii; Golden Baseball League)
Yuma Scorpions (Arizona; Golden Baseball League**)
** = league owned

If the Flyers can't make a go of it in the NAL in 2011 then another chain of events could be set off. Their withdrawal from the league would leave only two teams in the Midwest (the Rockford RiverHawks and the Lake County Fielders) which would place additional travel burden on the Eastern Division teams. It's a 7-hour drive from Rockford to Omaha and an 8 1/2 hour drive from Zion (Illinois), home of the Lake County squad.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. It's entirely possible that the entire Eastern Division collapses and the new North American League operates in 2011 with only the remaining six Golden Baseball League teams (three of which are league owned). But your guess is as good as mine...

Seal Blubber Bits

• In a bit of a surprise move, the Chicago Cubs failed to make ex-Seal Austin Bibens-Dirkx a non-roster invitee to their major-league camp. Instead, he'll join the Cubs' minor-league camp and likely start the year back in AAA with the Iowa Cubs.
• Former Victoria Seals hurlers Chris Bodishbaugh and Anthony Pluta will start the 2011 season somewhere in the Chicago White Sox and LA Angels minor-league system, respectively. We'll continue to follow our ex-Seals on this blog as they attempt to climb the ladder to the big leagues.
• It's a sad milestone, but the Victoria Seals website has gone bye-bye (but rest assured, we're going nowhere -- no pun intended). Here's what you see when you go to http://victoriaseals.ca :

Ex-Seal Bibens-Dirkx survives Rule V Draft

Former Victoria Seals pitcher Austin Bibens-Dirkx was left unprotected by the Chicago Cubs for today's Rule V Draft, but he wasn't one of the 19 players selected. That means that he will remain in the Cubs' system and will likely be attending their spring training camp as a non-roster invitee. The Cubs' pitchers and catchers are set to report to camp in Mesa, Arizona in mid-February and it will be interesting to see if the ex-Seal can start the season with the big club.

Seal Blubber Bits

• Two other former Seals will re-start their affiliated professional careers in the spring. Anthony Pluta will be pitching in the Los Angeles Angels system and Chris Bodisbaugh will start the year with one of the farm teams of the Chicago White Sox.
• Friday is Baseball Bloggers Alliance Day. The Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) was formed in 2009 and now includes over 230 blogs dedicated entirely to baseball. For more information on the alliance, check out an interesting interview with the BBA founder, Daniel Shoptaw.
• Despite much initial fanfare, the North American League seems to be going nowhere. One of the ex-Northern League teams, the Joliet Jackhammers now have a tentative deal to join the Frontier League. For more details on the North American League's issues, see the article that was recently published in the Winnipeg Free Press. Keep in mind that the piece is written from a Winnipeg perspective and that their team, the Goldeyes, will be joining the relatively stable American Association in 2011.
• The man who was the voice of the Montreal Expos for their first 32 years of existence, Dave Van Horne, has been named the winner of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford Frick Award. According to Wikipedia, the award is given to a broadcaster for "major contributions to baseball". Van Horne will receive the award at the HoF induction ceremonies on the 24th of July.

Ex-Seal Bibens-Dirkx to make the Cubs in 2011?

Former Victoria Seals pitcher Austin Bibens-Dirkx continued his ascent to the big leagues by pitching in the Venezuelan Winter League this off-season. In fact, a Chicago Cubs blogger is touting Bibens-Dirkx as a candidate for the Cubs' bullpen in 2011.

Bibens-Dirkx played for Águilas del Zulia until his contract ran out on November 20th. In seven starts for Zulia, he posted a 2-2 record with a sparkling 1.60 ERA and 1.01 WHIP. Those are very impressive numbers considering the quality of hitters in the Venezuelan Winter League.

Austin played this past season for the Tennessee Smokies (AA) and the Iowa Cubs (AAA) and had a combined 10-7 record with a 3.78 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. He also held opponents to a .224 batting average and had 2.1 strikeouts for every walk surrendered.

You may remember that the Cubs signed Bibens-Dirkx when he was with the Seals on July 3, 2009. At the time of his signing, he was leading the Golden Baseball League with 54 strikeouts in 48 2/3 innings pitched.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to Bibens-Dirkx suiting up with the Chicago Cubs next year might be looming in the next week, since the Cubbies left him unprotected for the Rule V Draft. This draft of veteran minor-leaguers takes place at the upcoming Baseball Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida (December 6th to 9th). The smart money is on Bibens-Dirkx becoming the first ex-Seal to appear at the MLB level. In about a week's time we should know the organization with which he'll continue the journey.

See more of our past coverage of Austin Bibens-Dirkx.

Pluta signed by LA Angels

Congratulations to Anthony Pluta for signing a minor-league contract with the Los Angeles Angels!

Pluta is the fifth Victoria Seals player to be signed by a major-league organization in the Seals' brief two-year history. The signing comes less than two weeks after Chris Bodishbaugh inked a contract with the Chicago White Sox.

The other three Seals to sign with a big-league organization were Austin Bibens-Dirkx (Cubs, 2009), Isaac Hess (Red Sox, 2009) and Sergio Pedroza (Dodgers, 2010).

For more info, see the press release from the Victoria Seals.