National League All Star Ballot

As a proud member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) and President of the alliance's Other Baseball chapter, it is my pleasure to cast a ballot for the BBA's National League All-Star team.

Every year, it's difficult to decide between the established stars who may be having a less than stellar season and the young upstarts who haven't been around long enough to be proven commodities. With that in mind, here is my National League ballot for 2011:

• Catcher - Yadier Molina STL - 21 R, 3 HR, 24 RBI, 1 SB, .314 BA, .813 OPS
• 1st Base - Joey Votto CIN - 43 R, 8 HR, 38 RBI, 6 SB, .335 BA, , .987 OPS
• 2nd Base - Rickie Weeks MIL - 44 R, 11 HR, 26 RBI, 7 SB, .278 BA, .837 OPS
• Third Base - Chipper Jones ATL - 22 R, 4 HR, 32 RBI, 0 SB, .251 BA, .763 OPS
• Shortstop - Jose Reyes NY, 42 R, 1 HR, 23 RBI, 20 SB, .341 BA, .906 OPS
• Outfielder - Lance Berkman STL, 37 R, 14 HR, 43 RBI, 0 SB, .329 BA, 1.071 OPS
• Outfielder - Matt Kemp LA, 40 R, 17 HR, 50 RBI, 14 SB, .323 BA, .997 OPS
• Outfielder - Ryan Braun MIL, 45 R, 13 HR, 45 RBI, 14 SB, .311 BA, .967 OPS
• Starting Pitcher - Cole Hamels PHI, 8-2, 2.58 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 9.03 K/9, 5.06 K/BB

Some of the selections, like Jose Reyes at short, were no-brainers. Others, not so much. Behind the plate, I decided to give Yadier Molina the edge over Brian McCann due to his outstanding defense. I went with Joey Votto over Prince Fielder at first for patriotic reasons: Votto is Canadian and I have to support my countrymen. Of course, as defending NL MVP he has a proven track record.

Third base was another tough call, but I went with the ancient Chipper Jones over Greg Dobbs of the Marlins and Ryan Roberts of the Diamondbacks. Us old geezers have to stick together.

Baseball likely to return to Victoria in 2012

According to two published media reports, Victoria is on the short list of cities to be granted an expansion franchise in the West Coast League (WCL) for the 2012 season. A few months ago, an article appeared in the New Westminster News Leader stating that a WCL team could be playing next year in Queen's Park Stadium in New Westminster. This article also stated:

"The nine-team league, which first called "play ball" in 2005, has an eventual vision of 12 franchises. It is also looking at placing teams in a location "east of Kelowna" and another in Victoria."

Recently, Ballpark Business included a short note about WCL expansion:

"Team owners from the summer collegiate West Coast League will meet in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue (WA) on April 22-23 to discuss league business, including adding one-to-three new franchises to the circuit in 2012.  The markets most recently mentioned were Medford (OR), the Olympia (WA) area, Victoria (BC), and New Westminster (BC)."

The West Coast League features high-level NCAA players and the 48-game schedule (June to mid-August) is a good fit for Victoria's summer weather. League alumni include Jeff Francis of the Kansas City Royals, Jacoby Ellsbury of the Boston Red Sox and Nyjer Morgan of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The West Coast League already includes a team in British Columbia -- the Kelowna Falcons -- so the Victoria team would have another rival in addition to New Westminster. Other teams in the league include the Bellingham (WA) Bells, Bend (OR) Elks, Corvallis (OR) Knights, Cowlitz (Kelso / Longview, WA) Black Bears, Kitsap (Bremerton, WA) BlueJackets, Klamath Falls (OR) Gems, Walla Walla (WA) Sweets and the Wenatchee (WA) AppleSox.

Hopefully, Victoria lands a WCL expansion team and an official announcement is made in the near future. The departure of the Seals has left a gaping hole in the summer sports scene in this city, and a WCL team would be a nice addition. I for one would be excited to watch future major leaguers showcase their skills at Royal Athletic Park.

Let's keep our fingers crossed...

Isaac Hess a Winnipeg Goldeye



Photo courtesy Christian Stewart

Issac Hess, the most dominant pitcher to ever wear a Victoria Seals uniform, is currently playing for the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association. "Zack" has now played for three professional baseball teams in Canada and he continues to pursue his dream of pitching in the major leagues.

Anyone who has been out to Royal Athletic Park over the last two seasons can't help but fondly remember Hess, the crafty southpaw who befuddled Golden Baseball League hitters and swung a big stick at the plate for Victoria. Isaac compiled an impressive 14-6 record and a 3.88 ERA over two seasons with the Seals. He also struck out 170 batters in 171 2/3 innings, while only walking 64.

So far in 2011, Hess has pitched 10 scoreless innings, struck out 11 and only walked three batters. We know that he'll continue to excel in the American Association. Hopefully, his performance will lead to a contract in a higher professional league (Japan or Korea?) and then ultimately a chance to pitch for an MLB organization.

Go get 'em, Zack!

Pluta suits up for Newark Bears; Edgecombe and Swinford not so lucky

After being released by the Los Angeles Angels in spring training, former Victoria Seals pitcher Anthony Pluta has signed with the Newark Bears in the Can Am League. The Bears, whose season kicks off on May 26th, are managed by future Hall-of-Famer Tim Raines.

Pluta photo courtesy of Christian Stewart





Pluta made great strides with his control last season and posted a 6-4 record and a 4.56 ERA with the Seals. Hopefully he can continue to progress as a pitcher and get another shot with a major-league organization.

It's possible that Pluta could pitch against another ex-Seal this season, as Jeff Duda is pitching for the Québec Capitales. The Bears and Capitales are scheduled to play each other a dozen times in 2011.

In other news, the Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League just released former Seals first baseman Matt Edgecombe. Edgecombe hit .287 with 2 homers and 30 RBI in 251 at-bats last season. Hopefully he'll find another pro team to catch on with.

And finally, ex-Seal Dale "Swinny" Swinford has signed with the Windy City (Crestwood, Illinois) Thunderbolts of the Frontier League. However, Swinny is currently on the Thunderbolts' inactive list and will have to wait for an injury before he can suit up. Windy City's season got underway on the 19th of May. Swinford hit .283 with no homers and 16 RBI in 191 at-bats with the Seals in 2010, before his controversial release in August.

Bodishbaugh and Kavanaugh sign with Calgary Vipers

Two former Victoria Seals, Chris Bodishbaugh and Matt Kavanaugh, have recently signed with the Calgary Vipers in the North American League (NAL). The pair join two other ex-Seals in the Vipers infield, Wilver Perez and Brian Rios, who inked deals earlier this year with the Calgary squad.

Photo of Bodi courtesy Christian Stewart

Kavanaugh had a break-out season with the Seals in 2010, hitting .315 with 7 homers and 38 RBI in 235 at-bats. We wouldn't be surprised to see the 26-year-old continue his improvement and earn a spot on this year's NAL All-Star Team.

Bodishbaugh went 1-3 with a 3.30 ERA in 2010 and capped off his season by being signed by the Chicago White Sox in October. Unfortunately, Bodi was subsequently released by the White Sox early in spring training.

Mike Koons (4-1, 4.50 ERA), who pitched in relief for the Seals in 2010, will also play this season in the NAL. He signed to play for manager Garry Templeton in Maui.

The NAL regular season kicks off on Tuesday with a double-header between the Vipers and Scorpions in Yuma, Arizona. The 10-team league has had to adopt a very unbalanced schedule in order to minimize travel costs between the geographically dispersed cities. For instance, the Vipers will play the Edmonton Capitals a total of 29 times this season. That's plenty of time for Wilver Perez and Matt Rogelstad to get re-acquainted...

Italian pro team in 7th place despite Terrence McClain's hitting

As we reported three months ago, former Victoria Seal Terrence "T-Mac" McClain is playing baseball in Italy this summer. Although McClain is leading the North East Knights in just about every offensive category, his team has staggered out of the gate and posted a dismal 4-11 record.

In T-Mac's 48 at-bats, he has racked up a .313 batting average with one homer and five RBIs. Surprisingly, his early-season statistics are lagging the numbers that he posted with Victoria in the GBL last year. In 2010, McClain's OPS was a stellar .915 mark, but up to this point his OPS is a lukewarm .751. Clearly, the caliber of play in the Italian First Division is pretty darn good. It will be interesting to see how T-Mac fares over the rest of the season. It must be a difficult adjustment on a number of levels. For instance, I would expect it to be difficult to only play three games per week, since North American ballplayers are used to playing 6 or 7 per week.

It must also be a challenge to play in front of so few fans. According to the Italian Baseball League website, the North East Knights are only averaging 103 fans per game for their home games. Initially, I thought it might be related to the team's poor showing (7th place in an 8-team league), but the first place Bologna squad only averages 245 fans per game.

One cultural difference between Italian and North American baseball seems to be the prevalency of stolen bases. Based on the statistics that I have seen, Italian managers are hesitant to send runners. For instance, T-Mac has one stolen base (in only one attempt) in his 14 games with the Knights after racking up 19 steals in 85 games with Victoria last season. The entire North East Knights squad has only stolen 5 bases in 10 attempts in their 15 games. Their opponents have only swiped 11 bases in 22 attempts -- also for a dismal 50% success rate. By comparison, the Victoria Seals stole 145 bases in 88 games last year. Either the runners are slow in the Italian Baseball League or the catchers have rocket launchers for arms.

Seal Blubber Bits

• In a news story that will not make Victoria baseball fans happy, it was recently announced that Fort McMurray is in the Request for Proposals stage to build a new 3,500 seat ballpark. The city is hoping to land a North American Baseball League or Western Major Baseball League team for the 2013 season. It's sad that a Canadian city with less than 80,000 people is about to build a new ballpark, yet the citizens of Victoria are stuck with a decrepit Royal Athletic Park.

Arhart lands coaching job in affiliated ball

Photo courtesy Christian Stewart

Victoria Seals fan favourite Josh Arhart is now working as a coach for the Princeton (West Virginia) Rays. Princeton is in the Appalachian League (Advanced Rookie level).

You can read more here.

Congratulations, Josh. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Pluta and Bodisbaugh released

Photo courtesy Christian Stewart

Both Victoria Seals pitchers signed at the end of the 2010 season have been abruptly released by their respective major league organizations. Approximately two weeks ago, the Chicago White Sox released Chris Bodisbaugh after only two appearances in their minor-league camp. Recently, the most loyal reader of the Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (Tyler) has informed us that Anthony Pluta has been let go by the Los Angeles Angels.

Given their performance last year, both players should have no trouble catching on with an independent league team. We at the Victoria Seals Baseball Blog wish Bodi and Pluta all the best in the future.

By the way, if you can provide us with additional information on these two situations (or the status of other former Victoria Seals) then please leave a comment to this blog post.

Seal Blubber Bits

• Terrence McClain leaves for Italy on April 5th to join the North East Knights of the Italian Baseball League. If you would like to follow T-Mac's new team, you can go to their website. Be sure to use the Google Chrome browser so that it will automatically translate the pages from Italian to English. The team also has a Facebook page (search for North East Knights). I'll also try and post regular updates on his season on this blog.
• There has been much discussion of possible names for Victoria's new WHL team in spite of the fact that there has been no formal announcement (expect that early this week since the Chilliwack Bruins were eliminated from the playoffs last night). My vote is to call them the Victoria Seals. The name already has a positive connotation in the city and with Darren Parker now an RG Properties employee, it shouldn't be difficult to acquire the naming rights. Plus, it would open the door for the return of Seamore Seal. We know one guy who would be all over that....

Darren Parker hired by RG Properties

The former president and owner of the Victoria Seals, Darren Parker, has been hired by RG Properties as their senior vice-president of sales and marketing. The hiring was announced on Wednesday. The move is a good one for RG Properties, as Parker has proven skills in producing entertaining sporting events that put a lot of bums in seats. His experience in minor-league and independent baseball can only improve the (recently morose) atmosphere at the SoFA.

It's probably not a coincidence that multiple media outlets are reporting that the transaction to move the Chilliwack Bruins of the WHL to Victoria is a done deal. Darren's father Russ is owner of the WHL's Regina Pats and both Parkers know a thing or two about running a major junior hockey franchise. 

I wouldn't be surprised if Darren Parker didn't do much work for the Victoria Salmon Kings of the East Coast Hockey League (Oops, ECHL -- sorry!). I'm betting that the move of the Bruins to Victoria will be made public as soon as Chilliwack is eliminated from the WHL playoffs. With Chilliwack being down three games to one in a best-of-seven series against the Spokane Chiefs, the Bruins could have officially played their last game in Chilliwack by as early as this Saturday night.

North American League down to 10 teams?

Originally announced as a 16-to-20 team league, the North American League may have shrunk down to only 10 teams. Ballpark Digest is reporting that a 10-team schedule is being drawn up after the recent eviction of the Schaumburg (Illinois) Flyers from their ballpark. That leaves the Eastern Division with only five squads. Rumours are circulating that one of the Western Division teams would be taken out of play in order to get back to an even number. It's likely that this organization would be the hastily-assembled Henderson (Nevada) Roadrunners, one of three league-owned teams.

The black clouds continue to gather on the North American League's horizon. Unconfirmed rumours that the Rockford Riverhawks are planning to jump ship to the Frontier League continue to circulate. That would leave only one team in Illinois, a scenario that would likely kill the Lake County Fielders (who lack a proper ballpark in which to play anyway). The result would be only three teams in the Eastern Division, all of them in Texas. There is also talk of adding a fourth team in the Lone Star State, but this would be a travelling team named after the city of McAllen.

Another unconfirmed rumour has the NAL considering putting a team in Kamloops for the 2011 season. Victoria fans may remember that the Seals played a pair of mildly successful exhibition games in Kamloops prior to the 2010 season.

It will be interesting to see how things play out for the still unstable North American League.

Tampa Bay sends ex-Seal De la Rosa to minors

The Tampa Bay Rays sent ex-Victoria Seals hurler Dane De la Rosa to their minor-league camp today after he struggled with the big club during spring training. De la Rosa posted a 12.60 ERA in five relief appearances this month.

De la Rosa will likely start the season in AAA with the Durham Bulls.

Jeff Duda signs with Québec Capitales

Former Victoria Seals pitcher Jeff Duda has signed with the Québec Capitales of the Can-Am League (roughly AA baseball). Duda had a pretty decent season for the Seals in 2010, posting a 4-3 record in 21 appearances with a 3.90 ERA and 1.47 WHIP in his first year of professional baseball.

Duda was signed by the Seals in June of 2010 after excelling for the Okotoks Dawgs of the Western Major Baseball League. Duda also pitched for Canada in the 1998 Little League World World Series, setting a LLWS record by striking out 17 batters.

Best of luck in 2011, Jeff!!

Photo courtesy of Christian Stewart.

Another North American League team bites the dust

Another blow was dealt to the North American (formerly Golden Baseball) League today, as the Schaumburg (Illinois) Flyers were evicted from their ballpark. This leaves the NAL Eastern Division with only five teams and one of those teams, the Lake County Fielders, is also without a ballpark in which to play the 2011 season.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out, but don't be surprised if the entire Eastern Division of the NAL collapses and the league pushes forward with only six (sort of) former Golden Baseball League teams -- three of which will be league owned. The Parkers are looking smarter by the day.

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

Terrence McClain to play in Italy in 2011

The sound of "Detenuto Musica" (Convict Music) just might be resonating throughout a ballpark in Northern Italy this summer, as former Seal Terrence McClain has been signed to play for an Italian professional baseball team. T-Mac will be playing for the Godo-Verona ("North East") Knights in the Italian Baseball League (IBL). Their season is set to kickoff in April. For the Victoria Seals in 2010, McClain posted a .330 average with 14 homers and 63 RBI in 339 at-bats. For this blogger at least, T-Mac was one of the most enjoyable Seals to watch at Royal Athletic Park last season.

While some might snicker at the thought of Italian professional baseball, the league should not be discounted. There are a number of big name American players who have been lured to the league, including former Toronto Blue Jay Josh Phelps. If you are looking for a primer on Italian professional baseball, I highly recommend the book Baseballissimo by ace musician and writer Dave Bidini. Although Bidino followed a Serie B team, the Nettuno Peones, the book gives the reader a great insight into the passion that a significant number of Italians have for baseball.

We wish T-Mac all the best in Italy. Based on Bidini's writing and my own trip to Italy a few years ago, he's in for an experience that he will remember for the rest of his life.

The logo that will adorn T-Mac's 2011 uniform

Editor's note: In the last month, this blog has been read by Italians more times than from any country in the world other than Canada or the United States. We'd like to think that the Italian T-Mac fan club got its start right here...

Finding photos of Charlie Strandlund's big day

Talk about being a procrastinator. I was loading some photos onto my PC today when I realized that I totally forgot about the pictures that I took of the last Victoria Seals game, the game in which the Charlie Strandlund played all nine positions.

To document the event, I made a point of taking a photo of Charlie playing each of the nine positions. See below for the proof that ol' number 22 pulled the trick. Notice that in the picture of Strandlund in centre, outfielder Tim Rodriguez is playing second base. I also just realized that the last photo, the one with Charlie playing right field, was taken during the final inning that the Seals would ever play.

Colin Moro joins T-Rod on CornBelters

A pair of ex-Seals will be roaming the outfield for the Normal (Illinois) CornBelters this season. Colin Moro was recently acquired by the CornBelters, a team that plays in the Frontier League, in a trade with the Lake County Fielders of the new North American League. Moro will join another Seals alumnus, Tim Rodriguez, on the Normal squad.

Moro has been a hot commodity of late. The Fielders purchased Moro's contract from the Chico Outlaws just prior to shipping him to the CornBelters. The Outlaws bought his contract from the Victoria Seals (yes, they still exist as a corporate entity) less than one week ago. The Outlaws also picked up Victoria's old first baseman Matt Edgecombe in the same transaction.

Moro had a somewhat disappointing season at the plate for the Seals in 2010 after posting monster numbers for the Calgary Vipers in 2009. He hit .294 with 6 homers and 50 RBIs in 293 at-bats for the Seals. However, he did walk an impressive 50 times and was second on the team with a .423 on-base percentage.

There is no word yet on whether Colin will be sporting the same troll-like hairdo in Normal Illinois as he did in Victoria BC last summer. For the benefit of CornBelters baseball fans, let's hope so.

P.S. Colin, your presence at Royal Athletic Park will be missed in 2011.

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 Tim Rodriguez traded to CornBelters

Tim Rodriguez will be doing back flips in Normal, Illinois this season after being involved in a three-way trade. The Chico Outlaws, who acquired his rights from the Victoria Seals, first dealt him to the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association. The Goldeyes then turned around and traded Rodriguez to the Normal CornBelters for a player to be named later. The CornBelters play in the independent Frontier League.

Rodriguez hit .230 with 6 homers and 23 RBIs in his 39 games with Victoria last season after being acquired from the Yuma Scorpions. He was a disappointment with the Seals after posting a .349 average with 6 homers and 51 RBIs with the Scorpions. Despite his second-half drop in production, Rodriguez still finished in a tie for third in the Golden Baseball League with 74 RBIs. In addition to his back flips, Rodriguez is perhaps best known as being the first player in North America to be struck out by female knuckleballer Eri Yoshida.

North American League down to 12 teams

The North American League (NAL), which was announced with much fanfare back in November, seems to be stumbling towards the starting gate for the 2011 season. Originally billed as a 16 to 20 team circuit containing clubs from the old Golden, Northern and United leagues, the NAL is now down to 12 teams and only two divisions according to their recently-launched website.

The current divisional alignment is 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)

Western Division
Calgary Vipers (Alberta; Golden Baseball League)
Chico Outlaws (California; Golden Baseball League**)
Edmonton Capitals (Alberta; Golden Baseball League)
Maui Na Koa Ikaika (Hawaii; Golden Baseball League)
Tijuana Embajadores (Mexico; expansion franchise)
Yuma Scorpions (Arizona; Golden Baseball League**)
** = league owned

Of note are the teams that are no longer listed as being part of the North American League. The Joliet JackHammers have bolted to the Frontier League and the Costal Bend Thunder no longer have a place to play after being locked out of their ballpark due to unpaid rent. The Orange County Flyers are also without a place to play and their owners are now running the show in Maui.

The remaining assortment of geographically disparate teams is starting to look like a list of clubs that no other league wanted. It wouldn't be a surprise to see the NAL go down to 8 or 10 teams by opening day. In fact, I'm not convinced this league will make it through to the end of their inaugural season. It's starting to look like the Parkers did the right thing by folding the Victoria Seals, thereby ending their contractual obligations to the Golden Baseball League. If the NAL goes down in flames, they'll be glad they avoided a very ugly financial mess.

Victoria to land semi-pro baseball team?

I heard an interesting rumour recently that a "professional" baseball team might be headed back to Victoria. Now keep in mind that this rumour is entirely unsubstantiated at this point, but it's somewhat believable given the quote from Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin in the Times-Colonist article of November 21, 2010.

Apparently, the geography of the league might even allow the Victoria team to travel exclusively by bus, which would certainly help the financial viability of the franchise. I did some research to try and identify this league and the likeliest possibility is the Western Major Baseball League (WMBL), a collegiate semi-pro summer league that currently has 11 teams based in Alberta and Saskatchewan. I tried to confirm the rumour by sending an email to the WMBL President earlier today, but we have not received a reply as of yet.

The WMBL is an extremely stable league with an impressive 56-year history. The league is like a Canadian version of the prestigious Cape Cod League. Team rosters are made up of current and recent college players and unlike college ball, a wood bat is used. The league plays a 45-game regular season that begins on the first weekend in June and playoffs take place starting in late July.

Seals fans may remember that Jeff Duda made the jump from the WMBL to the GBL this past summer. In fact, Duda's old team, the Okotoks Dawgs, led the league in attendance in 2010 with an average of 2,174 fans per game.

In another piece of exciting news, Cranbrook BC was granted a conditional WMBL franchise just yesterday. If plans to build a new ballpark in Cranbrook unfold as expected, their new team could begin play in 2013. And check out what WMBL President Kevin Kvame had to say about the expansion team in Cranbrook:

President of the WMBL, Kevin Kvame, is looking forward to his league taking its first step into British Columbia. "The pitch that was made by the Cranbrook Group was very strong, and we see it as a good fit for our league's future plans. Cranbrook is an ideal candidate for expansion - it is a reasonable distance for travel, has a strong business community, a long history of baseball, and a proven track record of supporting its sport franchises.

Could this mean that the league is poised to make additional steps into British Columbia? We'll have to wait and see.

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.

2010 MLB Awards – Bloggers vs. Journalists

As regular readers of our blog will know, we at the Victoria Seals Baseball Blog (VSBB) cast ballots for the Baseball Bloggers Alliance’s end-of-year Major League Baseball awards. These awards are similar to those given out by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), although the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) has one additional category: The Goose Gossage Award for the top reliever in each league.

When voting started, I was interested in seeing how much difference there would be between the awards given out by the bloggers versus the traditional journalists. After compiling the results, I was taken aback by what I saw:

Award	BBWAA (Journalists)	BBA (Bloggers)
NL Manager of Year / Connie Mack Award	Bud Black, SD	Bud Black, SD
AL Manager of Year / Connie Mack Award	Ron Gardenhire, MIN	Ron Washington, TEX
NL Rookie of the Year / Willie Mays Award	Buster Posey, SF	Buster Posey, SF
AL Rookie of the Year / Willie Mays Award	Neftali Feliz, TEX	Neftali Feliz, TEX
NL Goose Gossage Award	N/A	Brian Wilson, SF
AL Goose Gossage Award	N/A	Rafael Soriano, TB
NL Cy Young Award / Walter Johnson Award	Roy Halladay, PHI	Roy Halladay, PHI
AL Cy Young Award / Walter Johnson Award	Felix Hernandex, SEA	Felix Hernandex, SEA
NL MVP / Stan Musial Award	Joey Votto, CIN	Joey Votto, CIN
AL MVP / Stan Musial Award	Josh Hamilton, TEX	Josh Hamilton, TEX

Surprisingly, there isn’t much difference between the awards handed out by the journalists and the bloggers. Of the eight awards in common between the two organizations, seven had identical winners. The only difference was in the AL Manager of the Year where the bloggers gave it to Ron Washington over Ron Gardenhire by a slim 74-67 vote, but the journalists gave it to Gardenhire over Washington by wide margin (108 to 81). Even in this category, I wouldn’t classify the difference as radical by any stretch.

I must admit that I was surprised to see the BBWAA award the AL Cy Young to Felix Hernandez, who only sported a 13-12 record thanks to the punch-less Seattle Mariners offense. Of course, Hernandez deserved the award buy compiling a league-leading 2.27 ERA in addition to a 1.06 WHIP and 232 strikeouts in 249 2/3 innings. But many times in baseball history, the baseball writers have given the Cy Young Award to a pitcher with an impressive won-loss record over a pitcher with better underlying statistics. The most recent example is from 2005, when the AL Cy Young went to Bartolo Colon (21-8, 3.48 ERA, 1.16 WHIP) and Johan Santana (16-7, 2.87 ERA, 0.97 WHIP) of the Twins finished third in voting.

Based on Hernandez’s win, I think it’s safe to declare that the BBWAA’s over-emphasis on wins is (thankfully) over. A major reason why this has happened is the turnover of BBWAA members in recent years. ESPN writers such as Rob Neyer, Keith Law, Jim Caple and Jayson Stark have been added as members and they are all well-versed in modern Sabermetrics. Nobody has to explain to them why pitching wins is an over-rated statistics.

In fact, many members of the mainstream media are finally getting on board the Sabermetric bandwagon. The Associated Press article announcing Hernandez’s win even mentioned the granddaddy of Sabermetric measures – Wins Above Replacement. It’s enough to make a geek break into tears of joy.

Of course, we shouldn’t get carried away praising the BBWAA for its recent modernization kick. Earlier today, the BBWAA rejected a motion by Jayson Stark to add an award honouring the best reliever in each league. The reason given? The award would always end up going to the reliever with the most saves! Although the Baseball Bloggers Alliance has inaugurated the Goose Gossage Award, the journalists couldn’t find it in their heart to add a new award to recognize the great work of hurlers such as Brian Wilson and Rafael Soriano. Keep trying Mr. Stark. We’re sure another BBWAA breakthrough can’t be far off.

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.

Download our iPhone app!

The Victoria Seals Baseball Blog and 76 other blogs in the Baseball Bloggers Alliance now have an iPhone app! The app is free and it's compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. An Android version will follow soon.

To download the app go to the Apple web site.

Thanks to Julian Levine of Splashing Pumpkins (an excellent blog on the San Francisco Giants) and Notice Software for making this happen.