NY Times Reports on Cape Baseball Star Humber
Ain’t the news coverage of baseball great again? Now that both college ball and MLB spring training are underway, the sports pages are brimming with baseball stories. Today’s New York Times has a nice piece by Ben Shpigel about the Mets trying to avoid rushing their pitching talent. The story focuses on the Mets’ effort not to allow pitching prospects to throw too many innings early in their professional careers. The Mets’ pitching prospect Phillip Humber (pictured on right) — who pitched on the Cape for the Y-D Red Sox — made Page 1 of the sports page. Humber, who went 1-4 with a 5.28 ERA for Y-D, was the Mets’ #1 draft pick in 2004. “Humber he threw 128 innings for Rice University in 2003 when it won the...
Read MoreCape Continues to Add to Ranks of Pro Prospects
All of our focus at CodBall these days has been on plans for the season ahead, but it’s always fun to catch glimpses of those Cape players who won’t return this summer as they begin their professional careers. Baseball America this week is full of Cape players who are now top professional prospects in the NL West. RHP Tim Lincecum (Harwich) is the #1 prospect in the San Francisco Giants organization. Third baseman Matt Antonelli (Falmouth) is the #3 prospect in the San Diego Padres organization. Baseball America also includes an excellent profile of Oregon State and Falmouth Commodores catcher Mitch...
Read MoreBraves Add a Francona to their Roster
The Bourne Braves this week became the seventh Cape Cod Baseball League team to post its 2007 roster. Only rosters from Orleans, Chatham and Harwich remain to be posted. In last night’s post I wrote about Hyannis hiring the son of the Red Sox PR man as their broadcast voice. Now the Braves have gone and signed Red Sox Manager Terry Francona’s son, LHP Nick Francona out of Pennsylvania (Ivy League). Does Theo Epstein have someone to offer the Cape? Dave B., a regular contributor to CodBall, has predicted correctly the sequencing and timing of the annual roster ritual. He wrote Andrew and me this week to say: “That leaves three teams in the East who have not posted their rosters – Harwich, Chatham and Orleans. They will likely come...
Read MoreSon of Sox PR Man Named Voice of the Mets
The Scott’s Shots blog reports that the new broadcast voice of the Hyannis Met is none other than Chris Blake, the college-bound son of Boston Red Sox PR Man John Blake. Blake is the Bosox’ Vice President for Media Relations. “The younger Blake is currently looking at colleges and appears to have his sights set on Northwestern and its fine Medill school of journalism,” according to David Scott’s blog. “We’re going to suggest that the Medill mavens accept the younger Blake – it’s not often a kid under 20 starts broadcasting in the nation’s finest summer league. We even got the chance to meet Chris this morning and the kid has pipes, enthusiasm and passion.” Early in this new year I have seen a number of young...
Read MoreCape Baseball League & College Transfers
Are college baseball players using the Cape League to showcase their talents in hope of transferring to better teams? A new CSTV report quotes an NC State coach as saying summer leagues like the Cape Cod Baseball League have given potential transfer players a place to showcase their talent for other schools. And here I thought it was all about showing off talents for MLB scouts. Oklahoma State’s Matt Mangini – who transferred from NC State and played this past summer for Hyannis — is a case in point. Not explained is why he moved from a preseason #28 team to a preseason #22 team. Whoa, he moved up 6 spots! “I heard firsthand from those guys what was going on here,” said NC State sophomore pitcher Clayton Shunick (Orleans), who...
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