Thinking Benitez Could End Up Back With Bobby V While Checking Back in on Those Oakland Signings

It would not be a shock to hear a few Atlantic League managers give a sigh of relief, at least privately, over the fact player sales to major league organizations have slowed up.  It probably is only a temporary thing, but I cannot imagine many of the contending field bosses being overly anxious to give someone up in these final days of the first half.

There was one sale we know of this week.  Armando Benitez is getting a return opportunity with Florida after not doing well at Triple-A New Orleans for the Marlins three years ago.  Wouldn’t it be something if the hard-throwing Benitez ended up pitching for Bobby Valentine, considered the top candidate to take over as the major league manager, once again with the  National League club.  Benitez had 139 of his 289 major league saves for Valentine from 1999-2002 with the New York Mets, including his first two 40-save seasons and the N.L. pennant in 2000.

Sure, Benitez is now 37 and he has not won or saved a major league game since 2007, but familiarity never hurts, and the 6-foot-4 hurler was dynamite this season for Newark, limiting hitters to a collective .136 average as he struck out 27 (only four walks) in 18 innings, saving six games and compiling a 1.00 earned run average for 17 appearances.

* * * *WANT MORE INDEPENDENT BASEBALL COVERAGE?  Check out www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com and www.IndyBaseballChatter.com * * * *

New League, More Homers for Jesse Hoorelbeke

The Brothers Hoorelbeke, Jesse and Casey, are having quite a summer in their new home, the independent Northern League.
Jesse, who was the Atlantic League’s all-star first baseman when he bombed 23 homers and drove in 88 runs for Bridgeport in ‘09, is setting the home run pace with 11 in his first 30 games in the Northern League, and he is second in batting at .34 3 and third in RBI at 28 for league-leading Fargo, ND.  He had a three-home run game earlier this week.  He played at Fargo in 2006 before coming to Bridgeport for three years, leading the Atlantic League in home runs (33) in 2007 and in RBI (106) the next season.

Meanwhile, Casey, who also played for the Bluefish one year ago, has the second best earned run average in the league at 1.39.  He still is pitching in relief, and has a 4-1 record (no saves) and has struck out 29 in 26 innings.

Who Has the Most Alums in Major League Organizations?

Care to offer a guess on which Atlantic League teams have more of its former players currently in major league organizations?  The Atlantic League Notebook’s records show Camden and Newark are tops with 14 apiece, followed by Somerset at 10, Southern Maryland and Long Island seven each, one more than Lancaster and York.  Bridgeport has five.  Two players show up from when Atlantic City was in the league with one each from Nashua and the Road Warriors.

Long Island is once again represented in the major leagues after Philadelphia brought Nelson Figueroa back Thursday.

(These are excerpts from the Atlantic League Notebook. Subscriptions to the Atlantic League Notebook are available on a monthly or full season basis via  www.AtlanticLeagueBaseball.com or www.WirzandAssociates.com.  Bob Wirz also writes a weekly subscription column, the Independent Baseball Insider, which can be found via his blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com. The author has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as chief spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)