Independent Count in Majors Doubles in Two Years And Opening Week Performances Are Dazzling

Baseball’s Opening Day is such a celebration some have suggested it should be a national holiday. No group has more reason to be happy with the first few days of the season this year than the Independent Baseball industry because a record 20 of its former players were on active major league rosters and another three would have been there if not for the need to go on the disabled list.

Only half as many Indy players made first-day rosters two years ago before the number jumped to 16 last season, each time with an additional three disabled.  Five of the 17 pitchers active this season have starting jobs–likely another record–and all three of the position players were in starting lineups when their teams first took the field.

Including the spring’s most surprising addition, Atlanta Braves left-handed reliever Ian Thomas , an impressive nine of the 20 major leaguers played their very first professional game in an Independent league.  Injured Luke Hochevar would be a 10th.

Exceptional Starts Already

This corner is cutting Tanner Scheppers some slack for being off when he took the mound for Texas since the onetime St. Paul (MN) Saints hurler was the first major leaguer to make his very first major league start in a season-opening game since Fernando Valenzuela back in 1981.  Two other former American Association hurlers made up for it when 2013 American League Cy Young winner Max Scherzer (Fort Worth, TX) threw eight shutout innings for Detroit Wednesday afternoon and James Paxton (Grand Prairie, TX) hurled blanks for seven innings a few hours later for Seattle.

“That was pretty impressive,” Mariners Manager Lloyd McClendon told MLB.com.  “I don’t know what else to say.  I can add a lot more adjectives, but he was outstanding.  It was quite a performance.”  The 25-year-old Canadian ran his streak of scoreless innings dating back to last year to 16, as Seattle swept the Los Angeles Angels, and Paxton is now 4-0 with a brilliant 1.16 ERA for his five major league starts.

Between the Scherzer and Paxton performances, Scott Kazmir, who did not start in an Independent league but rejuvenated his career at Sugar Land, TX (Atlantic League) in 2012, made his debut with Oakland and blanked last season’s Cleveland teammates for 7.1 innings of three-hit work.

The fifth Indy starter, Tanner Roark (Southern Illinois, Frontier League) , made his season’s debut in New York against the Mets this (Thursday) afternoon, and after giving up two runs in the first threw five scoreless innings for an 8-2 win pushing his brief major league record to 8-1 and keeping his ERA at 1.65.

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‘Awesome’ for Colabello, ‘Exciting’ for Rene Rivera

The trio of current poster boys for position players with Independent backgrounds all found themselves in the starting lineup for their team’s openers.

“It’s pretty awesome — there’s really no other way to say it,” first baseman-DH-outfielder Chris Colabello, who toiled for seven years in the Can-Am League before getting his initial opportunity with a major league organization in 2012, told MLB.com before going 2-for-4 with a double in Minnesota’s 5-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

He was just getting started.  Colabello got a hit his only time at bat the next game, and drove in six runs with his second and third doubles of the season this (Thursday) afternoon with the game not yet over.

“Obviously, I’m excited and glad they have faith in me to be here and put me in there,” said the 30-year-old of his first major league opener after he had turned down a more lucrative opportunity to play in Korea.

Daniel Nava , who likely would not be playing today if not for his breakout year in what was the Golden League, is leading off these days as his versatility for World Champion Boston continues to improve, and the third position player currently in the majors, San Diego’s Rene Rivera, who started the 2010 season in the Atlantic League (Camden, NJ), caught the Padres’ 3-1 season-opening victory against the potent Los Angeles Dodgers.

“It’s really exciting,” Rivera, who has been with six major league organizations in his 14-year professional career yet only 121 major league games prior to this season, told The San Diego Union Tribune. “It’s one of the best days of my career. It’s something that’s pretty special.”

      (This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes annually on Independent Baseball.  Thirty-six columns are planned during 2014.  Fans may subscribe at www.WirzandAssociates.com , enjoy added stories on the blog www.IndyBaseballChatter.com , or comment to RWirz@aol.com .  The author has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)