Right Field Fog – A Cape Cod Baseball League Blog

Rosters for 2012 have been popping up on team web sites for a while now. This week, the league put out its early list of every roster. You can see the full rosters here (PDF).

We have about four months to get to know these names. For now, a few that caught my eye: reigning ACC Freshman of the Year Colin Moran and reigning CCBL Pitcher of the Year Ryan Eades returning to Bourne; Vanderbilt freshman Tyler Beede, a first-round pick in 2011, coming to Cotuit; and San Diego sophomore Dylan Covey, the 14th pick in the 2010 draft, slated for Orleans.

Major League Baseball announced its new collective bargaining agreement on Tuesday. While the addition of more playoff teams and the introduction of HGH testing are garnering the headlines, the changes to the draft and amateur signings are significant and could have a big impact on college baseball and the Cape Cod Baseball League.

In the past, signing bonuses were restricted only in theory, by MLB’s recommended slots. With no enforcement, though, teams routinely ignored the recommendations and spent what they wanted. Bonuses shot through the roof in recent years.

The new CBA doesn’t have hard slots or a hard cap, but it does have what amounts to a budget for bonus spending. Teams will be given a pool for draft bonuses in the first 10 rounds. They can budget it however they want, but their total bonus amounts for those rounds are expected to be under the overall number. If not there are penalties — 0-5 percent over and they’ll pay a 75 percent tax on the overage; 5-10 percent over and they’ll pay the same tax and lose a first-round pick the next year; 15 percent over and they’ll have to pay a 100 percent tax and give up their first-round picks in the next two drafts.

Those are steep penalties and they may be enough to keep spending in check. It remains to be seen what the numbers will be, and if they’re as high as some are reporting, then the impact may not be as drastic. But it will be a change.

College baseball and the Cape League stand to benefit.

In recent years, scouts have lamented the lack of talent on campus and in top summer leagues, citing an increase in the number of top-flight high-school players going pro as a major reason. The path isn’t likely to change for high-school players who get picked in the first round — they’ll still get their money. But for that second tier of high-schoolers and for the ones who may be considered tough signs, it looks like college will become a more likely destination. Teams have often spent a lot of money to talk players out of college, like Josh Bell and Dillon Maples from the 2011 draft. Those deals now won’t be as likely because teams just won’t be able to spend that kind of money on one player.

There’s a very good chance that, as a result, more top players will head to college and, by extension, to the Cape League. As quoted in a Baseball America article, one National League crosschecker said, “Hey, at least it will be fun again to scout Team USA and the Cape (Cod League).”

One other change doesn’t look like a positive for the Cape League. The signing deadline for drafted players had been August 15, but it will be moved up into mid-July. That means drafted players trying to raise their stock on the Cape won’t be around quite as long. Players in that category have had big impacts in recent years, and they may once again, but they won’t be around for playoff races or even the All-Star game. I also wonder if the new deadline might even keep some players away.

All in all, though, the college baseball world seems to think it had a pretty good day today. I think the Cape League feels the same way.

Baseball America has released an early top 50 (subscription) for the 2012 draft. Cape Leaguers Mark Appel, Deven Marrero and Mike Zunino head the list, which includes a total of 16 players who have been on the Cape.

Among the other notables are Chris Beck (sixth), Victor Roache (12th) and Travis Jankowski (25th).

Jankowski is a true Cape League success story — temp one year to MVP the next — so it’s great to see him getting so much buzz.

On the heels of their most successful season in a decade, the Hyannis Harbor Hawks announced last week that they’ll have a new general manager at the helm. Michael Letzeisen is taking over for Bill Bussiere.

Bussiere helped orchestrate a 29-15 season for Hyannis, which included the West Division championship. Bussiere received the Cape League’s John Wylde General Manager of the Year award. According to a Hyannis press release, Bussiere notified the Hyannis Athletic Association in July that he planned to leave, in part to spend more time with his family.

Letzeisen is the director of sports administration for the Eastern College Athletic Conference in Centerville. He has also served on the Cape League’s all-star committee and as the league’s social media director.

Cape Cod Baseball League coaches aren’t generally well-known outside of baseball circles or the Cape itself. John Schiffner was made a little famous in Summer Catch and Mike Roberts is a famous baseball dad.

But there will be a pretty famous assistant coach on the Cape next summer.

Ron Polk, the former Mississippi State head coach, has signed on as an assistant with the Wareham Gatemen, according to the team’s twitter. Polk, 67, is the all-time winningest coach in SEC history, across all sports. He also ranks eighth on college baseball’s all-time wins list and is a member of the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

His connection to the Cape League started when he wanted to watch his college players who were in the league. Now an assistant at UAB, Polk has still been making the trek and was featured earlier this summer by the Cape Cod Times.

As he says in that piece, Polk knows Wareham manager Cooper Farris well, and the two will now be together in the dugout. I think that can only be a good thing for the Gatemen. As Polk told the Cape Cod Times in August, “I think there is a good chance I’ll be up here, and help [Farris] recruit some kids from the SEC and Conference USA so we can win this thing next year.”

Hunter Morris hit eight home runs for Falmouth in 2009 and hit 46 in his three-year career at Auburn. In this his first full season of pro ball, Morris is still crushing the ball. A fourth-round pick of the Brewers in 2010, Morris set a new single-season home run record for the Class A Brevard County Manatees this summer. Morris, who batted .271, finished with 19 homers.

The Boston Globe recaps the first season for New England’s newest collegiate baseball league, the Futures League. Four teams played in the inaugural season, including one on Martha’s Vineyard, and the league is hoping to expand.

The site Ballpark Business has two interesting tidbits about summer baseball attendance. The first is a list of the top drawing summer collegiate franchises. The list is topped by the Madison Mallards of the Northwoods League, who demolished all previous summer attendance records by bringing in an average of 6,278 per game. The top drawing Cape League team was Orleans, which ranked only 17th overall. Ballpark Business also has a press release from the Northwoods League detailing its success at the turnstiles.

Jim Callis has a column up promoting Baseball America’s summer top prospect lists. It’s also a nice reminder of how big a step summer ball is on the draft calendar.

Baseball America has weighed on the Cape League’s prospect scene with its annual ranking of the league’s top 30 prospects (subscription required).

Arizona State shortstop Deven Marrero ranks No. 1, just as he did in Perfect Game’s rankings but beyond that, the two lists differ quite a bit. Mark Appel, No. 2 on PG’s list, didn’t meet the innings requirement to be on the BA list. Austin Wilson, No. 3 according to PG, is ranked 25th by BA.

I won’t post the whole BA list since it is subscriber content, but here’s the top 10:

1. Deven Marrero
2. Chris Beck
3. Ryne Stanek
4. Brian Johnson
5. John Simms
6. Victor Roache
7. Colin Moran
8. Kyle Zimmer
9. Ryan Eades
10. Travis Jankowski

Interesting to see Chris Beck ranked so high. I was impressed when I saw him but he was overlooked in league awards. If this ranking is any indication, he won’t be overlooked when it comes to the draft.

Also of note from the BA story, one MLB scouting director said “it’s probably the most raw power I’ve seen in the Cape in a long time.” He singled out Roache, Wilson and Adam Brett Walker as having the biggest bats.

Perfect Game today released its list of the top 100 prospects from the 2011 Cape Cod Baseball League season.

Not a big surprise at the top, where Arizona State’s Deven Marrero checks in at No. 1. Marrero didn’t have a huge impact this year for Cotuit, arriving late after Team USA and leaving because of an injury after 12 games. But it wasn’t just a cameo for Marrero on the Cape — he was a key to Cotuit’s title run in 2010, hitting .417 in the playoffs.

Y-D’s Mark Appel (Stanford) ranks second after flashing the best arm on the Cape. He was also limited on the Cape because of a Team USA stint, but if Team USA had played a typical full-summer schedule, he never would have made it to the Cape at all. His playoff performance in Orleans obviously stands out.

At No. 3, PG went with Harwich outfielder Austin Wilson, a rising sophomore at Stanford. Wilson didn’t put up great numbers but showed plenty of potential all summer before heating up in the playoffs. The third spot is a pretty high ranking for a freshman, and it’s a sign of how highly-regarded Wilson is. He may the top prospect in his class.

The fourth-ranked prospect is another one whose summer was shortened. LSU’s Kevin Gausman made two starts for Harwich before heading off to Team USA. He went 12 innings in those games and struck out eight. Gausman is just a rising sophomore but he’ll be eligible for the 2012 draft.

Cape League Pitcher of the Year Ryan Eades rounds out the top five. Another rising sophomore from LSU, Eades finished with a 0.84 in seven games with Bourne.

The league’s top prospect winner, Victor Roache, ranks sixth on the Perfect Game list. Batting champ Steve Piscotty is seventh and MVP Travis Jankowski ranks 20th.

Several of the Cape’s dominant relievers ranked pretty high, with Cotuit’s Bobby Wahl leading the way at 17. Blake Hauser is 18th, Carter Capps 19th, J.T. Chargois 21st and John Simms 22nd.

Reconnecting with the internet after an Irene power outage . . .

Hyannis operated on a pretty good model this season. The Harbor Hawks lined up a core of talented players from smaller schools and kind of had them as building blocks from day one. You never know how that model will work out, but at least one Cape League manager liked what he saw.

The Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin recently caught up with Chatham manager John Schiffner, who lives in Plainfield, Conn. The Bulletin’s Marc Allard covers a lot of ground with Schiffner, including a potential shift in the Anglers’ approach:

“Wait until you see next year’s roster,” Schiffner said. Out with the high-profile, major conference player; in with the mid-major scrapper.
It’s a strategy that worked in Hyannis, where the Harbor Hawks went from worst to first in the Western Division, turning a 14-30 team last year into a 29-15 squad this season under Chad Gassman.
“They had a bunch of kids from high-profile schools last year, went to the mid-major kid with a few major conference players, and won 30 games (including a playoff matchup) — they had great chemistry,” Schiffner said.
Schiffner said that’s what he will be doing next year: Looking for players “willing to eat dirt.”

Schiffner also said he’s had great kids the last two years, but there’s clearly some frustration about the perils of signing the big boys. It’ll be interesting to see how different the Chatham roster looks next season.

Remember Robert Stock? He played on the Cape after making headlines by enrolling early at USC. He didn’t exactly start a trend, but a few top prospects every year are following in his footsteps. Long Beach State’s Jake Thompson did it and also played on the Cape. Perfect Game’s Kendall Rogers reports that, this year, two big prospects are heading to school early. Catcher Chris Harvey is leaving high school to start his career at Vanderbilt while Taylor Gushue is enrolling at Florida.

Perfect Game is also rolling out its summer league top prospects. Scouting reports are subscriber content, but you can see lists for no charge. Checking out the lists from other leagues can give you a taste of 2012 on the Cape. The top prospects from seven summer leagues in 2010 played on the Cape in 2011.

Former Chatham Angler Kyle Seager made his Major League debut earlier this summer and has started to make a splash. Seager, a star at North Carolina, played for Chatham in 2007 and 2008 before getting drafted in the third round of the 2009 draft. After moving quickly through the minors, Seager was called up to the Mariners on July 7 and went 0-for-4. Seager has heated up lately, though. In a nine-game span starting Aug. 19, Seager went 18-for-36 with two home runs and six doubles. He’s now hitting .289. Seager is joined in the Mariner lineup by former UNC teammate — and former Cape Leaguer — Dustin Ackley, who’s hitting .295.

Baseball America’s prospect hot sheet ranked former Orleans Firebird Gary Brown as the top prospect for the week of Aug. 19-25. Brown, who plays for Class A San Jose in the Giants organization, is hitting .331 with 47 stolen bases in his first full season of minor league ball. The former Cal State Fullerton star earned the top spot on the hot sheet by hitting .556 for the week, including a 5-for-5, two home run, two double day. Brown played for Orleans in 2008 and 2009, hitting .222 his first year before batting .310 with 10 stolen bases the next year. He was selected 24th overall in the 2010 draft. Also on the same prospect hot sheet is Zack Cox, who starred for Cotuit in 2009. Since the end of June, Cox has hit .382 for the Cardinals’ Double A affiliate.

I was just wondering when the all-league team was going to come out, and there it was, announced earlier this evening.

Bourne leads the charge with four selections, but it’s pretty balanced overall, perhaps a sign of the league’s parity. Every team had at least two picks.

It looks like a solid group to me, with fewer snubs than the all-star rosters. Logan Vick and Joe Bircher, two of the most glaring all-star omissions, were selected all-league.

At first glance, the guy with the biggest gripe would be Chris Beck, who had a 2.12 ERA and ranked fifth in the league in strikeouts. You could also make a case for a couple of guys like Jon Moscot, Andrew Toles, Joey Rickard and Ben Waldrip, but overall, I like the picks. I really like the Richie Shaffer pick. He was under the radar a bit, but of his 36 hits this summer, 19 went for extra-bases.

The team:

1B – Stephen Piscotty, Y-D
2B – Tommy Coyle, Bourne
SS – Matt Duffy, Orleans
3B – Logan Vick, Cotuit
IF UTIL – Richie Shaffer, Chatham
OF – Travis Jankowski, Bourne
OF – Jeremy Baltz, Falmouth
OF – James Ramsey, Y-D
OF – Jason Monda, Brewster
DH – Victor Roache, Cotuit
DH – Daniel Palka, Wareham
C – Dane Phillips, Chatham
C – Patrick Cantwell, Bourne

P – Justin Amlung, Wareham
P – Joe Bircher, Falmouth
P – Tony Bucciferro, Brewster
P – Carter Capps, Harwich
P – Ryan Eades, Bourne
P – Dietrich Enns, Hyannis
P – Scott Firth, Hyannis
P – Trevor Gott, Orleans
P – Chris Overman, Harwich
P – John Simms, Falmouth
P – Nick Wittgren, Hyannis
UTIL – Robert Refsnyder, Wareham

If you type Stony Brook into the Right Field Fog search box, you get plenty of results, but every single one of them comes from 2010 or later. To be exact, June 11, 2010 was the official beginning. Nick Tropeano was mentioned in the Cotuit season preview.

Turns out that beginning was the beginning of something big.

A year after Tropeano made a name for himself and for Stony Brook, the Seawolves invaded. Travis Jankowski won the 2011 Cape League MVP award, Tyler Johnson was an ace for Orleans and Patrick Cantwell was an all-star for Bourne. William Carmona, Tanner Nivins and Maxx Tissenbaum were also on the Cape, earning their keep as major contributors for their teams.

That’s six players having solid summers. You know who didn’t have that many? Texas. Arizona State. South Carolina. Florida. Virginia.

Powerhouses. And little old Stony Brook had more Cape League success than any of them.

It’s pretty amazing. I don’t remember a mid-major having that much success from that many players. Usually, it’s one or two, maybe three. Not six, and not out of nowhere like this. I don’t know for sure if Tropeano was the first Stony Brook player on the Cape, but even if he wasn’t, it hasn’t been a regular occurrence.

The program’s prominence on the Cape mirrors its rise in college baseball. The team won a school-record 42 games this past spring and won its first America East regular-season title. There’s obviously some talent there, and clearly, the Cape League is part of the plan.

After this summer, I don’t think any Cape League GM’s will complain about that.

For at least the the third year in a row, a team from somewhere other than the Cape League was ranked No. 1 in Perfect Game’s final summer ball rankings. This time, it was the Cal Ripken League’s Bethesda Big Train. The California Collegiate League’s Santa Barbara Foresters ranked second, while Cape League champ Harwich was third. The Northwoods League’s Eau Claire Express were the top team last year and the Coastal Plain’s Forest City Owls were No. 1 in 2009. I can’t find the final 2008 rankings, but I think Harwich was the top team. If that wasn’t the case, then it goes back to ’07, when Y-D was most definitely No. 1.

The rankings are part of some great summer ball postseason coverage over at Perfect Game. The coverage includes a summer All-American team that features Cape Leaguer’s Stephen Piscotty, Matt Duffy, Victor Roache, Travis Jankowski, Dane Phillips, Ryan Eades, Trevor Gott, Konner Wade and Chris Overman. Utah’s Shaun Cooper, who played in the Northwoods League, was named the Summer Player of the Year. Roache was selected as the top rising junior and Eades the top rising sophomore.

Perfect Game also has a list of Team USA’s top prospects. The top four — Deven Marrero, Mark Appel, Kevin Gausman and Ryne Stanek — also spent time on the Cape.

One of the top prospects on that Bethesda team was Mississippi State rising sophomore Hunter Renfroe. A catcher, Renfroe hit .305 with a league-best eight home runs. I would expect to see Renfroe on a Cape League roster for 2012.

Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt takes some time to break down the college winners and losers after the MLB signing deadline. He labels Vanderbilt, North Carolina State, Mississippi, Southern Mississippi and South Carolina the big winners.

I just typed Mississippi so many times.

Finally, it’s being reported that 2011 Chatham standout Dane Phillips is transferring from Oklahoma State to Arkansas. He will try for a waiver that would allow him to be eligible in 2012.