WHO HAS OR HAS NOT SIGNED PLUS MIKE TORREZ'S NEW JOB

Two potent outfielders who got some major league time last season are among about 25 former Atlantic League players who were in affiliated organizations at the end of the year and still have not signed with anyone.

It is getting rather late--but certainly not impossible--for Michael Ryan of Somerset and the Los Angeles Angels to ink with a major league organization. The same is true of Matt Watson, who started 2010 with Lancaster and was in the American League a couple of months later with Oakland.

Other prominent former Atlantic Leaguers not yet signed, according to what we know, include outfielders Justin Christian (Southern Maryland), now with Mexico in the Caribbean Series, and Charlton Jimerson (Bridgeport and Newark). The same is true for catcher Salomon Manriquez (Lancaster, York, Newark) and 2010 Somerset hurler Tom Mastny.

PAIR GO BACK TO MAJOR LEAGUE ORGANIZATIONS

Two recent signees with major league organizations are infielder Erick Almonte (Long Island), who not only returned to Milwaukee but also got a spring training invitation to the parent club, and Nick Bierbrodt. The left-handed Bierbrodt, who has been with both Bridgeport and Somerset, signed with Baltimore, his third major league organization in about a calendar year.

69 ORIOLES HAVE PLAYED IN ATLANTIC LEAGUE

Veteran baseball writer Lisa Winston, now working for Peter Kirk's Opening Day Partners, came up with a very impressive note. She determined no less than 69 Baltimore Orioles (these weren't minor leaguers, either) have played in the Atlantic League, with 17 of them in this eastern-based Indy league last summer.

MIKE TORREZ RETURNS

Who can forget Mike Torrez? The big right-hander, who did the Yankees two huge favors while pitching, is back at Newark, NJ, this time as general manager of the Bears, who have moved from the Atlantic League to the Can-Am. He was the Bears' pitching coach in 2009.

Torrez won two games in the 1977 World Series for the Bronx Bombers, but is better remembered by many for giving up that famous playoff home run to the Yankees' Bucky Dent the next year, depriving Boston of going to the World Series.

Torrez, now 64, won 185 games during his major league mound duty.

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