MANY ATLANTIC LEAGUERS IN MAJOR LEAGUE MIX; OTHERS GET NEW MINOR LEAGUE DEALS

We reported on the 15 former Atlantic League players who will be in major league spring training games in our Independent Baseball Insider column this week, and we would not be surprised to see several more make their way into at least one exhibition game.

Primary among these candidates could be Lancaster closer Scott Patterson with Seattle, lefties Alberto Castillo (Newark, Camden, Road Warriors) and Nick Bierbrodt (Bridgeport, Somerset) with Baltimore and outfielder Jason Lane (Southern Maryland) with Torotno. Other candidates could include outfielder Justin Christian (Southern Maryland) with San Francisco and possibly righty reliever Brian Sweeney, who trained with Somerset last spring, with Arizona.

MAJOR LEAGUE CLUBS KEEP ON THE LOOKOUT FOR TALENT

Some of the interesting invitations to minor league camps from the Atlantic League of late have included outfielder Joe Gaetti (Lancaster) by the Orioles and right-hander Vince Perkins, who had been well regarded but stumbled to a combined 0-8 in Newark and York last season, by Toronto.

Catcher Eddy Rodriguez, who hit .277 in 108 games for Bridgeport in '09, has been obtained for the San Diego Padres farm system.

WHERE IS SALOMON MANRIQUEZ?

Lancaster thought it would have Salomon Manriquez back behind the plate this season, going so far as announcing his signing. Not so fast, though. Manriquez has gone back to the New York Mets' Buffalo, NY farm club, where he spent part of the 2010 season after signing out of Lancaster. He also has played for York and Newark.

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SOUTHERN MARYLAND'S CHRISTIAN SIGNS WITH GIANTS, CREDITS INDEPENDENT BASEBALL

Justin Christian has been squarely in our sights for a few years now, certainly since the spring of 2008 when this now 30-year-old outfielder who started out in Independent Baseball was in the major league spring training camp of the New York Yankees.

Fast forwarding to today, everyone in the Indy game should want to reach out to Christian and give him a friendly pat on the back or a hearty "thank you".

Christian, who started last season at Southern Maryland, just signed a minor league deal with the defending World Champion San Francisco Giants. It is what he said to MLB.com writer Jesse Sanchez that makes the Indy game look good.

"The reason I believe I was able to get to the big leagues is because I had to grind and work hard in Independent ball," he told Sanchez, who was covering the Caribbean Series where Christian was the centerfielder and leadoff hitter for Mexico.

"You are not getting a lot of looks from scouts (in Independent leagues), but for me, it made me appreciate my opportunity with the Yankees that much more because I know the road I had taken was a difficult one."

Christian got into 24 games with the Yankees in 2008, and those 40 at-bats (10 hits, six RBI, seven steals) represent his entire major league regular season experience so far. He did not even get a major league spring training invitation from the Giants, yet he sounds grateful.

The speedster spent much of 2003 and 2004 breaking into the pro game at O'Fallon, MO with the River City Rascals of the Frontier League, not a great distance from Southwest Missouri State where he had been in college. (He also had played for Auburn.) He worked his way up through the Yankees' chain for three and a half years before the major league shot, and he was once again in the Bombers' minor league system for most of last season after starting out with two games back in the Indy world (3-for-9) for the Blue Crabs.

"Christian is a grinder", Sanchez wrote. "He's the undrafted baseball lifer with an independent streak and an international flair for the game."

The 6-foot-1 native of Lincoln, NE went to winter ball without a job for this season. "The entire time I believed I was going to have the opportunity to sign with a team, I just didn't know with which team," he said. But pounding out a .356 average in 64 games with 55 RBI and 24 steals in 25 attempts in the Mexican Pacific League earned a the in the San Francisco system.

It is a safe bet Christian will continue grinding away.

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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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