SOMERSET HURLER BARELY MISSES PERFECT GAME IN AUSTRALIA; OTHERS AMONG LEAGUE LEADERS

As difficult it is for this writer to believe the Australian Baseball League's depth can match up with the Atlantic League, to get within two strikes of a perfect game is a wonderful feat.

That is exactly what happened recently for Nic Ungs (2-1, 3.25), who has reached Triple-A and went 4-7, 5.45 as a starter for the Somerset this past summer.

Ungs, a 32-year-old right-hander from Alpharetta, GA, missed out on the perfect game when Brisbane's Brad Dutton shot a drive into rightfield. It was barely out of the reach of Melbourne first baseman Justin Huber, ironically, a teammate of the pitcher at Somerset.

Ungs is said to have already pitched one no-hitter in his career, which includes more than 70 professional victories.

ATLANTIC LEAGUE HURLERS RANK 1-2 IN VENEZUELA

Former Atlantic League pitchers Eric Junge and Mike Parisi hold down the top two spots in the earned run average race in Venezuela this winter. Junge, at last report a free agent after working in the Los Angeles Angels farm system last summer, has a fancy 1.78 ERA and has won three of four decisions. He has played at both Lancaster and Bridgeport. Parisi, signed last season by the Los Angeles Dodgers after a stint at Long Island, is 1-3, 2.09.

John Rodriguez, who has been with Long Island the last two seasons, leads the Puerto Rican League with seven home runs, and shares fifth in RBI (17) with onetime Ducks catcher Robinson Cancel. The hefty Cancel, who has had several trips to the major leagues including a couple of games with Houston last season, also has played for Somerset and the traveling Road Warriors. Rodriguez banged 18 home runs and drove in 81 runs in only 82 games for the Ducks last season.

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MAJOR LEAGUE SPRING TRAINING INVITATIONS GIVEN TO SEVEN ATLANTIC LEAGUERS

The holidays arrived early for at least seven players who previously were in the Atlantic League.

Their gift is an invitation to a major league spring training camp. The seven we know of so far with their Atlantic League affiliation:

Cleveland--C Michel Hernandez (Somerset).
Los Angeles Dodgers--LHP Alberto Castillo (Newark, Road Warriors, Camden) and RHP Will Savage (Lancaster).
Milwaukee--UTIL Erick Almonte (Long Island), who made last year's opening day roster, and C Mike Rivera (Atlantic City).
Seattle--RHP Jarrett Grube (Southern Maryland) and RHP Scott Patterson (Lancaster).

Honors are passed around with eight different Atlantic League franchises involved, including three that are no longer in the league (Atlantic City, Newark, Road Warriors).

More invitations seem certain between now and mid-February.

Savage and Grube are trying to reach the major leagues for the first time.

Four other former Atlantic Leaguers have automatic major league invitations in that they are on 40-man rosters. The fortunate foursome: OF Justin Christian (Southern Maryland) with San Francisco, RHP Dane De La Rosa (Southern Maryland) with Tampa Bay, SS Stephen Drew (Camden) with Arizona and RHP Jerome Williams (Lancaster) with the Los Angeles Angels.

RENE RIVERA BACK WITH TWINS

Catcher Rene Rivera (Camden) has re-signed with Minnesota after being a free agent. Rivera got considerable time with the parent Twins in 2011, but the solid defender only hit .144, and he likely will face a more difficult challenge to return to the American League with Minnesota bringing in a stronger hitter in veteran Ryan Doumit to back up Joe Mauer. The Twins also still have another defensive minded backstop on the 40-man roster in Drew Butera.

We presume Rivera will be invited to the major league training camp.

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MIKE RIVERA, ERICK ALMONTE BACK IN THE NEWS

The Atlantic League did not have any of its former players taken in Thursday's Rule 5Draft as part of the Winter Meetings in Dallas, but chalk up one more player who has been given a new contract by his major league organization.

The mutual admiration society that has existed between catcher Mike Rivera (Atlantic City)and Milwaukee for several seasons obviously still breathes because the Brewers have brought back the free agent. He is under contract to Triple-A Nashville. Rivera was 2-for-6 in his latest stint with the parent club in 2011.

COULD MAGIC STRIKE A SECOND TIME FOR ERICK ALMONTE?

Shortstop/utilityman Erick Almonte, who had such a strong spring training this year that he opened the season with the parent Milwaukee Brewers, is an early invitee to the National League team's Arizona camp for 2012.

The veteran, who played for Long Island at one time, has had a hot bat in the Dominican Republic so far this offseason.

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MORE PLAYER SHUFFLING AS WE AWAIT THURSDAY'S RULE 5 DRAFT

With five former Independent players drafted to the Triple-A level (teams paid $12,500 apiece) last December, it will be interesting to see if more players are taken when the next Rule 5 selections are made on Thursday as part of the Winter Meetings under way in Dallas. We plan to report on the draft as quickly as possible on our other blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com.

PHILS NOT AT HOME WHEN CAMDEN HOSTS ATLANTIC LEAGUE STARS

I was hoping to suggest a great road trip for next July to see the Atlantic League All-Star Game in Camden (July 11) and the next door neighbors in Philadelphia but the Phillies are not home either right before or after, in part because of the Major League All-Star Game that will be played in Kansas City.

PADRES RE-SIGN, PROMOTE ROAD WARRIORS STANDOUT

San Diego re-signed and promoted to Tucson (Triple-A) free agent outfielder Carlos Sosa, who was hitting .330 with 17 homers and 55 RBI for the Road Warriors this summer before the Padres purchased his contract.

The 30-year-old Dominican hit .312 (two homers, 13 RBI) in 28 games in Class AA after leaving the Atlantic League.

Third baseman Mike Costanzo (Camden) inked a new pact to stay in the Cincinnati organization. If he stays in Double-A next season, he will have a new home since the Reds' Southern League team is moving to a new stadium in Pensacola, FL.

In other moves by San Diego, southpaw Dustin Pease (York) and infielder Amadeo Zazueta (Road Warriors and Lancaster) were bumped up to Triple-A (Tucson) and righty John Van Benschoten (York) dropped down one level to San Antonio. This does not necessarily mean these will be their level of play when spring training camps end.

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IT IS PAYBACK TIME--PLEASANTLY SO--FOR SOMERSET PA MAN

Kevin MacConnell's long-term memory has paid off for a popular voice heard nightly when the Somerset Patriots are home.

Back in the late '70s, as MyCentralJersey.com tells the story, MacConnell was a neophyte broadcaster for women's basketball on the Rutgers student radio station. His partner, with some experience, was upperclassman Paul Spychala.

MacConnell has moved on to become the Scarlet Knights' deputy director of athletes, and when he was looking for a new public address announcer for this season's basketball games he reached out to Spychala, who has been Somerset's public address announcer ever since 1999.

"As a longtime Rutgers fans and a Rutgers grad, I couldn't ask for anything more," he told the website.

THIS LANCASTER PLAYER REMEMBERS A SPOTLIGHT MOMENT IN MAJORS

Standout minor league outfielder Jason Cooper, who had a stint trying to help Lancaster reach the playoffs late in 2009 and is moving to a front office opportunity with the Pittsburgh Pirates, only got into a few major league games and all of those were in exhibitions. But Cooper, who I will feature in Thursday's Independent Baseball Insider column, has one really good memory.

He traveled to Philadelphia with the Cleveland Indians for the very first game to be played at Citizens Bank Park in 2004.

It was a cool, rainy day, he remembers, but there was the predictable full house. The lefty swinging Cooper was on the bench until he was called on to lead off in the ninth inning, and who should the Phils bring in but southpaw flame-thrower Billy Wagner.

After fouling off some of Wagner's pitches, Cooper, then only 23 and less than two years removed from signing out of Stanford, was able to single to right field.

What a nice moment for any baseball player to experience.

ATLANTIC LEAGUE GRAD NOW A PITCHING COACH FOR PHILS

Aaron Fultz won 25 major league games, including seven with Philadelphia in 2005 and 2006. The southpaw had stints later on with Somerset (2008) and Newark (2009). Now 38, the Memphis, TN native, is back with Philadelphia, this time as a minor league pitching coach.

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FOUR ATLANTIC LEAGUERS GET PLAYER-COACH DEALS WITH PIRATES; PASCUCCI, SAVAGE BACK IN FOLD

I was able to confirm today that the four former Atlantic League players I identified in yesterday's Independent Baseball Insider column have indeed been signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as player-coaches, enabling them to begin transitioning from being fulltime players to coaching opportunities.

This would seem to represent nice career steps.

The four are standout York third baseman Vince Harrison, who hit .327 for the league champion Revolution this past season; outfielder Jason Cooper, who had a brief stint at Lancaster; popular former York infielder Keoni DeRenne, who already has some two-way experience in the Philadelphia farm system; and onetime Somerset outfielder Michael Ryan, who has considerable major league experience including 2010 with the Los Angeles Angels after leaving the Atlantic League. Ryan is the only one of the quartet who has played in the majors or has been in the Pittsburgh system (Indianapolis, 2007).

PASCUCCI, SAVAGE SIGN NEW PACTS

First baseman-outfielder-DH Valentino Pascucci (Camden) and right-hander Will Savage (Lancaster) have signed contracts to remain with their 2011 organizations.

Pascucci was primarily with the New York Mets' Triple-A club in Buffalo in '11 although he got 11 at-bats (three hits, one homer) with the parent club in September. The 6-foot-6 slugger had 29 doubles, 21 homers and 91 RBI while hitting
.264 at Buffalo. He turned 33 yesterday.

The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Savage to Triple-A Albuquerque, which is one classification above Chattanooga, where he was a mid-season Southern League All-Star this season. The 27-year-old Savage was 12-6 with a 3.95 ERA in 25 games, including 23 starts. He was in two games with Lancaster (1-0) in 2009 although he spent most of that year in another Independent league, pitching for Wichita, KS in the American Association.

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MICHEL HERNANDEZ GETS NEW CONTRACT; FIGUEROA, FELIZ, PATTERSON AMONG FREE AGENTS

My, how easy it is to fall behind when one takes a few days of vacation. But it will be back in gear this week with another Independent Baseball Insider column due for subscribers on Thursday.

This one is going to introduce a really novel undertaking for the Independent game, and stands to be a sizeable benefit for players and for major league organizations.

In the meantime, this is a very busy time of year for players who have left the Indy ranks and joined one of the 30 MLB systems. So many players are six-year free agents, as always happens this time of year, and there is the opportunity to try to sign with an organization where the path to the major leagues seems more promising. Of course, it also means the end of the major league dreams (at least for now) if players do not get picked up by their previous farm system or another one.

MICHEL HERNANDEZ GETS NEW DEAL

Catcher Michel Hernandez, whose last major league opportunity was with Tampa Bay, became a free agent for a short time this fall before returning to the Cleveland organization. The onetime Atlantic League backstop (Somerset) is on the Columbus, OH roster.

SIX-YEAR LIST IS LENGTHY

Onetime Chicago Cubs standout Mark Prior is, arguably, the best known of the group of players who became free agents by virtue of their lengthy playing history. The right-hander, who got back on the baseball map after lengthy sidesteps with injuries when he pitched for Orange County (Fullerton, CA) of the Golden League, was in the New York Yankees' farm system this summer.

Other prominent names with major league experience who now are free agents include third baseman Pedro Feliz (Camden) and pitchers Nelson Figueroa (Long Island) and Scott Patterson (Lancaster). The latter just finished a stint with Team USA.

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