Independent Baseball Chatter – by Bob Wirz
Onetime El Paso and Lincoln pitcher Tim Adleman has a bit more breathing room than one year ago when he was trying to earn his first major league opportunity.
“He pitched extremely well,” Cincinnati manager Bryan Price told WCPO.com. “He’s one of the few guys who took advantage of his opportunity last year. I don’t know if he was any better when he came back (from an oblique injury). I just felt like he got enough opportunity to get comfortable on the mound and pitching every fifth day and learning to pitch at that level.”
Adleman’s 4-4 record and 4.00 ERA for 14 starts has put him in position where he is considered to be battling for the fourth or fifth spot in the Reds’ rotation. “That’s what you want,” the 29-year-old said. “Any time you can come into spring training with a chance to make the club and be a contributor is great. I’m going to work hard every day.” He has a 3.60 ERA for his first five spring training innings.
Wilkerson, Hoyt Have Scoreless Streaks
Among other American Association grads trying to earn major league jobs, Aaron Wilkerson (Grand Prairie) has allowed four hits in three scoreless innings over two outings for Milwaukee and James Hoyt (Wichita) has two strikeouts in a scoreless frame for Houston.
First baseman Balbino Fuenmayor (Laredo) has gone 2-for-7 with a double and two runs in four appearances for Atlanta, Chris Smith (Wichita) has a 3.60 ERA after three games for Oakland and Derek Eitel (Wichita) has a 3.86 ERA for his three games for Washington. Hoyt is the only 40-man roster player among the group while Fuenmayor comes up from the Braves minor league camp for his outings.
Previously the chief spokesman for Baseball Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Peter Ueberroth, Bob Wirz has been writing extensively about Independent Baseball since 2003. He is a frequent contributor to this site, has a blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com, and his book, “The Passion of Baseball”, was introduced in October.
