Independent Baseball Chatter – by Bob Wirz
Mike Zouzalik only got 33.2 innings divided between two Texas Rangers farm clubs before the right-hander found himself getting released pitching for Wichita two summers ago and St. Paul last season where his 2.06 earned run average along with a 4-1 record and three saves earned him Rookie of the Year honors in the American Association.
Now the 25-year-old is in the High-A Carolina League in the Baltimore system and has blazed his way to a 0.77 ERA and two saves in his first six outings. The Frederick (Md.) Keys hurler has given up only one earned run in 11.2 innings while allowing just seven hits and three walks and striking out 11.
Zouzalik had one three-inning scoreless outing in which he fanned seven.
Adleman Sharp in Triple-A
Right-hander Tim Adleman, who was a reliever for El Paso and briefly for Lincoln in the ’12 season, seems to have put a difficult spring training with the parent Cincinnati Reds behind him to two pick up two wins in his first three starts (one no-decision) in his initial opportunity at the Triple-A level (Louisville).
He limited Baltimore’s top farm club two three hits and a walk over seven scoreless innings this week to improve to 2-0, 4.24 for the Bats. “I had a really good changeup,” Adleman told MiLB.com. ” I was able to mix it in to all the righties as well as to the one lefty. The key for me to have success is to throw that consistently for strikes to righties and lefties and early in the count to get ahead and late in the count to get some swings-and-misses and weak contact.”
Previously the chief spokesman for 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 as well as writing his own blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com.
