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Local Ties RoundUp: January 20, 2008
By Chad Gramling | January 20, 2008
A few links of interest to the Wizards and other local ties that I want to spotlight today:
- Harrison Square: Downtown Fort Wayne to get a new ballpark for the Wizards. Also condos, retail and a hotel - Indiana Business Magazine (via Entrepreneur.com) takes a look at the Harrison Square development (ballpark AND condos, retail, hotel lodging). Kudos to Downtown Fort Wayne Baseball for catching this one.
Mets invite Valentin to Spring Training - The former Wizards player and longtime MLB veteran switch hitter, has agreed to a minor league contract with hopes of breaking through the New York Mets’s 2B stockpile. He underwent surgery to repair a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament September 25, but is progressing well. He played with the Wizards during the 1995 season where he hit .321 with 19 dingers and 65 runs batted in over 383 at-bats. He appeared in 51 games with the Mets in 2007.Thanks Geoff!- Headley making strides in outfield - After earning 2007 Texas League Player of the Year honors, the 23-year-old former Wizards third baseman has added the outfield to his repertoire in hopes of cracking the 25-man roster. Headley appeared in just 4 games with the Wiz-kids at the end of the 2005 season. He spent 2006 at High-A Lake Elsinore and most of 2007 at Double-A San Antonio. Also in 2007, Headley made his big league debut with the Padres on June 15th.
- Infield prospects eyed for outfield - Former Wizards palyer, Matt Antonelli, is also trying to make the transition to outfield. Former Wizards, Chad Huffman is also mentioned in this article. Like Headley, Antonelli and Huffman’s stints in Fort Wayne were brief; just 5 games.
Tags: baseball in fort wayne, ft. wayne, Wizards, Chase Headley, Matt Antonelli, Chadd Huffman, Harrison Square, Jose Valentin
Topics: Alumni, Local Ties, Wizards |
January 21st, 2008 at 12:56 am
I may be wrong, but I believe the ex-Wizard is catcher Javier Valentin, who used to be known as Jose Valentin.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:03 am
Geoff-Thanks for commenting. The Valentin’s have always caused me a bit of confusion. I was in high school and not attending many Wizards games when he came through Fort Wayne. For this situation, I yielded to Baseball Cube; which I now realize may be more confused than I am. I think you are right b/c there are two sets of stats for Jose.
Javier Valentin | Jose Valentin
Baseball Reference seems to have a better listing. Any Valentin “experts” out there who can clear the confusion?
January 29th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Two Valentins, both named Jose but Ft. Wayne’s is now known as Javier. B-R says they’re brothers, which perhaps agrees with my memory. One supposes the youngster’s always been Javy in the family.
Jose came up in the Mariners organization, mostly played for Milwaukee, then had a stint with the ChiSox. The last couple years he’s been a Met, so the news content above must mainly be that he’s healthy. Had a brief MWL rehab stint with B’loit in 1997.
1995 MWL Prospect of the Year Javier (he was still being called Jose that year, I’m pretty sure) has played at Minnesota (of course), Tampa Bay, and Cincy over the past decade. He’s a player I recall watching play for the Wizards, but the only real memory is that he looked competent. Which is better than I do with lots of guys, so it’s something.
Both are predominantly defensive players with weak bats. Jose used to be pretty fast.
Dunno if this actually helps anything, and I’m not really a Valentin expert, but thought I’d take a shot. Main source is Pat Doyle’s Professional Baseball Player Database, which is current through 2004.
FWIW: B-R’s minor league stuff is mostly pretty good, though I’ve found occasional mistakes. Sean’s pretty good about handling error reports. If (as I assume) Baseball Cube worked from the Guides, messing this pair up would be easy unless you knew to expect a problem.
January 30th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Thanks for chiming in Joel. Believe it or not, that helps a lot.