Baseball in Fort Wayne

Matt Antonelli became the 71st former Fort Wayne Wizard to make his MLB debut on September 1, 2008. In the top of the second inning, he hit a one-out line drive off the Los Angeles Dodges’ Matt Kemp. He grounded out to short in the fifth and popped out to short in the seventh for his second and third at-bats. Then, he grounded out to short in thetop of the ninth to end the game.

The lineup’s five through eight spots featured former Wizards (Headley, Venable, Hundley and Antonelli). Get Kazmar in there on a day that Peavy or Hayhurst are pitching and you’d see a lineup that features 6 of the nine spots as former Wizards.

Antonelli was a first round pick (17th overall) in the 2006 draft.  He saw a total of five games with the Wizards in 2006, hitting .125 in 16 at-bats. He hit .314 the following year at Lake Elsinore before being promoted to Double-A San Antonio, where he hit .294. On the 2008 campaign, he’s hitting just .215 with 7 home runs and 39 RBIs in 128 games.

He is the tenth former Wizard to debut in MLB this year. One more ties a record set in 2002. That will probably happen when Wade LeBlanc, who was also recently called up, takes the mound later this week (I’m hearing Wednesday).