Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Jared Wells’

Thought I would take a little time and update where many of the former Wizards and TinCaps are playing currently:

Let’s start with the easiest – that being the Padres. On their active roster, are former WizCaps, Mat Latos, Wade LeBlanc, Nick Hundley, Chase Headley, Lance Zawadzki, Kyle Blanks and Will Veneble. Others who are on their 40-man roster (but not active roster) are; Ernesto Frieri, Seve Garrison, Cesar Ramos, Matt Antonelli, and Luis Durango.

After having been released by the Padres during spring, Chad Huffman was quickly picked up by the Yankees. Padres front-office exec Paul DePodesta expressed regret. Friar Forecast called it “no big deal.” In 14 games with the Triple-A Scranton Wiles-Barre Yankees, Huffman is batting .204 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI. He’s struck out 12 time sin 54 at-bats.

Leo Rosales is still in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ organization and has seen big league action this year. However, he has landed on the DL due to a stress fracture in his right foot. Oddly, he first felt discomfort when he got fellow Fort Wayne alumnus Kyle Blanks (Padres) to ground into a double play

Luke Carlin is nearby in Indianapolis with the the Pittsburgh Pirate’s Triple-A Affiliate, the Indy Indians. The catcher is putting up some pretty solid offensive numbers in 13 games so far on the young season.

Another former ‘zards catcher, Jose Lobaton, is now in the Tampa Bay organization. He served as the backup for two days while Dioner Navarro served a two-game suspension last week. He’s since been optioned back to Triple-A. Also on the Durham Bulls’ roster are former Wizards Dale Thayer and J.J. Furmaniak.

Eddie Bonine is putting logging some big leage innings with Detroit. Perhaps the return of his knuckleball is the magic formula this time around.

“He’s a very useable big league pitcher,” Leyland said of the 28-year-old. “Will he knock your lights out? No. But he’s been a winner wherever he’s been.”

The Camden Riversharks seems to be the preferred indy team for former Wizards. Their current roster includes pitchers Travis Chick and Jon Ellis as well as infielders Brett Bonvechio and Brian Burgamy.

Everyone’s favorite wipping boy, Matt Bush is trying to not only save his career but redeem his life with the Tampa Bay Rays. On the season, he’s seen one game with the class A+ Charlotte Stone Crabs.

Dirk Hayhurst remains with Toronto – but he’s also gained a lot of attention for his New York Times Bestseller, The Bullpen Gospels. He’s also got his own site/blog. Unfortunately, he is likely to miss most of the season following shoulder surgery in February.

Freddy Guzman is in the Phillies organization. He’s currently assigned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Jared Wells is currently with the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks of the Houston Astros organization.

Wilton Lopez is with the Houston Astros organization, currently playing at Triple-A Round Rock, but he has seen big league action on the season already and he remains on the 40-man roster. Another former Wizard, Yordany Ramirez is also on the 40-man roster, but has yet to see big league action at any point in his career. He too is at Triple-A and is hitting .265 with a home run and 6 RBI over 16 games.

Most Padres fans have accepted the reality that the next phase of the San Diego Padres will not only be a dark one, but it will not include future Hall of Famer, Trevor Hoffman. Padres Ace and former Wizard, Jake Peavy will also likely be gone.

Can we say REBUILDING?

Obviously, the Padres troubled future will provide some opportunities for up-and-coming former Wizards. Look to see several take the MLB field in 2009. And look for it early. There will be many open positions, and I suspect all of them (except maybe first base) are up for grabs in an “open tryout” of sorts.

But the one we can say with about 99% certainty that will be available is the closer’s spot. Let’s look at the in-house auditions:

Padres MLB Roster: Hoffman collected 30 saves. No other pitcher collected even one. Heath Bell and Cla Meredeth had 6 and 7 chances respectively, but failed to convert. Apparently there is not anyone on the current roster is ready to step into the role.

Portland (AAA): The team leader in saves on the Triple-A level was former Wizar, Jared Wells, with 20. But he’s now in the Seattle organization (for the moment anyway). After Wells was traded, Edwin Moreno took over the closer’s spot. He collect 18 to go with the 8 he had in Double-A; making for 26 on the season. John Madden, who led the Wizards with 20 saves in 2006, pitched in releif for Portland in 2008, but had no saves.

San Antonio (AA): On the Double-A level, we find one of the most likely choices for the closer’s gig in former Wizard, Greg Burke. The Duke University grad went undrafted and signed with the Padres following a tryout camp 2006. In jus this third year as a pro in 2008, Burke collected 23 saves and a 2.24 ERA. He struck out 92 hitters and walked just 17 in 84 1/3 innings. The second highest save total on the team was Moreno’s 8 (see above). With the Wizards in 2006, Burke pitched middle relief and had no saves. Double-A to MLB is somewhat of a stretch, but Burke was invited to the Arizona Fall League and is starting to draw attention.

Lake Elsinore (High A) and Fort Wayne (Low-A): At Lake Elsinore, R.J. Rodriguez and Wilton Lopez each had a dozen saves to lead the team. Lopez had the edge in ERA, 2.64 to Rodriguez’s 4.92. And while Rodriquez might appear to have the advantage in strikeouts, with 79 to Lopez’s 26, Lopez pitched in a third of the innings that Rodriguez did (30.2 vs. 99). With the Wizards in 2007, Lopez had no saves, while Rodriguez paced the team with 18.

In Fort Wayne, the closer’s role of 2008  belonged to Jackson Quesada, who collected 27 saves, a 2.12 ERA and 79 strikeouts to 19 walks in 63 innings pitched. While he looks promizing, he is less experienced. I’ve seen more than one exciting closer come through Fort Wayne who didn’t pan out in the Majors. Matt Varner collected 34 saves in 2005. Anthony Kozol had 21 in 2002, Mike Bumstead had 17 in 2001. Perhaps the most promising I ever saw was J.J. Trujillo, who set a then Midwest League record with 42 in 1999.

To my knowledge, none of those pitchers are in any of the MLB farm systems. Leo Rosales and Dale Thayer led the Wizards with 26 in 2004 and 25 in 2003 respectively. Rosales made his MLB debut with Arizon in 2008 and Thayer is on the verge after having been a Triple-A All-Star in the Tampa Bay system in 2008. Hwoever, neither are on a track to be a closer (Thayer is probably the more likely of the two).

All that said, it’s not unheard of for a Single-A pitcher to go to the big leagues the following year. Former Wizard, Joakim Soria did so. But something tells me, the Padres aren’t going to try it. Yet, speaking of Soria, maybe it’s possible for the Padres to make their own Rule-5 Draft steal like the Royals did when they snagged Soria.

Right now, my gut is telling me we’ll see Greg Burke get the first crack at taking hte mound in the ninth inning when the 2009 season kicks off.

Anyone want to agree or tell me why I’m wrong?

As evidenced by the recent call-ups of Antonelli and LaBlanc and some other recent player additions, the September callup period is in full swing. Thought I would take a moment to look into those with Fort Wayne Wizards ties:

• P Dirk Hayhurst (SD) – Has made two starts since being called up. Is 0-1.
• P Josh Geer (SD) – Made his debut on 8/31/08 – Got the win.
• 3B Matt Antonelli (SD) – Made his debut on 9/1/08
• P Wade LeBlanc (SD) – Set to start (MLB Debut) on Wednesday 9/3/08
• SS Luis Cruz (PIT) – Made his Debut on 9/2/08 (4-1)
• P Jack Cassel (HOU) -Returns for another round with the big club
• 2B Josh Barfield (CLE) – Returns after a real up-and-down season. This might be a final shot.
• P Jared Wells (SEA) – Called up yet again. Is there an All-Star roster they can cheat him out of this time?
• P David Pauley (BOS) – Called up on 8/24. Had a chance to start, but they called up Michael Bowden instead and put Pauley int he pen. Finally pitched on 9/2. Pitched two innings. Gave up one run on two hits.
• C Luke Carlin (SD) – Called up for his third stint with the Friars this season.
• C Chad Moeller (NYY) -Adding depth to their catching corp.
• Portland Manager Randy Ready – The rest of the team is there, and it’s starting to fill with former Wizards, so I guess you might as well call up the skipper who last got the Wizards into the playoffs.

Former Wizards Pitcher, Jared Wells was called up from Triple-A Tacoma to join the Mariners roster Tuesday. The move comes following Seattle’s decision to send down Brandon Morrow to begin his transition from late-inning reliever to starting pitcher.

Wells became the 64th player in the history of the team to make his Major League debut in May of this season but was traded shortly thereafter to the Mariners from San Diego in exchange for pitcher, Cha Seung Baek.

Wells was a 31st Round (925th overall) pick in the 2002 Major League Draft. He joined the Wizards in 2002. During that season, he started 14 games and compiled a 4.09 ERA with one complete game and 72 strikeouts over 81.1 innings pitched.

Former Wizards pitcher, Jared Wells has had an interesting 2008 season. He started the year with the Padres as the 64th former Wizard to make his MLB debut, went to China, then got sent back to Triple-A before being traded to Seattle.

Thanks to Erik Bedard hitting the DL and Seattle’s release of Richie Sexson, Wells was back in the Bigs despite not putting up stellar numbers with Triple-A Tacoma. In 16 games and 16 innings of work with the Rainiers, Wells went 0-2 with a 4.41 ERA. He gave up 13 hits and eight earned runs with 20 strikeouts and six saves. However, his opposing batting average was just .217 against him. He’s also seemed to have turned a corner of sorts, giving up just two earned runs in his last 8 outings.

BUT WAIT! Maybe there was no room for him after all. One day later, when the Mariners have activated right-hander, Felix Hernandez, from the 15-day disabled list, they optioned Jared Wells back to Triple-A Tacoma.

But here’s the real kicker:

Wells was named to the Pacific Coast League Triple-A All-Star team. But since he was on the big league roster, he was replaced on the team by infielder Oswaldo Navarro. So now he isn’t on the MLB squad AND he isn’t pitching in the All-Star Game.

Wells was a 31st Round (925th overall) pick in the 2002 Major League Draft. He joined the Wizards in 2002. During that season, he started 14 games and compiled a 4.09 ERA with one complete game and 72 strikeouts over 81.1 innings pitched.

I said it might be a short-lived stint, but I had no idea this was on the horizon. As MLBTradeRumors reports:

The Padres and Mariners worked out a minor trade, as they have many times in the past. The Padres acquired Cha Seung Baek for Jared Wells. Baek was in the 10-day limbo period after being designated for assignment.

Baek, 28, has a 4.96 ERA in 168.2 career innings for the Mariners. His best asset has been respectable control. The Ms signed Baek out of Korea for $1.3MM in ’98. Baseball America said back in ’05 that Baek succeeds by locating a full five-pitch repertoire. He had Tommy John surgery back in ’01.

Wells, 26, was shifted to relief at Triple A last year and picked up nine saves. His numbers have been ugly – tons of hits, poor control, mediocre strikeout rate. Baseball America notes his average slider and decent two-seam fastball

Former Fort Wayne Wizards pitcher, Jared Wells became the 64th player in the history of the team to make his Major League Debut. He entered the game against Cincinnati in the seventh inning in relief of Mike Adams. He coaxed outs from Joey Votto and David Ross before issuing a walk to Bronson Arroyo, followed by a single to Ryan Freel. He then got Paul Lanish to line out to end the inning unscathed.

Wells was a 31st Round (925th overall) pick in the 2002 Major League Draft. He joined the Wizards in 2002. During that season, he started 14 games and compiled a 4.09 ERA with one complete game and 72 strikeouts over 81.1 innings pitched.

The bottom of the seventh saw two former Wizards, Paul McAnulty and Luke Carlin take their at-bats before Wells was lifted for a pinch hitter.

Update (5/25/2008): Sandy Burgin talks with Wells and his teammates regarding the reliever’s Big League Debut:

“Jared’s debut was fine,” said Black. “He looked comfortable and I think he’d like to have that walk back to the starting pitcher [Bronson Arroyo], but overall, his stuff looked good, his delivery looked fine.”

After losing their pitcher and catcher to injuries in the same inning on different plays, you have to wonder what the Padres are gong to do for an encore. At the same time, usually reliable closer, Trevor Hoffman, has not been himself this season.

For the last few days, there has been some speculation about Padres GM, Kevin Towers, starting the process of big changes. The freak inning may have been the tipping point.

Denis Savage is reporting for MadFriars that Former Wizards pitcher, Jared Wells is expected to get a call-up from Triple-A Portland, where he “is 1-1 with nine saves in as many chances, posting a 5.85 ERA across 19 appearances.” Wells will become the 64th former Wizards player to make his way to the Major Leagues once he debuts.

He’ll be joined by Portland teammates, Mike Adams and Josh Banks and former Wizards catcher, Colt Morton, who made his MLB debut earlier in the season. The moves also saw former Wizards pitcher, Justin Germano, designated for assignment. I don’t understand that logic.