RIGHT FIELD FOG

Grant Green
Y-D 2007 & Chatham 2008
Shortstop
USC

Grant Green spent two very different summers on the Cape. In 2007, he was a utility player on a championship team. In 2008, he was the league’s brightest star while playing for a different team.

But through it all, there was a common thread: Grant Green was something special.

He came to the Cape after his freshman season at USC. If he’d been anywhere other than Y-D, in any year other than 2007, he would have been an everyday starter and a star in the making. But on a Red Sox team that featured three top-10 picks, Green had to fight for playing time. A shortstop by trade, he spent time at all four infield positions.

I imagine it was tough for him, but the tougher part was keeping him off the field. Despite bouncing around, Green hit .291 for the Red Sox with four home runs and eight doubles. In the playoffs, when the Red Sox swept to the championship, Green added two more home runs.

The next summer, Green was presented with a different opportunity, but he made the most of this one, too. He turned down Team USA, headed to Chatham, played in every game but one and delivered a huge season. At one point in late July, he’d been on base in every single one of Chatham’s games, with a hit in all but three. By the end of the year, he’d been passed on the batting average leaderboard, but he still hit .348 with six home runs and 21 RBI. He ranked fourth in hitting, third in hits, third in doubles and second in slugging percentage and runs scored.

Green also delivered one of the best all-star game moments of the decade, and maybe further back than that. With Green’s Chatham squad serving as hosts and with his East all-stars down two runs in the eighth inning, Green belted a monster two-run home run to straightaway center field that tied the game. The East stars went on to win the game, and Green’s blast took its place in Cape League folklore.

When end-of-season awards were handed out, Green went home with top pro prospect honors, and nobody was surprised.

After the Cape

Green didn’t flash much power in his senior season at USC so he slipped a little bit in the draft. He had been mentioned as a top-five pick but ended up going 13th to the A’s. So far, he’s made just a brief appearance in Class A.

Ryan Speier
Bourne 2001
Pitcher
Radford

It seems that every summer, there’s a closer who gets off to a really fast start, picking up saves in a high percentage of his team’s wins. But most times, the pace eventually slows down. Saves leaders usually finish with 11 or 12. That’s kind of the benchmark.

Ryan Speier was the exception — and he remains the biggest exception.

In 2001, Speier set an all-time CCBL record when he saved 16 games for Bourne. That record still stands, and the way thing are going, it’s going to stand for awhile.

Unlike some statistics, saves require opportunity more than anything else. In the case of Speier, he made the absolute most of his opportunities.

He pitched 20 innings in 20 appearances. He allowed 10 hits and one unearned run. His season ERA was 0.00, and he struck out 35.

Most remarkably, he saved 16 of Bourne’s 23 wins.

That’s a lot of opportunities, and for Speier, the whole summer proved to be one big opportunity. He came to the Cape from Radford. He went undrafted in June.

But suddenly, there he was, turning every head. I still remember Peter Gammons talking about Speier’s record-setting summer on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight.

At the end of the summer, Speier signed a free agent contract with the Rockies, and he was in the majors four years later.

After the Cape

Speier has pitched parts of the last four seasons with Colorado. In December, he signed with the Nationals.

Jeremy Sowers
Wareham 2002 & 2003
Pitcher
Vanderbilt

This may not add anything to the story of Jeremy Sowers on Cape Cod, but I thought I’d start with a personal touch.

Sowers and I both hail from Louisville, Ky., we’re the same age, and we both played for St. Matthews Little League. Sowers is one of the league’s famous alums, a list that also includes Jay Buhner, Mike Greenwell and Chris Burke. I am not exactly a famous alum, unless Right Field Fog carries more cache than I realize.

More to the point, I was terrible at baseball, like three-hits-a-year bad. And Jeremy Sowers was really good. There were other players who threw the ball harder and hit it farther, but Sowers, at an early age, was a real pitcher. I’m pretty sure he struck me out on several occasions, probably every chance I got against him. His twin brother, Josh, also struck me out many times (Josh went on to Yale and pitched for Wareham in 2004).

Now, I wasn’t great at the whole pitch recognition thing — I often decided before a pitch whether I would swing or not — so Jeremy Sowers striking me out doesn’t say much for his abilities.

But trust me when I say he was really good.

Six years later, he was still really good.

Sowers was drafted out of high school with the 20th overall pick in the 2001 draft by the Reds. He chose not to sign and instead headed to Vanderbilt. In the summer of 2002, he arrived and Wareham, where he began a really steady and impressive Cape League career.

That first summer, Sowers went 5-4 with a 1.52 ERA. Living up to his potential as a great control pitcher, Sowers walked 12 all summer and struck out 56 in 65.1 innings. Baseball America picked him as the league’s 10th-best prospect.

The next year, Sowers went 4-3 with a 1.20 ERA. He struck out 64 in 67 innings and walked just 17.

And if I had been playing in the Cape League, he probably would have struck me out, too. Just a guess.

After the Cape

Sowers was picked sixth overall in the 2004 draft by the Indians. He had outstanding numbers in the minors and made his debut with Cleveland in 2006. He has bounced between Triple A and the majors since then, but he spent most of 2009 in the bigs.

David Huff
Chatham 2004 & 2005
Pitcher
UC Irvine/UCLA

David Huff wasn’t the most heralded member of the Chatham pitching staff in 2004 or 2005. Even after the 2005 season, he didn’t garner a ton of attention. He wasn’t even on Baseball America’s list of the league’s top 30 prospects.

But if Huff was playing second fiddle, he was playing it really, really well.

Among guys who really fit the lefty profile — smooth mechanics, great control, maybe a little undersized — I think Huff was the best in the league in his era. If you watched him pitch, you were watching a pitcher, a guy who was in complete control of what he was doing.

And he was a pleasure to watch.

In 2004, Huff started his summer in the bullpen. Kyle Bono was the closer at the time, which left Huff to pitch mostly as a long man. A lot of his appearances came when Chatham was trailing in the late innings. He was in there to keep the score where it was.

Most often, he succeeded, and he eventually earned himself the chance to do more.

He didn’t make his first start until July 19, but it was a solid beginning. He allowed two earned runs and picked up a win with 5.1 innings against Hyannis. Huff made three more starts the rest of the season and finished with 12 total appearances. He had an ERA of 1.09 and he struck out 48 in 49.1 innings.

At that point, if he hadn’t quite proven that he was a bona fide star, he had at least given himself a chance.

The next year, he proved it.

Huff was again a middle-of-the-rotation starter for a talented A’s team, but he brought No. 1 starter stuff to the table. He went 2-2 with a 1.46 ERA and he struck out 49 in 37 innings. Most impressively, he issued just four walks all summer.

Somehow, Huff didn’t make the all-star team or the post-season all-league team, possibly because 2005 was a huge talent year.

But when you look at his whole career, it’s amazing that he didn’t get more attention.

In my book, Huff is as good as it gets.

After the Cape

Huff turned in a big season for UCLA in 2006, and that sent him flying up draft boards. He got selected by the Indians with the 39th overall pick, and became one of their top prospects pretty quickly. After two outstanding minor-league seasons, Huff made his Major League debut in 2009. He started 23 games and finished the season with a 5.61 ERA.

Todd Linden
Chatham 2000
Outfielder
Washington/LSU

In recent years, we’ve become accustomed to Cape League hitters putting up big numbers in a lot of categories. Whether it’s a sign of more hitting talent, less pitching talent or a combination of the two, the do-everything hitter has had a starring role in the latter part of the decade.

Todd Linden was one of the few who played that role on a different stage.

In the early 2000’s, the Cape lived up to its reputation as a pitcher’s league. For the first five years of the decade, there was an average of five pitchers every year with more than 60 strikeouts. These days, there’s been one pitcher with more than 60 since 2005. At the other end of the equation, most years in the early part of the decade saw five or six players hitting above .300, with few of them bringing power to the table.

But there was Todd Linden, doing it all against the odds.

He came to the Cape from Washington and steadily became the league’s most eye-catching hitter. He was powerful, he could hit for average and he could even run.

The numbers reflected that.

Linden hit .323 with four home runs, 22 extra-base hits and 25 RBI. He had a league-best slugging percentage of .535, and his .446 on-base percentage ranked second to Kevin Youkilis. He also stole 18 bases.

Interestingly, his extra-base hits total is tied for the second-best mark of the decade. Joining him in the top five? A bunch of guys who played from 2006 onward.

But Linden fits right in.

After the Cape

Linden transferred to LSU for his junior season then was picked in the first round of the 2001 draft by the Giants. He spent parts of five seasons in the majors before playing all of 2008 in the minors. After starting 2009 with the Yankees’ Triple A affiliate, Linden got an offer to play in Japan and jumped at it.

Matt Wieters
Orleans 2006
Catcher
Georgia Tech

Some players come to Cape Cod as relative unknowns and make a name for themselves. Others come as big names but struggle to live up to the hype.

A select few come in as top prospects, take care of business and leave as certified top prospects.

That was Matt Wieters.

And business was good.

After a College World Series run with Georgia Tech in 2006, Wieters made a late but heralded arrival in Orleans on June 26. He was already thought of as the top prospect in his class, and he quickly reinforced that status.

After going 1-for-8 in his first two games, Wieters went 3-for-4 with a home run in his third start and never looked back. He finished second in the league with a .307 average and tied for second in home runs with eight. He tallied 13 extra-base hits and drove in 25. His .417 on-base percentage was second in the league and his .535 slugging percentage ranked third.

In short, he was everything scouts and fans hoped he would be.

Wieters was selected as an all-star starter and he was picked for the postseason all-league team. Not surprisingly, he was also voted the league’s top prospect, and it’s not a stretch to anoint Wieters the league’s best prospect of the decade.

After the Cape

Wieters was drafted by the Orioles with the fifth overall pick in 2007. He quickly became the best prospect in baseball and needed just a year-and-a-half to arrive in Baltimore. He hit .288 with nine home runs for the O’s in 2009.

I hope you’re enjoying the snow, New England readers. I’m home for the Holidays in less snowy but still cold Kentucky.

Back to the countdown soon, but I wanted to make note of two things. One, the Brewster roster is out. I haven’t had time to look at it in detail, but I’ll do that soon and offer up some first impressions. I can tell you now that catcher Rob Brantly is real good. Top prospect in the Northwoods League last year.

Second, college baseball preseason stuff is starting to trickle in. Louisville Slugger announced its Preseason All-America Teams.

LSU’s Anthony Ranaudo, who played for Y-D in 2008, has been picked as the preseason Player of the Year. Kyle Roller, Yasmani Grandal, Cody Hawn, Danny Muno and Jarrett Parker are all on the first team. Alex Wimmers, Chris Sale, Matt Harvey, Cameron Rupp, Micah Gibbs, Jedd Gyorko and Blake Dean are on the second team, along with Troy Channing (Brewster ’10) and Danny Hultzen (Hyannis ’10).

The third team doesn’t seem to be so much a team — we’re looking at something like 40 players — as it is a list of everyone else who’s kind of deserving. Many Cape Leaguers are on that list.

Chris Leonard
Wareham 2001
Pitcher
Miami (Ohio)

Evaluating pitching statistics for this endeavor has not been easy. What do you give more weight to? Strikeouts? ERA? Opponents’ batting average?

In the case of Chris Leonard, there wasn’t much of a balancing act.

He had it all.

A lefty from Miami of Ohio, Leonard came to Wareham in the summer of 2004 and delivered one of the best single seasons from a pitcher that you’re ever likely to see on the Cape.

Wins? Six. Best in the league.

ERA? A league-best 0.98.

Strikeouts? Sixty-four, good for fifth in the league in a big year for strikeouts.

It’s no surprise that Leonard was named Pitcher of the Year. I can’t imagine the voting was very close.

From the start, Leonard was dominant. In early July, he turned in back-to-back outings that made the entire league take notice. On July 2, he struck out seven and didn’t allow an earned run in seven innings against Falmouth. Five days later, he went against Falmouth again and authored the league’s best performance of the summer, tossing a complete-game, five-hit shutout and striking out 15.

Leonard went on to start the all-star game, and he also picked up a win early in the playoffs. Later, in the decisive game of the championship series, Leonard pitched three innings to help Wareham beat Chatham 4-3 for the title.

After the Cape

Leonard was picked by the Blue Jays in the eighth round of the 2002 draft. An injury hurt his draft stock and forced him to miss the 2003 season. He pitched in 2004 in Class A, but never got his velocity back and was released the next year.

Eric Beattie
Bourne 2003
Pitcher
University of Tampa

A year after Brian Rogers came from Georgia Southern and dominated the Cape League, another righty from an even smaller school did the same thing.

He even did it a little bit better.

Eric Beattie came to Bourne from the University of Tampa, which plays in Division II. The step-up in competition didn’t seem to have much of an impact. Beattie soon became the Cape’s best pitcher.

He made his first start in Bourne’s third game of the season and served early notice that he was about to deliver a special season. In that first start, Beattie went six shutout innings, striking out eight and walking just one.

As with most of the guys on this list, a great first start was a sign of things to come. Beattie struck out eight more in his second start, this time going seven shutout innings. He continued to shine every time out, earning pitcher of the week honors in late July for his complete-game shutout of Falmouth.

Beattie finished the season with a 0.39 ERA, which still stands as the second-best mark ever to Eric Milton’s 0.21 ERA in 1996. Beattie also had a 4-0 record and 51 strikeouts in 46 innings pitched. He allowed two earned runs the whole summer.

Beattie also gave Bourne a 1-0 lead in its West Division championship series against Hyannis when he tossed eight shutout innings, with 12 strikeouts. That still stands as one of the best playoff pitching performances of the decade.

Beattie was named the league’s Pitcher of the Year.

After the Cape

Beattie was drafted by the Tigers in the second round of the 2004 draft. Though he was thought of as a close-to-the-majors prospect, he struggled with his control early on and had trouble recovering. He pitched two seasons of Rookie ball in the Tigers’ organization then hooked on with the Red Sox organization and pitched in A ball. He was released in 2007.

Brian Rogers
Orleans 2002
Pitcher
Georgia Southern

In the spring of 2002, Brian Rogers had a decent but unspectacular season at Georgia Southern. The 80 strikeouts stood out, but his ERA was over five and he allowed more hits than innings pitched. In 2003, the story was much the same, with Rogers posting an ERA over six despite phenomenal strikeout numbers.

In between those two seasons, Rogers had a summer to remember, one where every number stood out.

Rogers came to Orleans and made an immediate splash. In the first two weeks of the season, he turned in a pair of six-inning starts without allowing a run. He struck out nine in a win over Chatham and five in a victory over Y-D.

It was kind of a classic Cape League start for a pitcher like Rogers, who allows a lot of hits. While the hitters are adjusting to wood and the quality of pitching, he dominates.

Except that Rogers sustained it.

In his next start, Rogers went seven innings without allowing a run. He did it again in his next start, this time delivering the performance of the summer. He struck out 13 and didn’t walk anybody in seven innings of two-hit, shutout ball. He finally allowed a run in his next start, but it was unearned, and by then, he was already becoming one of the summer’s best stories.

When the all-star game rolled around, Rogers was selected as the starter for the East. He allowed a two-run home run in his one inning of work, but that was one of his few blemishes.

Rogers finished the regular season with a 4-0 record, a 0.40 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 45 innings. The guy who allowed a lot of hits at school surrendered just 22 in 45 innings.

Rogers’ ERA ranks fourth in league history.

After the Cape

Rogers was drafted in the 11th round of the 2003 draft by the Tigers. He developed into a solid relief pitcher in the minors and made his Major League debut in 2006 with Pittsburgh, pitching in 10 games. He pitched briefly for the Pirates in 2007 before spending 2008 at four different minor-league stops. He did not pitch in 2009.