March and April are busy times of year for Kevin Tuve. As Head Scout for the Rockland Boulders in Pomona, NY in the Can-Am Division of the Independent American Association of Professional Baseball, the admitted baseball junkie is always in search of the next player for his team’s squad. Before joining the Boulders, he was the scout for the now defunct Pittsfield Colonials for two seasons and did some scouting for the Seattle Mariners in April and May of 2012 before joining the Boulders in the summer of 2012. He scours over player reports and news feeds of players that were just released during spring training and works with his team to whittle down the list of players to invite to the team’s tryouts.
Independent Baseball is different from affiliated ball. The players are all on one year contracts. There are no ties to any major league team. The players are not prospects in any team’s pipeline. The Can-Am operated as a separate league before it was absorbed and became a division of the American Association after the 2013 season, creating an expanded 16 team Independent League. Rosters are filled with players who were either squeezed out of spots with a major league organization or were never drafted. The teams are mostly made up of young men that are not willing to give up on the dream of someday making it to the majors. Occasionally, a former Major Leaguer such as Eric Gagne, Timo Perez or Duaner Sanchez have come to the Can-Am League in an attempt to revive their careers. Raul Valdes revived his career in the Can-Am League before breaking into the majors with the Mets. Chris Colabello spent seven seasons in the Can-Am before being picked up by the Twins organization and making to the Bigs in 2013.
Getting to the majors is a long shot for any player who isn’t a high round draft pick. It’s an even longer shot when a player has to go the Independent route. Tuve and his team are always on the lookout for players that are hungry for the opportunity and a chance, which is all that the team will offer them. Independent ball is a fluid business and unlike affiliated ball where the minor leagues are about player development, it is about looking to put the best product possible on the field. It can also be bittersweet, because the best players that are rediscovered by the Indys can be signed away, such as former St. Louis prospect Chris Edmondson who was tearing up the league for Rockland in 2013, hitting .413 before being picked up by the Atlanta Braves organization. Tuve knows that it’s part of life in the Can-Am. He’s doing his job well if he finds players that will be taken away from him, leaving him with midseason holes to fill. Unlike affiliated ball where a player will get promoted and there’s always another player within the organization to take his place, when a hole is opened via that route, injury or ineffectiveness, Tuve is left to go to his player database and must find a player to fill that spot.
According to Tuve, unlike other Independent teams, the Boulders hold three different invitation only workouts each year in search of players, the first of which is coming up on April 11th and 12th. After reaching out to players they’re interested and responding to every email or inquiry that is put into the team regarding players, anywhere from 50-100 players may be invited to work out for the team. The team also has an open tryout, which will be held on May 9th this year where anyone can attend. In addition to Tuve and his team of two additional scouts, the workouts are overseen by former Met and current Boulder pitching coach Bobby Jones and by former Pirate and Padre prospect and current Boulder manager Jamie Keefe. Twenty eight players are invited to camp with twenty-two players eventually making the team.
Unlike the majors, the General Manager of the team is not focused on player selection, but on the running of the business operations and the final roster selections are made by the field manager. Major League scouts from all the teams are also invited to all of the workouts. While not all teams attend, Tuve is well aware that by giving the players at the workouts exposure to Major League scouts, he’s likely to attract better talent and players that are hungry to get into affiliated ball. The possibility always exists that the player he wants ends up being taken by a MLB organization before he ever dons a Boulder uniform, but it is a price of doing business.
When looking for players to compete for the roster, he’s not looking for players who throw 95 MPH or will hit 30 home runs in a season. The Boulders head scout is realistic to know that players like that aren’t likely to be released by a major league organization, but he also is quick to point out that the quality of ball in the Can-Am and overall American Association is higher than what a lot of people would expect. Many of the players in the league have been playing professionally for several seasons and he would compare the league competition to high A or AA. When looking to fill out the roster, he’s looking for players that can play defense. He’s looking for players that can put the ball in play and not strike out. He’s looking for pitchers that are able to get ground ball outs and don’t walk a lot of players. He’s looking for that diamond in the rough that was either missed entirely by affiliated ball or was squeezed out. He’s also well aware that if he sees a player with a stat line that seems too good to be true and how could this player not be in an affiliated organization, it often is due to injuries or there is some other story behind why a player was released.
While March is often one of the busiest times of the year for Independent teams, it lays the foundation for the season and is the easiest time to be able to fill roster spots. Once the season has started, finding players can prove difficult as the best of the available players would have already signed with other teams or have moved on from their baseball lives. Right after the June draft is also another very busy time for Tuve as he is bombarded with calls and email from players who thought they should have been drafted, but weren’t. He will answer every call and every email, even if ultimately the player isn’t going to be issued an invite or tryout. Rosters also have high turnover as new players to the professional ranks often aren’t able to handle the level of competition and Tuve is also constantly on the lookout for a potential roster upgrade.
It is a business of meritocracy, and if a player can be brought in that is better than someone who is currently on the roster, he’ll be signed. In 2013, the Boulders had over 40 different players appear in a game for the team. The team also has to be smart when doing their homework to find the proper mix of rookies and players with several years of professional experience as the league has a salary cap and limits on how many players with different experience levels must be on the team (a team must carry a minimum of 5 rookies and a maximum of 8 and a maximum of 4 players with six or more years or professional experience). The Boulders also do not limit themselves to local players or even players within the United States. This offseason, they signed pitcher Luke Wilkins from the Sydney Blue Sox of the Australian Baseball League (who posted a minuscule 0.28 ERA in 21 games this past season Down Under).
The Rockland Boulders play at Provident Bank Ballpark in Pomona, NY. Their 96 game regular season runs from May 23rd to September 1st.
(Photo: NoonTimeSports.com)