It’ll be interesting to see what the Long Island Ducks’ roster looks like when the Atlantic League begins spring training in April. Not only will the Ducks have their usual band of former big-leaguers, they also own the rights to the best players from the Atlantic City Surf, who left to join the Can-Am League after last season.
Here’s a list of players the Ducks acquired from the Surf:
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Todd Leathers
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Demetrius Heath
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Raul Marval
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Joe Jiannetti
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Clyde Williams
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Dario Delgado
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Mark Persails
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Andy High
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Ozzie Timmons
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Ben Grezlovski
As you can see, there are some big names on that list, including Mikkelsen, who was the league’s pitcher and player of the year last summer.
The Ducks own the rights to these players because Frank Boulton, who used to own the Surf, owns the Long Island franchise. Boulton said Long Island would not prevent these players from seeking employment with other clubs in the Atlantic League.
“It’s not our objective to hold them up,” Boulton said earlier this week. “I’m not really looking for compensation. It’s not a huge part of our business. We have always put the player first. We intend to do that here as well.”
While that sounds nice, Boulton could have allowed these guys to become free agents. He didn’t. So any club that wants to acquire, say, Mikkelsen, has to get Long Island’s permission first. The Ducks can keep whichever players they choose and those players have no recourse other than to leave for another league. We’ll see how many of these guys end up in Central Islip this summer and how it changes the league landscape.
That put the Ducks in an unbelievable position. The Surf was a playoff team. Marval, Heath, Leathers and Jianetti are stars in this league. Mark Persails is inconsistent, but can be a very dominant pitcher at times. Grezlovski is a sidearm closer. I thought Delgado was in Newark- he’ll hit some long shots.
I’ll be interested to see the difference in play from the Atlantic League to the Can-Am.
Delgado went from Atlantic City to Newark and then back to Atlantic City in trades involving pitcher Domingo Acosta.
Just to clarify, the Ducks only own the Atlantic League rights to these players. There’s no telling how many of them Long Island will actually sign. It depends on the team’s interest in keeping them and the players’ interest in going to New York. The league probably should have held a dispersal draft or allowed these players to become free agents, but that’s now how it handles things.
Leathers – came FROM Can-Am, would probably stay if $ is right, same for Clyde Williams (former Expos prospect). Jianetti has power, but isn’t known for defense. Doesn’t LI already have 5 or 6 DH’s? Timmons is slated to coach in the Devil Rays organization, Heath has been invited to a Major League camp, Marval is rooted locally but who knows…Delgado was really hurt the way the Surf threw him to the wind (Newark), and really didn’t get his full stride back after returning….
Boulton has always put the players’ and the League’s interests before the interests of his own team. I doubt if he’ll change anything here
I don’t believe any more than one them will be in LI this season due to the fact that no one wants to play there for any reason. Jiannetti may be the only one because of his versatility. He played 5 different positions last year and ended the year with a 23 game hit streak.
UPDATE: After posting a line of .319/.382/.556 for the Surf last season, Jiannetti, 25, has signed with the Detroit Tigers. If he breaks camp with the organization, this will be his first affiliated shot since 2004.
For Surf fans, there’s a fascinating story that features Clyde Williams here …
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=2762836&type=story
Apparently, he played winter ball in Nicaragua, hit a game-winning homer in the playoffs and got into a fight with the opposing pitcher. The story is now legend down there.