Ian Bladergroen’s deal became official today. The first baseman, acquired in a trade with Southern Maryland last week, becomes the 18th player under contract. He’s also the first starting position player signed who wasn’t on last year’s team.
The Barnstormers clearly coveted Bladergroen.
“Ian is someone we’ve wanted since day one,” head of baseball operations Keith Lupton said. “If he gets 400 at bats, he should have an outstanding year. He’s a good left-handed bat with gap-to-gap power, which should play well in our ballpark.”
Bladergroen isn’t what you’d call a slugger. He’s more of a doubles hitter. His career slugging percentage is .444, although he’s had some injury problems through the years. He has never amassed more than 331 at-bats in a season.
The hunch here is Bladergroen emerges as an All-Star caliber player in Lancaster. He could get the same boost in production that Dominick Ambrosini has enjoyed. Ambrosini set career highs with 19 homers and a .529 slugging percentage when he was transplanted to the Clip.
Only 25, Bladergroen is a candidate to get signed by an affiliated club. He was once highly-regarded enough to be traded straight up for Red Sox 1B Doug Mientkiewicz. Bladergroen’s career path is interesting. I’ll have more on him at a later date.
Here’s an old scouting report from (I believe) Baseball America:
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Background: Bladergroen passed up a scholarship from Nebraska to sign with the Mets as a draft-and-follow prior to the 2003 draft. A two-time junior college all-American, he led national juco players with 32 homers in 2003. He had a breakout first full season in 2004, but it ended early when he tore a ligament in his left wrist in July.
Strengths: Bladergroen has plus power, and because his swing keeps the bat in the zone for a long time, he also can hit for average. He uses the whole field and works counts well. One of the best defensive first basemen in the system, he’s agile and has a big wingspan to nab high throws.
Weaknesses: Though Bladergoren has produced for average and power, his bat speed is not exceptional and could cause him problems at higher levels. His wrist injury is also a question mark, as he couldn’t swing the bat during instructional league.
Wrist injuries are extremely difficult for hitters to overcome, which explains how Bladergroen ended up out of affiliated ball.
*Scott Patterson is officially off to Triple-A Scranton and he’s not too pleased with the demotion. Check out this MLB.com story. A sample …
“I thought I had made it,” Patterson said. “I thought I was there. I don’t think I slept an hour (Friday) night, to tell you the truth.”
This is a real challenge for Patterson. When you’ve trudged through the minors as long as he has and you get so close before falling short, it’s easy to get discouraged. He needs to avoid that trap. He’s a tough-minded guy, so I doubt that will be a problem.
*If you missed it Sunday, Somerset star Jeff Nettles won’t be returning to the Atlantic League. He signed with the Orioles’ Double-A club in Bowie. ALB.com had the scoop. This is good news for the Barnstormers. Nettles’ OPS against Lancaster last season was 1.583. OK, it was five games. But still …
*Former York OF Tike Redman missed the cut with the O’s. He was sent to Triple-A Norfolk.
*It’s MLB Opening Day (again). One of the best days of the year. I will be spending four hours writing a story that should take 45 minutes because I’m flipping through MLB.tv.
Ian Bladergroen –
I don’t know what to say about Ian after doing some research on him today. He has had outstanding years and not so outstanding years in his baseball career. He has potential and was chosen once as one of the Mets top 4 prospects. That all fell apart.
He batted as high as .342 (2005) in a complete season and as low as .242 (2006). He suffered a wrist injury in 2004 that kept him benched for the remainder of that season. He struggled in 2005 and only batted .240 with the Wilmington Blue Rocks. Then he did quite well in 2005, as mentioned above.
This wrist thing has me concerned, especially for a power hitter. It’s not an unusual injury for power hitters to have… a TFCC (Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex) tear in his left wrist. The TFCC is a segment of cartilage in the wrist joint. Hitting baseballs puts a heavy load on the TFCC. It’s located on the little-finger side of the wrist. It causes pain and possibly a clicking noise. It may give the injured batter a feeling that the wrist is catching while moving through a swing. None of these symptoms sounds too good.
Time and experience will tell, though. I hope all the best for Ian as he joins Lancaster Barnstormers this 2008 season.
dadTB
He seemed to do fine for the road Warriors.
I just have a feeling,big things for Bladergroan this year.
Manheim,
I have that feeling as well. Wrist injuries are always a concern, but Bladergroen posted a .373/.453/.830 (OBP/SLG/OPS) line last season. That’s pretty good, especially when you consider he was in a bad lineup playing all road games. I think he’ll top those numbers with the Barnstormers. If he does, he becomes an All-Star caliber player. This is a good pick-up.
Two words for you, Scott:
Chris Coste.
I agree with anonymous…that he did just fine with the Road Warriors and we need another Lefty batter badly so I’m feeling ok .
I really think that the fact that Ian is not on a strictly road team will help his numbers this year. He’s always been one of the Road Warriors that I would most wanted to have playing in Lancaster. Like Jason said..he’s a good player and having him here can only be a good thing!
We needed a .242 hitter at first…..kinda like we needed Van Note at third last year.
He’ll be more than a 242 hitter. Geez.
I hope so. He hit 242 with Wilmington (Class A) in 2006. I remember he started out lower than that last year. I remember wondering why he was playing and hitting near 200. Hopefully, he raised his average by the end of last year and can produce even better this year.
Bladergroen’s 2007 season is likely more predictive than 2006 for two reasons: 1. It’s more recent. 2. It’s the same league. We can take a reasonable guess at how he’ll perform based on his time with the Road Warriors. It doesn’t mean we’ll be right, but it’s a starting point.
I wish him the best, but it sounds like we have a great guy like Steve Van Note at first with little power.
Will we hear soon of this great signing we are to receive????
I think that when you see him play you’ll quickly become one of his fans…..
Well, we’ll see how Bladergroen works out. I was on the Ambrosini bandwagon before it was popular and that turned out OK.
I don’t get the Van Note comparison. Bladergroen was a draft-and-follow with the Mets. He had one monster season in A ball and was ranked among their best prospects before he got hurt. Van Note was undrafted and never played affiliated ball. Bladergroen’s career slugging percentage is 70 points higher than Van Note’s. He’s just a better player.
As for the other moves, Atlantic League teams aren’t suppose to announce transactions until they have a signed contract in hand. Apparently, the Barnstormers don’t have the contracts in hand, yet. They’re planning to add three hitters that are all talented enough to hit in the middle of the order.
Yeah I don’t understand the comparison either as Jason says. Bladergroen is better than Van Note..plain and simple. Van Note came here directly from college and did as well as can be expected. His problem was Frank made him the starting third baseman and he was more suited for the utility role. He should not have been handed that job last year.
And on the signing front…I can’t wait until at least ONE of these is announced! I’ve been sitting on this information for a week or so now. Outfielder coming!