Tag Archives: Kevin Jefferis

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Frontier League Regular Season Wrap Up – Draft Class, Aussies and Evansville

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The Frontier League regular season has officially ended, and the post season begins with Wild Card games on Tuesday.
In this post, I wanted to give updates on how the draft class and the Aussies in America fared this season along with an update on the Evansville Otters.

Draft Class (Update Part Five)

I last updated on the 2015 Frontier League Draft Class at the beginning of August – HERE. Since then, two more players are no longer playing in the league.  One player, Nick Grim, was released by the Rockford Aviators on August 10th, and another, John Fidanza, was placed on the DL by the Washington WildThings on August 17th and went home.

Of the hundreds that tried out, 34 players were given invites to spring training. 15 of those players were signed and started the season on opening day rosters. Three more players who were originally drafted and released before the season were re-signed during the season. At the end of the regular season, 11 players from the 2015 Frontier League draft remained on a roster.

Here are the final regular season updates for the draft class:

  • Kevin Jefferis, RHP, Normal, R1 – Activated from suspended list on August 5th. Has appeared in 8 games with a 2-0 record. In 18 IP, he has 18 K, 1 save and a 2.50 ERA.
  • Scott Harkin, RHP, Gateway & Southern Illinois, R2 – Has pitched in 34 games with a 3-5 record. He has a 3.88 ERA with 44 K and 1 save in 46.1 IP.
  • Ty Nelson, OF, Lake Erie & Schaumburg, E – In 277 total AB, he has an overall average of .209 with 6 HR, 28 RBI and 4 SB.
  • Joe Iorio, RHP, Washington & Southern Illinois, R1- Has appeared in 26 games with 32 K in 32 IP.  His overall ERA is 6.75 with a 0-1 record.
  • Kyle Bogese, RHP, Frontier Greys, R2 – Has pitched in 30 games (6 starts) with a 2-7 record. In 56.1 IP, he has 49 K and a 5.75 ERA.
  • David Russo, LHP, Rockford, R2 – Has appeared in 34 games with a 2-1 record. In 33.1 IP, he has 27 K and a 5.94 ERA.
  • Jack Clearly, C, Joliet, E – Has a .247 average with 32 RBI in 219 AB. He was also selected to the mid season Frontier League All-Star game.
  • Jordan Kraus, RHP, Frontier Greys, R1 – Has started in 17 games with a 2.98 ERA and 5-5 record. He has 80 K in 102.2 IP.
  • Ernie Zaragoza, RHP, Washington, R1 – Has made 16 starts with a 6-7 record and 1 complete game. In 81.2 IP, he has a 4.18 ERA with 50 K.
  • Brodie Liebrandt, LHP, Evansville – Has appeared in 6 games. In 11 IP, he has 11 K, and a 0.00 ERA.
  • Collin Shaw, RHP, Gateway, R1 – Has appeared in 6 games (2 starts). In 13.1 IP, he has 16 K with a 8.77 ERA and a 0-1 record.

Four players will be playing in the Frontier League post season – Kevin Jefferis (Normal), Scott Harkin and Joe Iorio (Southern Illinois) and David Russo (Rockford).

Aussies in America (Part Five)

This season, I covered two Australians in the Frontier League, Luke Wilkins and Ben Lodge, who were both playing professional baseball in America for the first time.

Luke finished the season leading the Washington WildThings pitching staff in wins and strikeouts. In 20 starts, he finished with a 8-5 record and a 3.31 ERA.  In 125 innings pitched, he had 77 strikeouts. In his last start of the season, Luke pitched a complete game in Washington’s 7-1 win over the Windy City Thunderbolts.

Ben played in 53 games for the Frontier Greys. In 195 at-bats, he had a .215 batting average with 13 RBI.

Evansville

Earlier this season, I reported that the Evansville Otters were caught with an ineligible pitcher, Will Oliver. The Frontier League then ruled that the Otters would be forced to forfeit ten games – all the games that the Otters won with Oliver pitching. Although the Otters did appeal, it was too late in the season, and they did give up ten wins.

Despite losing ten games in the standings, the Otters were in a three way tie for the final two wild card spots leading up to the last series;  However, the Otters were swept by the River City Rascals in the final series and ultimately lost their spot in the playoffs by one game.

Otters fans (and players) are furious with how the Frontier League went about their decision and the amount of time that it took.  They blame the league for the issues and still believe that they should be the ones in the playoffs.

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Frontier League Draft Class Part Four – August Update

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It’s time to once again check in on how our Frontier League draft class players for 2015 are doing this season (as of August 3rd).

Part Three was written in June and covered the players one month after the season had began.

Since then:

  • one player has been suspended (Kevin Jefferis, June 16th)
  • two players were traded (Ty Nelson was traded from the Lake Erie Crushers to the Schaumburg Boomers on July 16th, and Scott Harkin was placed on the 7 day DL and traded from the Gateway Grizzlies to the Southern Illinois Miners on July 30th)
  • one player was released and then signed by another team (Joe Iorio was released by the Washington Wild Things on July 10th and signed by the Southern Illinois Miners on July 31st)
  • and one player was released (David Duncan was released by the Florence Freedom on June 12th)

Here are the updates for the remaining draft picks still in the league:

  • Nick Grim, RHP, Rockford, E – Has pitched in 15 games (6 starts) with a 1-5 record. In 40.2 IP, he has a 6.19 ERA.
  • Scott Harkin, RHP, Gateway & Southern Illinois, R2 – Has pitched in 22 games (all with Gateway) with a 2-3 record. He had a 3.73 ERA with 32 K in 31.1 IP before being placed on the DL and being traded. He remains on the Miners’ DL.
  • Ty Nelson, OF, Lake Erie & Schaumburg, E – Has played in 57 games (43 with Lake Erie and 14 for Schaumburg). In 191 AB, he has an overall average of .215.
  • Joe Iorio, RHP, Washington & Southern Illinois, R1- Has appeared in 14 games (12 with Washington and 2 with Southern Illinois) with 22.1 total IP.  His overall ERA is 5.24.
  • Kyle Bogese, RHP, Frontier Greys, R2 – Has pitched in 16 games (4 starts) with a 0-4 record. In 34.2 IP, he has a 6.49 ERA.
  • David Russo, LHP, Rockford, R2 – Has appeared in 26 games with a 2-1 record. In 25.2 IP, he has a 5.96 ERA.
  • John Fidanza, C, Washington, R1 – Has played in 34 games. In 99 AB, he has a .172 avg.
  • Jack Clearly, C, Joliet, E – Has played in 51 games with a .257 avg in 167 AB. He was also selected to the Frontier League All-Star game.
  • Jordan Kraus, RHP, Frontier Greys, R1 – Has started in 13 games with a 2.85 ERA and 5-4 record. He also leads the team with 62 K in 82 IP. (Note- I have missed Kraus in my first few posts about the Draft Class. He was indeed signed after Spring Training and started the season with the Greys.)
  • *Ernie Zaragoza, RHP, Washington, R1 – Has made 11 starts with a 5-5 record. In 53.2 IP, he has a 3.38 ERA with 33 K.
  • **Brodie Liebrandt, LHP, Evansville – No stats. Has yet to appear in a game.
  • ***Collin Shaw, RHP, Gateway, R1 – Has made 1 start. In 3 IP, he has a 9.00 ERA and an 0-1 record.

*Ernie Zaragoza was re-signed by the Washington Wild Things at the end of May.  Zaragoza, who was selected by the Wild Things as the 17th selection in the 2015 draft, was originally released at the end of spring training.

** Brodie Liebrandt was re-signed by the Evansville Otters on July 30th. Liebrandt was selected 11th overall by the Otters in the 2015 draft but was also originally released by the team before the start of the season.

*** Colin Shaw was drafted by the Frontier Greys as the 26th pick overall but was released during spring training. Currently, he is playing with the Grizzlies after being signed on July 31st.

(All stats and transactions courtesy of Pointstreak)

You can also check out Part One and Part Two of the Frontier League draft class by clicking on the links provided.

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